Fermentation Vessel Slight Leak

[PreTrub]

I bought the BSG K6PET beginners brew kit and I have a leak in the fermentation bucket valve. I noticed it right away and tried twisting the valve slightly to get it to stop and it wont. The leak is very very slow but I am worried about infection. The bucket is sitting in a Rubbermaid tub that I spray with star-san daily.

I brewed the Belgian Tripel on 12/4 and the airlock has slowed as expected. Should I immediately rack to secondary or wait a couple of days to rack to secondary. I know that there is risk on racking to secondary and I will try to minimize those risk but I think I have to this time. THoughts?

 

[mredge73]

I wouldn't worry so much about infection, rather worry about all the wonderful beer that you are loosing to this leak.
A tripel is a high gravity brew so it can't be ready to be moved after just 4 days, it really needs more time in contact with the yeast.
In retrospect you should have moved it on day 1 when agitating it wouldn't be a big deal.

How much are you loosing? Is it a bottle a day or more? Are you using a Belgian yeast strain? Regardless I would want to move it asap.
Take a gravity reading today and tomorrow, if they are close then transfer to secondary and let it sit another week or so.
Some Belgian yeast tend to stay in solution longer, check you yeast and see if it is a medium/low yeast flocculation.
If so you can move it today without major consequences as most of the yeast will still be in solution.

 

[Kharnynb]

oxidation might be a problem if it is a beer that needs to be long in the fermenter, as the liquid loss gets replaced with air.

buy a fermentation bucket without spigot, I only have spigots on my bottling buckets.

just use an autosiphon to siphon into your bottling bucket when you bottle and you can mix in priming sugar with the same trouble.

spigots will be the weak point in any bucket system, so it just makes sense not to have them in the buckets that the beer stays in for a long time.

 

[PreTrub]

Thanks guys. So I'm using Abbaye yeast and I'm losing about a teaspoon a day, which isn't much but I worry about exposure.

I'm going to start using another bucket for fermentation. Lesson learned.

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks guys. So I'm using Abbaye yeast and I'm losing about a teaspoon a day, which isn't much but I worry about exposure.

I'm going to start using another bucket for fermentation. Lesson learned.

Infections aren't likely to move against that outflow but it would be a good idea to use a siphon to transfer the beer instead of the spigot as that spigot might be harboring an infection that you won't want in your beer.