Bottling straight from SS brew bucket?

[andersk]

Bit of a beginner here so apologies if this is a simple question.

Equipment-wise I have a 7 gal SS Brew Bucket for fermenting, and am debating between bottling straight out of the bucket's spigot or transferring into another bucket and bottling from that...

Thoughts in favour of straight from the brew bucket:
==> Reducing the oxygen exposure.
In my mind, if I add my priming sugar directly to the brew bucket and close it back up that may reduce the oxygenation? Also it's selfishly one less thing to have to clean.

Thoughts in favour of moving to a bottling bucket then bottling:
==> Keeping hops / yeast out of bottles.
I could use a bazooka screen on the hose and "pre-filter" what's coming out of the Brew Bucket before I add in the priming sugar. Also avoids stirring the sugar around and possibly disturbing any trub that's settled in the brew bucket.

Any advice here? Things I'm missing?

Thanks!

 

[VikeMan]

I would not add sugar to the fermenter. You can't possibly get it homogenously mixed without stirring up significant trub. If you bottle from the fermenter, you'll need to prime the bottles individually.

 

[Golddiggie]

Things like this is why I'm glad I went the conical route.

 

[andersk]

Things like this is why I'm glad I went the conical route.

The brew bucket is semi conical (to a small degree!) - what would a full conical give over it in this case?

 

[Golddiggie]

Lets see.
Bottom TC valve for dropping the yeast or pushing it in (yeast harvest or infusion without opening the top).
Sampling valve.
Racking arm for transfers.
Pressure rated to ferment under pressure (15psi working pressure) with spunding valve.
CO2 purged hop dropping for dry hop additions.
Use of carbonation stone so that the beer is 100% ready to drink when it gets packaged (either moved to keg, canned/bottled, or both).

Right now I have a pair of Spike CF10 models. They have the short leg extensions plus wheels. Means I roll the one for use into the brewing area on brew day (typically clean/sanitize it before then), fill it, push the yeast in via yeast brink, then roll it into the fermenting area. Connect up the glycol chiller to the chill coil and let it ride (keeps fermenting temp where I want it). Once done, I let it rest, then cool down to about 50F for a day to settle the yeast. Drop that out (been pitching into another back since getting the conical fermenters) and then chill to carbonating temperatures. Put the carb stone setup on the racking arm and start pushing CO2 into the beer to carbonate. Once that's done, I fill either a 2.5 or 3 gallon keg and then can the rest. Keg goes into the keezer right away and can be consumed immediately. NO waiting time involved.

 

[andersk]

Lets see.
Bottom TC valve for dropping the yeast or pushing it in (yeast harvest or infusion without opening the top).
Sampling valve.
Racking arm for transfers.
Pressure rated to ferment under pressure (15psi working pressure) with spunding valve.
CO2 purged hop dropping for dry hop additions.
Use of carbonation stone so that the beer is 100% ready to drink when it gets packaged (either moved to keg, canned/bottled, or both).

Right now I have a pair of Spike CF10 models. They have the short leg extensions plus wheels. Means I roll the one for use into the brewing area on brew day (typically clean/sanitize it before then), fill it, push the yeast in via yeast brink, then roll it into the fermenting area. Connect up the glycol chiller to the chill coil and let it ride (keeps fermenting temp where I want it). Once done, I let it rest, then cool down to about 50F for a day to settle the yeast. Drop that out (been pitching into another back since getting the conical fermenters) and then chill to carbonating temperatures. Put the carb stone setup on the racking arm and start pushing CO2 into the beer to carbonate. Once that's done, I fill either a 2.5 or 3 gallon keg and then can the rest. Keg goes into the keezer right away and can be consumed immediately. NO waiting time involved.

OK you win – that sounds awesome

 

[bjhbrew]

I bottle from the spigot of a fermonster all the time. I hook the bottling wand to a short chunk of tubing that slides tightly onto the barb. The first pour goes into my hydrometer flask along with a little yeastiness. After that the beer coming out is nice and clear as long as I don’t rouse the trub. So yes, bottle away (but do prime the bottles individually)

 

[Golddiggie]

OK you win – that sounds awesome

It is... I have one of the Tapcooler setups for filling cans. I also have a beer gun that I can use if/when I want. I plan to use the gun to bottle up some mead batches from years back (still in aging vessels).

When I go to fill the kegs, or cans, I simply put a TC to ball lock post piece on the racking arm valve and connect the lines to that. Makes it easy to switch between the keg filling jumper and can filler setup.