Comments on Tres Perros Homebrew & Smoking Lounge: Batch #003 - Old Ale Brew Day!

In my case, no, it is not the bottling bucket, I j...

2009-05-12T13:42:00.000-04:00

In my case, no, it is not the bottling bucket, I just got as white food grade bucket from work (which is easy, i work in a candy factory). A lot of people start homebrewing in plastic buckets, so those fermenters would do. As long as you were careful with the bottling spout, I am sure it would work fine.

Thanks for the great response. Here's another qu...

2009-05-12T13:16:00.000-04:00

Thanks for the great response.

Here's another question:

Is the bucket used throughout also the bottling bucket? Is the spigot contraption delicate in any way that would discourage its use in any other manner than the last, bottling step?

Yes when we strained into the bucket before puttin...

2009-05-12T12:54:00.000-04:00

Yes when we strained into the bucket before putting in the Carboy, and that bucket had the other two gallons of very cold water we needed to get our batch up to total volume. So yes, I let it cool most of the way in the bucket, because glass can be touchy, and I dont even want to risk the slightest chance of breaking.

With carboys, using the blowoff tube (the setup I have pictured) has two purposes:

1) The larger tube means more CO2 can escape the tube (through the bucket of sanitized water) versus a regular airlock, which minimizes pressure buildup in the carboy.

2) In scenarios where the yeast get really active, you have a clean area setup for bubble over to go (through the tube, into the sanitizer), as opposed to blowing the lid off a bucket or cork from a carboy.

And yes, we re-sanitized the bucket during the wort boil.

;-)

Just a few newbie-researching questions: After st...

2009-05-12T12:00:00.000-04:00

Just a few newbie-researching questions:

After straining the wort into the bucket, did you let it cool completely in the bucket or did you transfer the wort into the carboy, wait for it to cool, and then add the yeast?

What benefits/tradeoffs are there to using that interesting tube set-up while the whole thing ferments?

And, did you re-sanitize the bucket between the initial boil, second screening, and in the fermenting stage?