Fermenting bucket

Hi there,

I have just bought myself a brewferm fermenting bucket with air lock and tap and I was wondering whether I could just pour out the beer (or ale, in this case) into bottles using the tap or whether I have to syphen it out, seperate it out from sediment, go through a secondary fermentation etc. Sorry I am new to this so don't really know. All the videos I have seen seem to complicate this process, maybe for good reason? But with this fermenting bucket with tap it would appear I could just simplify things and bottle it straight after fermentation using the tap. Thanks, Stefan

yes you can bottle/keg direct from the FV when the beers finished.there is no need to put it into a secondary first although some will do this.the beer will clear 2 weeks in the warm and 2 weeks in a cool place and you are good to drink it but it will improve with time and patience

you may want to chock the FV up with a book or something at the opposite end to the tap so you get most of the beer out before going below tap outlet level

Godsdog said:

yes you can bottle/keg direct from the FV when the beers finished.there is no need to put it into a secondary first although some will do this.the beer will clear 2 weeks in the warm and 2 weeks in a cool place and you are good to drink it but it will improve with time and patience

you may want to chock the FV up with a book or something at the opposite end to the tap so you get most of the beer out before going below tap outlet level

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Don't you get a load of sediment out if you tip the fv?

DoctorMick said:

Don't you get a load of sediment out if you tip the fv?

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No not if you do it gently

Welcome to the Forum. :thumb: :thumb:

Personally, when bottling a brew, I syphon it into a second vessel (often called a Bottling Bucket but in reality another FV), mix in the carbonation sugar and then bottle from there.

It makes carbonation a lot easier as there is no need to measure the sugar into each bottle ...

... and I only have to be careful to avoid the trub at the bottom of the FV the one time. :thumb:

sanctuas69 said:

Hi there,

I have just bought myself a brewferm fermenting bucket with air lock and tap and I was wondering whether I could just pour out the beer (or ale, in this case) into bottles using the tap or whether I have to syphen it out, seperate it out from sediment, go through a secondary fermentation etc. Sorry I am new to this so don't really know. All the videos I have seen seem to complicate this process, maybe for good reason? But with this fermenting bucket with tap it would appear I could just simplify things and bottle it straight after fermentation using the tap. Thanks, Stefan

Click to expand...

I don't do the same every time, but...

Ferment out, leave a week or so to allow yeast to clean up, cold crash a few days to settle out some yeast then bottle.

Cut the bottom off a small funnel so the sugar doesn't get caught in it, get a 5mm measure, dip in sugar, drag a spoon handle or similar across the top. One measure per bottle using funnel.

Get a bottling wand that fits the tap on your fermenter and use it to fill the bottles. The wand has a switch at the bottom so you press the wand on the bottom of the bottle and release when full. The volume taken by the wand leaves a nice space at the top of the bottle.

You could just pour from tap into bottle but this will introduce oxygen, which could be bad.

You might think it's easier in the long run to get another bucket with a tap, weigh and dissolve sugar, siphon beer into bucket with the sugar solution and bottle from there. The advantage to this approach is it could be less time-consuming in the long run and you can be more sophisticated with the amount of sugar and, therefore, the amount of carbonation your beer has. You can also use liquid sugar like treacle, golden syrup, honey.

If you brew in a bucket with no tap there's less opportunity for disaster.

Dutto said:

Welcome to the Forum. :thumb: :thumb:

Personally, when bottling a brew, I syphon it into a second vessel (often called a Bottling Bucket but in reality another FV), mix in the carbonation sugar and then bottle from there.

It makes carbonation a lot easier as there is no need to measure the sugar into each bottle ...

... and I only have to be careful to avoid the trub at the bottom of the FV the one time. :thumb:

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Thanks for the tips. So I can't mix the sugar with the brew sitting in the fermenting bucket? Also, what sugars would you recommend? I'm doing a kind of amber ale, have been recommended corn syrup. Does that sound about right? How much do you reckon, for a 20 litre mix?

For most ales I use 7g per lt so 140g. I make up to 400ml with warm water to dissolve, I syringe 10ml of the syrup into each bottle after I've filled with beer. I've found batch priming gives uneven results on numerous occasions, the syringe method is more accurate.

sanctuas69 said:

Thanks for the tips. So I can't mix the sugar with the brew sitting in the fermenting bucket? Also, what sugars would you recommend? I'm doing a kind of amber ale, have been recommended corn syrup. Does that sound about right? How much do you reckon, for a 20 litre mix?

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I tend to use Brewing Sugar (which is basically dextrose) but ordinary table sugar will do just as well.

There's a Priming Calculator at the top of this page to guide you on the amounts you will need depending on the amount of CO2 you like. (Scroll down the page and you will see examples of what "Volumes of CO2" actually means.)

Personally, I hate "gassy" beers so I tend to use about 100 grams for a 23 litre brew to give me just under 2.0 Volumes of CO2.

All I do is to boil up some water, mix the sugar in until dissolved, pour the mixture into the Bottling Bucket when I am half-way through transferring the beer and give it a gentle stir to mix it in. (The "gentle stir" is to try and minimise the amount of oxygen put into the beer at this stage.)

After that I use a Bottling Wand (new buy from Wilco).

http://www.wilko.com/homebrew-accessories+equipment/wilko-bottling-wand-with-tap/invt/0441127

The joy of the Bottling Wand is that you can fill the bottle to very near the brim and by the time you have removed the bottle from the wand there is the perfect air-gap on the top of the bottle.) :thumb:

What I do is Ferment for 2 weeks, then transfer gently to another vessel with a tap. After about another week, (night before bottling) I add my carbonating solution to my brew. On bottling day I put all my cleanish bottles in the dishwasher. Wash on a high temp. Take em out, coupla squirts with a solution of starstan. Put them on a bottling tree to drain, and take them one at a time to fill with beer via a bottling wand. then cap. Sounds long winded, but only takes about 40 mins from dishwasher finishing, to beers all capped. I then leave them at room temp to carbonate for about 3-4 weeks and chill ever so slightly just before drinking.

Nicknacknoo said:

What I do is Ferment for 2 weeks, then transfer gently to another vessel with a tap. After about another week, (night before bottling) I add my carbonating solution to my brew. On bottling day I put all my cleanish bottles in the dishwasher. Wash on a high temp. Take em out, coupla squirts with a solution of starstan. Put them on a bottling tree to drain, and take them one at a time to fill with beer via a bottling wand. then cap. Sounds long winded, but only takes about 40 mins from dishwasher finishing, to beers all capped. I then leave them at room temp to carbonate for about 3-4 weeks and chill ever so slightly just before drinking.

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That's great advice. I might run with that. The other vessel you transfer the liquid into, do you think that could be the pot that I boiled the wort in and then covered with clingfilm? And the carbonating solution (corn syrup?) needs to be stirred in right?