Rack Cider into a Demijohn/Carboy or a Brewing Bucket?

[MarkJ]

Hi

Complete beginner here, so sorry if the question is obvious!

I have just pressed a load of apples from my garden and have started the brewing process (yeast added yesterday, so hopefully it will start bubbling in the next day or so).

I thought I had most angles covered, but I'm now starting to panic a little, as I have no demijohns to rack the cider after primary brewing. After racking, I intend to bottle the cider and secondary brew in the bottle, to ensure a nice bit of fizz.

My question is: I have potentially 14 litres to rack, so do I have to do this into demijohns or can I get away with racking into a spare 30L brewing bucket? Just trying to save on costs, where I can, but will bite the bullet if the bucket option is a non-starter.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

 

[Stevieboy]

In your circumstance, I would leave it to brew out fully in the primary FV, then siphon into bottles with a little priming sugar. Racking 14l into a 30l bucket will give you a huge headspace with big potential for oxidation.

 

[MarkJ]

In your circumstance, I would leave it to brew out fully in the primary FV, then siphon into bottles with a little priming sugar. Racking 14l into a 30l bucket will give you a huge headspace with big potential for oxidation.

Thanks, Stevieboy, the headspace and oxidation potential of using the bucket was worrying me a bit, so it's good to get an experienced viewpoint.