Secondary Question

[Jeff]

Because of some problems I had on brew day (see thread: Yet Another Thread about a Bad Brew Day). My 5 gallon carboy became the primary fermenter. I am almost ready to rack to a secondary, but all I really have is my bottling bucket and a plastic bucket. do I:

a) Rack to primary plastic, put lid and air lock on and call it good.

b) Rack to primary, clean and sanitize carboy and rack back.

c) None of the above.

I don't really have the time or money to run out and purchase a second glass carboy. Let me know what you think.

[vendejp]

put it in your plastic primary or your bottling bucket. as long as it will seal and you sanitize it first, it should be fine.

moving it twice to get it back into glass is a lot of moving which is a pain in the butt and increases oxidation.

honestly though, i think however you do it it will be fine.

[Payson]

I too would use the plastic "primary" as your secondary. All the talk about the absorbancy and permeability of plastic does not really apply due to the relatively short amount of time it'll be in it. If possible, purge the bucket with CO2 and that'll further reduce the amount of oxygen it'll come in contact with. If you don't have a CO2 tank, I wouldn't worry about not purging it either.

[ray m]

I agree with the other two suggestions---just use the plastic primary. DO NOT do what my neighbor did once and think "Hey, I think I'll do myself a favor and shortcut this." What he did was use his bottling bucket as his secondary. He also, ahem, dry-hopped in this vessel. It came to bottling time and he called me over to assist. I gasped in disbelief when he added his priming sugar to the secondary-now-poof-it's-a-bottling-bucket. Stirring commenced and up came all the hop matter (remember he dry-hopped in there) and yeast crap. I was horrified. His quote was "boy this is gonna be like drinking liquid hops heh heh heh." Well, no shit! It was the worst beer I have ever tasted in my life---it was absolutely horrible. Not to suggest you would pull a stupid stunt like this, Jeff, but sometimes people just don't think.

[YamahaXS]

Another reason to not use the bottling bucket is because the spigot might leak, albeit very slowly. No need to waste beer and make a big sticky mess.

[Jeff]

I transferred to the bucket last night, and everything went very smoothly for me. The beer smelled great, tasted very green, but I think it should be good after the two months in the bottle the recipe recommend's (its a Theakston's Old Peculier Clone). Thanks everybody for your help.