Reuse primary as secondary?

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earlytimes

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So, I have a friend who has his stout (first batch) in his primary for three weeks now. We were planning on bottling this weekend, but due to lack of bottles, that isn't going to happen. I would like to transfer it to a secondary until he gets more bottles, but he doesn't have a secondary, and I was planning on using mine in about a week, so I can't just let him use my carboy.

So the question is, could we use the carboy to temporarily transfer the beer into, then clean out his primary, and rack it back into his primary to use as a secondary?

Has anyone done this? Is this worth this risk? Or should we just leave it in the primary for another 2 or 3 weeks (5 or 6 weeks total)? It's a stout, so I'm not concerned about clarity, but we do want to achieve the best quality beer we can.

cheers!:mug:
 
In homebrewing laziness and procrastination pays off most of the time. This is one of those times.
 
I would also let it sit in the Primary for another week. Why risk the conamination associated with Racking when your beer is Happy in it's current vessel. Don't worry about leaving it in the Primary for 4 weeks. It's all good.
 
I'm happy with those answers! Although, getting together to help rack into a "secondary" would have given us a chance to drink a few beers and increase his bottle count. Oh well. He'll get there eventually. Thanks!
 
Just let it sit, or go buy another carboy. You can never have enough fermenting vessels!
 
You certainly can do that, I don't think the infection risk is that high. The only benefit is that it will clarify a bit and be less chunky when you do bottle. With a stout that maybe is less important, but one extra racking on my last batch, to get dry hop chunks filtered, helped produce a very clear beer.
 
I used to transfer, then clean the primary, then transfer back. Never had a problem, although I kinda felt like I was tempting fate doing this.
 
Just leave it in the primary. And when your LHBS tells you never use plastic buckets for more than 7 days, just laugh at them and tell they you aren't buying another carboy.
 
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