secondary fermentation in bucket

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ol noodler

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so i hear all of this primary in the bucket and the secondary in the carboy, but my thoughts were to reverse-- primary in carboy and secondary in bucket--
kinda see it as best of both worlds-- still get to see the action in the glass, can tell where the sediment begins as to not get it into the secondary, and then once it's in the secondary bucket you can throw in yer sugar and bam, bottle em up with no extra step.
maybe too good to be true? anybody got any downsides to this other than if planning to keep brew in secondary for a prolonged amount of time?
:mug:
 
The purpose of the secondary is to help clear the beer, which will be hard to see in the bucket. Plus, they say that beer can be oxidized when left in plastic buckets for too long?

In the end, I'd say skip the secondary, and use the carboy as the primary, and the bucket for bottling.

nic
 
more will sediment out in the secondary. secondary is really just a clearing tank, so if you use the bottling bucket you are going to suck alot of that nasty stuff into your bottles.
 
If you use your bottling bucket for clearing, how would you avoid stirring up the trub when you mix in the priming sugar? You can't mix it in & let the brew clear, because it will ferment out before the clearing occurs.
 
I know someone who uses his bucket for 2nd but carboy for primary. He likes to see when it's done in the primary but hates cleaning out hops used for dry hopping so he just does it in a bucket. His beers are fine. As for oxygen getting into the beer does 2 weeks really make that much of a difference? I can't tell from his brews! :D
 
david_42 said:
If you use your bottling bucket for clearing, how would you avoid stirring up the trub when you mix in the priming sugar? You can't mix it in & let the brew clear, because it will ferment out before the clearing occurs.

bingo!

in addition to increasing the oxidation risk (its not guaranteed you'll oxidize by using a bucket for secondary), the bigger issue is you can't just bottle out of secondary, unless you plan to prime each bottle individually.

no thanks. bottling sucks as it is, so no way am I gonna make it more tedious. i prime in bulk, or i keg.
 
If at all possible, use glass/SS for secondary. Plastic will let in too much O2 the longer you keep your beer in there, leading to oxidation (plastic is more permeable to O2 than glass (which is almost impermeable to O2).
 
avidhomebrewer said:
If at all possible, use glass/SS for secondary. Plastic will let in too much O2 the longer you keep your beer in there, leading to oxidation (plastic is more permeable to O2 than glass (which is almost impermeable to O2).

Just out of curiosity does anyone know how semi permeable a plastic bucket is? Does anybody know how much oxygen would transfer through a square inch/cm in any given amount of time and what effect said oxygen would have on the taste of beer given the perception of our taste buds? We've established that a plastic bucket lets O2 in, just curious exactly how much, if for nothing else, so we can all have one more beer factiod! :)
 
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