To Secondary or Not to Secondary?

[AussieBrewerInColorado]

I use a secondary, because I have 2 6.5gal BB, and 2 5gal BB. I do 10 gallons at a time, so in order for me to brew again, I need those 6.5gals. Its a cycle that I got into, and works ok for me.

That too. After a few blow overs in 5 gal, I do 10 gallon batches too and I always primary in a 6.5 then move it a 5 gallon.

 

[LarsonLE]

Is it possible to use my bottling bucket as a secondary for when I want to cold crash? I would think the only problem would be to make sure the spigot is sanitized well, or do you think it would be a better idea to only temporarily store my beer in the bottling bucket, then clean out the yeast cake in my primary, and then put the beer back in there to cold crash?

Or I could just buy another secondary?

Also, how long do you guys typically cold crash for, 2-4 days?

 

[MalFet]

Is it possible to use my bottling bucket as a secondary for when I want to cold crash? I would think the only problem would be to make sure the spigot is sanitized well, or do you think it would be a better idea to only temporarily store my beer in the bottling bucket, then clean out the yeast cake in my primary, and then put the beer back in there to cold crash?

Or I could just buy another secondary?

Also, how long do you guys typically cold crash for? 2-4 days?

The whole point of a cold crash is to get yeast and other solids to drop out of suspension. You generally don't want those solids to be at the bottom of your bottling bucket when you go to package your beer. Why not just cold crash in your primary?

2 days at cold temps is usually plenty.

 

[IffyG]

If you really want to secondary, I'd recommend getting a second bucket or carboy. They aren't too expensive plus you can never have too many buckets/carboys.

 

[ChshreCat]

+1

If you use your bottling bucket for a secondary, as soon as you add in your priming sugar you'll need to stir and then you'll undo all the secondary-ing you've been doing and stir all the sediment back into solution.

Horrible idea.

Even if it's just a bucket fermenter, get another fermenter if you want to secondary.

 

[mybrewshop]

I would use a glass carboy for secondary if you're set on transferring. Those buckets don't seal real good and are actually gas permeable to some degree. Oxygen can spoil your beer.

 

[ChshreCat]

I would use a glass carboy for secondary if you're set on transferring. Those buckets don't seal real good and are actually gas permeable to some degree.

And watch out for the boogeyman under your bed. Oh, and aliens. They like to stick things up your butt if you drive a pickup in the midwest late at night.

Buckets are just FINE for a secondary unless you're leaving it to condition for months on end. Even then, it's probably just fine.

 

[AussieBrewerInColorado]

Personally, I always secondary and only use glass until I keg. I ferment in 6+ gallon carboys and secondary in 5 gallon carboys. Then keg in corny's. Works for me, each to their own.

 

[Jason Walker]

I purchased a Brewers Best Kolsch kit. I meticulously followed the directions and when I took my OG reading it was 1.040 (the kit said it should be 1.042-1.046) so I was a little low.

I read here that instead of transferring to a secondary bucket, to just leave it in the initial bucket which I did for 4 weeks.

Yesterday, I went to rack it over to a bottling bucket to bottle it and took a FG reading of 1.010 (kit said 1.010-1.013).

So my ABV is 3.94% which is lower than the kit range of 4.25%-4.75%.

Just looking for feedback/advice.

Is the issue with my low ABC that I added too much water in step 7 after cooling the wort? I added enough water to "bring the wort to 5 gallons".

 

[mac_1103]

Is the issue with my low ABC that I added too much water in step 7 after cooling the wort? I added enough water to "bring the wort to 5 gallons".

If you got the volume right then missing the OG by a couple of points most likely means that a little bit of the extract didn't make it into the kettle. I haven't used LME in a long time, but when I did I was always really anal about rinsing the can out with hot water from the kettle to make sure I got every last bit. DME will clump when you try to add it to boiling wort, but it's usually not hard to make sure that all the clumps make it into the kettle and dissolve. But anyway, to me two to six points is a rounding error and I'm sure your Kolsch will be fine with a slightly lower ABV.

 

[hotbeer]

I purchased a Brewers Best Kolsch kit. I meticulously followed the directions and when I took my OG reading it was 1.040 (the kit said it should be 1.042-1.046) so I was a little low.

Could be a tad too much water compared to how much extract you actually got into the boil kettle.. But still, you are close enough.

What are you measuring the SG with? Refractometers sometimes give the wrong results if you don't correct for the added alcohol for the FG. Hydrometers might read higher if you weren't careful to spin the bubbles off of them when you took the reading.

Don't be shy about starting your own thread for questions. When you tag on to old threads, many might not notice your question and will start answering the years old OP or other responders no longer active. And then things start getting confused.

It's actually considered hijacking the thread. But maybe that's from another day and time back in the days of Compuserve and other early BBS's.