Racking/bottling for a beginner?

[buckheadhobo]

Hey guys! I'm about to bottle a beer today. It's a Belgian Witbeer and it's been in the fermenter for a little over 3 weeks (so it should be good and done).

My dilemma comes in that my fermentor is a 6-gallon bucket with a spigot towards the bottom.
Now, I was wondering if I can bottle directly out of the spigot, or if I need to rack to a bottling bucket first.
I don't have a bottling bucket, and after destroying a bucket last night whilst attempting to drill a hole for a spigot, I have decided to not try making anymore holes in buckets for a while.

Now, which of these sounds like the best option?
1) Bottle directly from the fermentor
2) Rack to a sterilized bucket (with spigot or racking cane?), then clean the fermentor, rack the beer back to the fermentor, then bottle out of the fermentor with the spigot

Also, if I go with option 2, is it okay for me to <i>pour</i> it from the bucket into the bottling bucket instead of racking it? (it should be free of trub at that point)

 

[WorryWort]

Why don't you just rack it into bottles from the sterilized bucket? Unless you feel you NEED a spigot.

Otherwise, You decide:

Option 1) This could work, but I can't think of how you can possibly dissolve and mix in the sugar without distrubing all of the yeast. Perhaps you could just let it settle for about 15 minutes after you mix it in.

Option 2) I would do this. The only risk is introducing nasties through improper sterilization. But it's not a huge deal. I wouldn't worry about oxygen too much, but that might be another concern.

And, NO, DO NOT POUR IT. That would introduce a LOT more oxygen that you'd want.

 

[BlindLemonLars]

Of those two options, I'd choose two. You need to gently but thoroughly stir your priming solution into the beer, and doing it in the fermenter would stir up too much trub.

I'd place your priming solution in the second sanitized bucket, gently drain the beer (with the siphon and a short length of tubing) over it, and loosely place the lid on. After cleaning and sanitizing the fermenter, rack (not pour!) the primed beer back into it. Avoid splashing, as much as possible.

Transferring/racking twice should get your priming solution pretty well incorporated, but it won't hurt to give it a gentle stir with a sanitized spoon.

You could skip the second transfer and bottle with the racking cane...but I did that exactly once, and never will again! A spigot with an attached bottling wand makes the task a LOT less unpleasant.

Proceed to bottle! Check out Revvy's bottling thread for some helpful tips.

 

[weetodd]

I am assuming you are going to use priming sugar vs. the carb drops that you put in the bottles. Since you need to prime your beer before bottling, doing that in your fermenter is probably not a great idea since getting the sugar distributed evenly into your beer usually requires some gentle mixing that would disturb all the trub. So...

I would rack your beer from the fermenter off the trub into a sanitized bucket on your priming sugar (dissolved in boiling water). This will ensure an even mixing. Then I'd clean and sanitize your fermenter and rack back into the fermentor and bottle out of the spigot (easier than bottling from your bucket via racking cane). You could dump from the bucket back to the fermentor but doing so will introduce more oxygen and that usually to be avoided. (You could do it though if you wanted to - YMMV).

Time to invest in a second bucket with spigot!

 

[TipsyDragon]

you fermented IN your bottling bucket. i would say sanitize the spigot and use a racking wand and tube.