Old Bottling bucket and a sour beer

[philosofool]

I have a sour that's been in secondary for 15 months. It's time to bottle!

However, it's a sour and I don't relish the idea of getting it all over my usual bottling setup (from a corny). So, I was thinking of bottling using my old bottling bucket.

That bucket is almost 11 years old. It's been with me since my very first brew, but once I started kegging, about 10 years ago, it didn't see a lot of action except as a nice utility piece in the brewery. It's scratched, a fair bit.

Without going further, would you use this bucket to bottle a sour? How would you do that?

If you used a corny, how would you clean it?

Could I try bottling straight from the carboy? (Immediate obvious problem is that a repitch of yeast and the priming sugar would be hard to thoroughly mix into the beer...)

 

[ncbrewer]

Some people bottle from the fermenter, but I wouldn't, for the reasons you mentioned.

I don't have any experience with your bottling bucket question - maybe someone else can answer.

 

[Calder]

Your sour already has the bugs in it that will contaminate a normal beer. I wouldn't worry too much about using the old bucket. Just make sure it is sanitized well. Maybe fill it with a mild bleach solution for a couple of days (1 teaspoon bleach to a gallon), and rinse well with HOT water.

 

[Homercidal]

I'd use it and plan on buying a new one if you think you will need to bottle something that is NOT a sour later.

Supposedly you should be able to de-contaminate the thing afterward, but for the sake of argument I would say it's not worth the risk of a batch of beer for the value in an old bottling bucket.

I hate sours, so I have no idea if the process to bottle is any different from any other beer.

 

[Aristotelian]

Could I try bottling straight from the carboy? (Immediate obvious problem is that a repitch of yeast and the priming sugar would be hard to thoroughly mix into the beer...)

I think I would try this. One less thing to contaminate with the sour beer. (If you decide sour beer is something you want to stick with, you can decide later if it is worth it to get a second bottling bucket). Since this is a secondary fermenter, you don't have to worry about much trub. I think it would be pretty easy to find a long stick that you could use to give it a gentle swirl.

Alternatively, you could add the priming yeast and sugar in equal amounts to the bottles. (My priming process is to weigh out 1 Domino Dot cube per bottle, then make a priming solution to make up the additional sugar. i.e. If I need 4.5 oz of sugar, and one dot each comes out to 4 oz, then I make my priming solution with only 0.5 oz. Then even if there is some unevenness in the mixing, it is going to have a minimal effect but the majority of the beers will get the right amount).