Bottling

[Wavewalker]

Hey guys, I'm gonna be bottling my second brew on Sunday. It's been in secondary for two weeks and the gravity is steady. What I'm wondering is, should I just bottle by siphoning from the secondary, or siphon to the bottling bucket and then bottle from there? I would think that if I'm siphoning anyway, I might as well just bottle right from secondary, but let me know what you guys think.

Secondly, if I do siphon to the bottling bucket, then getting the priming sugar solution in the beer should be simple, but if I'm going right from secondary to bottles, then what? With my first beer, I put the solution in the bottles separately, bottle by bottle, and that was a pain, so I'd rather mix it in the whole batch.

Thanks!

 

[BendBrewer]

Doesn't your bottling bucket have a spigot on it?

 

[Revvy]

I'm really confused about what you're asking. Are you asking should you/can you bottle directly from the secondary?

If you are bulk priming with priming sugar (the way most of us recommend), then no. The problem with bottling from a primary or secondary instead of using a bottling bucket, is that since you have patiently gone and let your beer settle and clear, in order to mix the priming solution and beer effectively, you would have to stir it in the carboy which would a) kick up all that nice sediment you have patiently let fall, b) possibly oxydize the beer.

It really defeats the purpose of both a long primary/no secondary or a secondary if you have to stir up all the nice sediment you patiently waited to settle just so you can have consistent carbonation.

I reccomend you use a dedicated bottling bucket, and rack from the secondary to there, first by putting your priming sugar solution (I boil my sugar in 2 cups of water.) As the beer is filling up the bottling bucket and rising it will mix the solution fine on it's own.

You'll find a ton of good info, tips, and a complete outline of the bottling process here to make bottling easier.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise-94812/

 

[NyPDFustercluck]

If you want to avoid pouring your priming solution into each bottle, then yes, use the bottling bucket. Does yours have a spigot? And as far as mixing goes, just put the priming solution into your bucket before your rack your beer onto it, you'll get all the mixing you need.

 

[gregger]

Pouring your priming sugar into each and every bottle is extremely tedious. I always liked using a bottling bucket.

 

[aggiejay06]

If you really wanted to siphon from your secondary, then you could use carb tabs. I've never used those...so I don't know how good the result is. May not give you your desired volumes of CO2.

If you're going to siphon, which obviously you have to once, you might as well just siphon it into your bottling bucket with the priming solution already in the bottom. Pretty simple to go from bottling bucket to bottles.

 

[BrewDocND]

If you really wanted to siphon from your secondary, then you could use carb tabs. I've never used those...so I don't know how good the result is. May not give you your desired volumes of CO2.

If you're going to siphon, which obviously you have to once, you might as well just siphon it into your bottling bucket with the priming solution already in the bottom. Pretty simple to go from bottling bucket to bottles.

I've had good results with carb tabs for my 1.5 gallon batches but for a full batch it would become tedious and I worry about contamination touching each tab individually

 

[Wavewalker]

Okay, thanks everyone. I'll rack into the bottling bucket (which does have a spigot) and then go from there.