Getting Ready for First Brew ?'s

[tigerdentist]

Getting ready for my first brew tomorrow. I purchased the "True Brew" Gold kit. Not sure if anyone else has used it. My question is about the fermentation. My kit came with a glass carboy and a plastic bucket with the drilled hole for the spigot and a hole in the lid. Is the plastic bucket with the spigot airtight enough for the first fermentation? It says it can be used for a bottling bucket and a primary fermenter. Anyone know for sure? THANKS!

 

[Jared311]

What size is the glass carboy? If you have the glass, I would use it. Others use buckets for primaries all the time. RDWHAHB.

 

[PUD]

sure you could use it. you might want to do a two stage fermentation though. you can see the process in a carboy! wooooohooooo

have fun!

 

[tigerdentist]

7.8 gallon fermenting/bottling bucket and 6 gallon carboy. I am doing a Nut Brown Ale should I use the bucket 1st and then a week later into the carboy for 2 weeks?

 

[BierMuncher]

A 6 gallon carboy should be large enough for a nut brown ale.

Use the carboy and you can witness the event.

Save the bucket for a bottling bucket.

Leave that beer in the primary (carboy) for a good three weeks and you can skip a secondary.

 

[enderwig]

7.8 gallon fermenting/bottling bucket and 6 gallon carboy. I am doing a Nut Brown Ale should I use the bucket 1st and then a week later into the carboy for 2 weeks?

Your kit should have come with a hydrometer, use it to tell when fermentation is over (same reading for 3 consecutive days), then move to secondary. A good rule of thumb is 10 days minimum in primary. If your kits says to primary for 7 days I would disregard that, the longer the better (to a point)

 

[tigerdentist]

Thanks! When would you want to use the secondary, and would it be ok to use the bucket with the spigot?

 

[talkingmonkey]

Thanks! When would you want to use the secondary, and would it be ok to use the bucket with the spigot?

Great question. Couldn't you use bottling bucket as secondary, prime, (shallow stir), and bottle straight from the bucket? Trub line on secondary should be well below the spigot.

 

[tigerdentist]

I am not sure. Seems like that would work. I guess my question was about the bottling bucket being air tight with a spigot. The lid for the bucket has a hole with a gasket to put the airlock into.

 

[talkingmonkey]

Yeah, I have the same kit. I always wondered about the lid with the hole in it. I think the spigot would be airtight as long as it doesn't leak, liquid pressure, etc..

 

[tigerdentist]

What have you brewed with this kit? What have you used for primary and secondary fermenters?

 

[JoeMama]

I personally would not recommend using the bottling bucket as a primary (ever) There are little crevices in the spigot that may harbor some nasties that (might) not get caught and ruin your entire batch. Is this a stretch and very unlikely? Yes, but you are far less likely to get an infection of sorts by using your equipment as it was intended.

My opinion is that a secondary is not needed (especially for the brew you are doing) I just primaried my brown ale for an extended stay (3-4 weeks) then bottled it. It was plenty clear and mighty tasty!

Good luck and welcome to the obsession!
-Me

 

[talkingmonkey]

QUOTE=tigerdentist;1118398]What have you brewed with this kit? What have you used for primary and secondary fermenters?[/QUOTE]

Sorry for the delay. I brewed a few primary only brews using the carboy for fermentation and the bucket for bottiling. I recommend cutting off a 2-3" piece of the tubing and attaching the bottling wand to the spigot on the bucket. I bought another carboy(highly recommended) and a plastic bucket(not so much, I like to watch). I use the carboys for primary and secondary.

 

[sjlammer]

I thought that I was no longer a noob, but I thought that leavng the wort on the yeast cake for more than two weeks was not good... off flavors from autolysis and what not?

I have a conical, so i periodically dump a little of the crap off at a time.

Here's my usual routine:
at high krausen, i burp the trub out the bottom,
then as fermentation slows, i burp some of the yeast cake out the bottom
then again at day ten, then the rest at day fourteen.
then wait another two weeks burping the yeast out the bottom once a week.


Correct me if im wrong, but in an ale, the yeast doing the wort are in suspension.

 

[FxdGrMind]

I don't have a bottling bucket, but from what I have read. You will be fine for 4-6 weeks in Primary easy. The only real reason to secondary would be to Dry Hop or if you want to further clarify before keging.
I use a bucket for Primary and glass carboy for secondary. I'll be dry hoping in secondary on my latest brew, as I've listened and read here to the wise brewers.
I can't complain, they have kept me on the straight and narrow and with their advice have made 2 great beers.
I'm sure if you follow their advice yours will be just fine too.

Cheers

 

[MikeG]

The bucket with the spigot is for bottling. For your first batch, keep it simple. After brewing, use the glass carboy to ferment. Wait 3 weeks (yes, very tough your first time) and it should be ready to bottle (check w/ hydrometer).

When you are ready to bottle, dissolve the priming sugar with a cup or two of water (you might want to boil the water before adding the sugar to sanitize but cool it) and pour into your bottling bucket. Siphon the beer from the carboy into the bottling bucket. There are a few video's of this on YouTube to help you with that if needed.

Good luck!