Simple question i cant find the answer to

[philipsheperd]

Ok i have a very simple question that I cant find the answer to, I started brewing with mr beer and have loved every min of it, but now i want to move onto big batches, cause honestly i drink beer faster then i brew it, and i was looking at a mr beer kit cause about 20 dollars for two gallons, and kits online are about 30 dollars for five gallons, so totally worth the upgrade

but my question is on a fermenting bucket, is it ok for them to have a tap/drain/whatever on it, or should it not and then i need a siphon to get the beer out?

A tap would be easier so i could just bring my racking buck with priming sugar dissolved in water over on my wheeling cart and pour it in there without having to move the bucket down from the shelf where i have my fermentor sitting

so anyone have an answer and why please?

 

[Frodo]

Best to rack it over to the bottling bucket with a siphon (autosiphon is easy and fairly cheap). The reason is you don't want to aerate the beer at that point, it causes oxidation which may taste like cardboard. Also the spigot is a potential difficult spot to sanitize. So just go with a plain food grade fermentation bucket for a primary. Glass carboys in the 6.5 gallon size are better yet, in my opinion.

EDIT: when you siphon you can do it fairly "quietly", so it introduces less air to the beer than would draining out of a spigot into a bottling bucket.

 

[JonK331]

Best to rack it over to the bottling bucket with a siphon (autosiphon is easy and fairly cheap). The reason is you don't want to aerate the beer at that point, it causes oxidation which may taste like cardboard. Also the spigot is a potential difficult spot to sanitize. So just go with a plain food grade fermentation bucket for a primary. Glass carboys in the 6.5 gallon size are better yet, in my opinion.

EDIT: when you siphon you can do it fairly "quietly", so it introduces less air to the beer than would draining out of a spigot into a bottling bucket.

I totally agree. I also prefer 6.5 gallon carboys. The other issue with the spigot is that you are likely to suck up trub which you don't want. So siphon to a bottling bucket and use a bottling wand to fill you bottles.

 

[philipsheperd]

thank you guys so much, ok since you guys are amazing and fast, i just had a bottle bomb(literally like five min ago) what do i do with the rest of the bottles that didnt blow, im so pissed cause it didnt blow my cheap beer bottle, it blew my nice expensive bottle up :-(, so what do i do with the rest of the bottles, just hope they dont blow?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/philipsheperd/5332002075/

 

[Frodo]

Wow. Bummer. Can you cool the bottles? Put them in the fridge? That'd be the best thing. It'll reduce the outward air pressure; more of the CO2 will dissolve into solution rather than creating pressure on the bottles. And fermentation of remaining sugars will be slowed/stopped.

Did you figure out why one blew?

 

[Frodo]

Oh, wait you said nice expensive bottle... was it a growler?

Ya, don't bottle in those. They're not made for bottling bottle conditioned homebrew. Too much pressure is built up. Sooooo, if the rest of your beer is bottled in normal 12 oz bottles, they're fine if you didn't put too much sugar in them. Growler's can blow up when carbing in them. They're best used for transporting kegged brew that has been dispensed into the growler.

EDIT: I know 22 oz bottles are fine for bottle conditioning too, as are some/all of the small grolsch swing top type... FWIW. I'm sure other bottles are too. I just use 12 oz bottles and they work, and are small enough for one smooth pour leaving 1/4 to 1/2" of beer/sediment in the bottom.

 

[philipsheperd]

Thanks guys, im gonna load them in my beer fridge

 

[HerotBrewer]

Sounds like maybe he meant a 1/2 liter or 1 liter swing top. I know those are my expensive bottles.

Sucks on the bottle bomb brother. Chill those bottles down, put them in the fridge or a cooler full of ice. If it's really just ONE bottle in the whole batch that is overcarbed/gushing then I'd suggest it was somehow infected. How do you clean/sanitize your bottles?

 

[millsware]

I asked this question at the LHBS and the point he made was that sometimes the spigots on the bottling buckets can leak. Not a big deal if the beer is only in there while bottling and you're paying attention, but you might have a huge mess if it leaks during fermentation and you don't notice for a few days. (Not that we all don't check on our fermentation 5-6 times a day.)

 

[philipsheperd]

Sanitization....well im kind of anal cause i dont want infection, so first all my glass bottles get heated in my oven the night before so that i know they are heat sanitized. Then the day of i mix my solution with my bottle bucket spigot in the pot or whatever i mix the solution in, to get that totally clean, then attach the spigot to the bucket, pour the solution into the bucket, put my caps, tub and bottle wand in the bucket and let it sit for five min, then pull it out assemble it and start to fill all the bottles about half way, then i shake them and let them sit for five min, i also pour some sanitizing solution in a bowl and throw all my caps or whatever in there. then everything is clean i pour in my boiled sugar and water solution and then add the beer then i bottle.


should i stir the solution? I didnt this time because i didnt want to introduce more oxygen to the beer. because the first bottles i bottled were the swing top ones, so could maybe that be the first one i bottled and it got to much sugar?

 

[Frodo]

I always give the beer a bit of a stir after racking. When I'm racking I also put the hose in so that it makes the beer whirlpool a little while it's racking over. If the sugar wasn't mixed evenly that could be the problem.

 

[philipsheperd]

thank you, i make it swirl well i pour it in too, but pouring from the mr beer its hard to make it mix throughly, so i will give it a quick stir next time, hopefully i don't have any under carbed beers, im gonna start drinking them tonight and hope they are all pleasantly carbed

if i wanna do long term storage of the bottles outside of my fridge so i have room in there, any suggestion?

 

[Frodo]

Put them in a cooler? Or store them at room temp in a place where it won't make a mess if another pops.

 

[jds]

...if i wanna do long term storage of the bottles outside of my fridge so i have room in there, any suggestion?

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

I use Mr. Beer fermenters with a bottling wand and locking spigot upgrade to rack from my primary to my secondary fermenters. This upgrade eliminates oxygenation since it fills the secondary from the bottom up.

I keep the spigot end of the fermenters raised up about a half inch higher than the back by placing a few old plastic CD cases under the spigot end. This forces the trub to settle away from the spigot and keeps the trub out of the secondary.

 

[philipsheperd]

oh thanks i got a couple of those plastic tubs in my place

and great idea keeping it tip up to let the tub settle away