Secondary in bottling bucket?

[formula2fast]

I am doing a bourbon stout right now and I am about to transfer it into secondary on oak soaked bourbon.

Can I secondary in a bottling bucket so it is easy to sample as time goes on? Is this safe, or asking for infection?

 

[Bensiff]

How long are you oaking for? Buckets allow a lot of oxygen through so would be bad for your beer. This also plays into how long you intend to bottle. If you are going to drink it pretty quick oxygenation plays less a role. If you want this beer to be around in the cellar for a few years I would avoid plastic (other than PET, ie Better Bottles). If you are going to only oak for a few weeks and then start drinking them once carbed you will be fine. If you are thinking of a month or two on oak and then not touching the bottles for a number of months after, I would find a different solution.

 

[flars]

I am doing a bourbon stout right now and I am about to transfer it into secondary on oak soaked bourbon.

Can I secondary in a bottling bucket so it is easy to sample as time goes on? Is this safe, or asking for infection?

Using a bucket for a secondary is no problem. I would not go over a month in plastic though.

If you will be bottling will you bottle from the same bucket with the sediment that accumulates? If not the extra racking off the sediment also includes extra risk of infection.

It would be simpler for now and in the future to purchase a wine/beer thief to take samples. Many brewers have also used a dedicated turkey baster for drawing hdrometer samples.

 

[formula2fast]

I plan to age 90 days, so sounds like i am using the glass carboy. I thought it would be easier to open the spigot to sample oak flavor as time goes on, and that would reduce the chance of adding oxygen since i do not have to open the top to pull a sample. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Bensiff]

I plan to age 90 days, so sounds like i am using the glass carboy. I thought it would be easier to open the spigot to sample oak flavor as time goes on, and that would reduce the chance of adding oxygen since i do not have to open the top to pull a sample. Thanks for the advice.

In all reality, at the home brew scale you could ferment in glass and oak on the sediment and be fine for the whole time. Autolysis isn't much in issue in 3 months at such low osmotic pressures.

 

[Trox]

Another issue with using a bucket is that most I've seen are around 6.5-7.5 gallons; that is too much head space for a secondary and your chances of oxidizing your beer would be greatly increased.