using bottling bucket as primary

[doodlevon]

is it possible to use my bottling bucket as my primary? Is there a downside?

 

[KYB]

I've done it twice. Others have done it as well. The only downside is the spigot. You need to make sure it is clean all over, in and out.

 

[hossua]

Ive used mine as a fermentor... It's ok, not too hard to keep it clean. I just take the spigot out and soak it in some oxyclean, then hit it with sanitizer before use.

The big draw back is not having a bottling bucket when your pipeline is full. I've managed to get myself into a predicament where I have two carboys full (one ready to bottle, one that needs a little longer) and I have a beer fermenting in my bottling bucket. This is a big problem, because my carboy space is all used up and I don't have any way of bottling without transfering my beer to an intermediate container...

Strongly suggest having a designated bottling bucket, unless you are just going to do one brew at a time.

Edit: Also the spigot tends to leak a little bit. It's not really a problem, but when fermentation is going on you might have a few drops of sticky wort to clean up.

 

[KYB]

Yea I had to sanitize my boil pot, siphon into that, clean the bottling bucket, put beer back in bucket and then bottle. I only use it to ferment if I need to, I don't like to do it because I don't have another bottling bucket.