Leaky spigot on secondary

Hi Everyone,

Just got home from work and checked on my brew. I noticed two things.

1.There seems to be a tiny weep coming from the spigot, not even really enough for it to drip more than once every 5 minutes or so.

2.That there are tiny bubbles forming around the top of the beer, I took a closer look and noticed that it is coming from what resembles carbonation?? I can see the bubbles rising up the side of the carboy. There is a tiny bit of airlock activity.

Are the bubbles just from the left over yeast doing its job? Should I be worried about the leak? (other than loosing a bit of beer) I don't really want to transfer it again and risk exposing to oxygen.

Your beer would have had CO2 dissolved in it when you transferred it to secondary. Bubble coming up are from that and are normal.

I wouldn't worry much about the leak, infection isn't going to get in when beer is coming out. Bacteria aren't very good swimmers. I'd worry more about the loss of beer over time. Maybe you want to cut your secondary time short and let it clear in the bottles. You'll get more of a yeast layer in the bottles doing it that way but I think it is better than losing bee. Make sure it is at final gravity before bottling though.

Thanks RM-MN. That puts my mind at ease, I will take an FG and bottle on Friday if all is well.

The only concern I have is that there is a spigot on the secondary. That makes me think it's a bucket, and not a carboy. The issue with using a bucket for a clearing vessel ("secondary") that there is very wide headspace in a bucket.

I don't use a clearing vessel very often, but when I do I think it's important to minimize the headspace of the vessel. I'd either skip racking to a clearing vessel, or make sure to use a correctly sized carboy.

Yooper said:

The only concern I have is that there is a spigot on the secondary. That makes me think it's a bucket, and not a carboy. The issue with using a bucket for a clearing vessel ("secondary") that there is very wide headspace in a bucket.

I don't use a clearing vessel very often, but when I do I think it's important to minimize the headspace of the vessel. I'd either skip racking to a clearing vessel, or make sure to use a correctly sized carboy.

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Hi Yooper, It's a better bottle carboy with a spigot. I bought it before I really started researching on the threads here thinking that using a spigot instead of a siphon would allow less of a chance for oxidation. There isn't a whole lot of headspace (maybe 3 inches?) after spending a lot of time on here I've decided to skip the secondary next brew and just do an extended primary then go right to bottling.

Stieger2012 said:

Hi Yooper, It's a better bottle carboy with a spigot. I bought it before I really started researching on the threads here thinking that using a spigot instead of a siphon would allow less of a chance for oxidation. There isn't a whole lot of headspace (maybe 3 inches?) after spending a lot of time on here I've decided to skip the secondary next brew and just do an extended primary then go right to bottling.

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Oh, that's ok then. I was just worried about headspace.

I HATE my better bottle with the spigot- the flow is way too slow, and I can't remove it. I rarely use it, because I just don't like it. I like my other Better Bottles a lot, though!

Yooper said:

Oh, that's ok then. I was just worried about headspace.

I HATE my better bottle with the spigot- the flow is way too slow, and I can't remove it. I rarely use it, because I just don't like it. I like my other Better Bottles a lot, though!

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Yeah I don't think I will be buying anything else with a spigot unless its a bottling bucket! Do you ferment with your Better Bottles??

Stieger2012 said:

Yeah I don't think I will be buying anything else with a spigot unless its a bottling bucket! Do you ferment with your Better Bottles??

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Yes, sometimes. I've been mostly using buckets since they have so much more headspace, though. I normally do a 10-14 day primary, and then package the beer. I use the Better bottles for wine, or for oaking a beer usually.

Yooper said:

Yes, sometimes. I've been mostly using buckets since they have so much more headspace, though. I normally do a 10-14 day primary, and then package the beer. I use the Better bottles for wine, or for oaking a beer usually.

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Ill have to give it a shot eventually and see how it turns out! Thanks for all the info!