Disaster has struck... need some experienced opinions

[Tree55Topz]

Okay, so I bought a Midwest supplies beer bucket. The spigot attached to it was kind of a PITA to install, but i finally got it. Sanitized it, brewed my beer, poured it in, and boom had 5 gallons of delicious IPA fermenting. Day 5 rolls along, time to dry hop. I slowly open the lid and notice out of the corner of my eye a puddle appearing near the spigot. Upon further inspection I realize that it is not stopping the flow of wort. Luckily this had just started. I immediately push it in further and the flow stops a little bit. I hurriedly sanitized some pots and pour my beer into the pot. The spigot was floating on top of the beer so I sanitized it and my fingers and screwed it on tight. I poured the beer back into the bucket and closed the lid. But now I am worried about a number of things.
1) Alot of air was put into the beer while pouring it into pots. I do not own a siphon so that was out of the question. So now my beer is bubbly.
2) What are the chances of contamination. The whole process took about 8 mins.
3) How will this roughly pouring of beer from and back into the fermenter effect my beer?
4) Will the yeast still be effective?

I am very very concerned

 

[rwinzing]

Sounds like you bought a bottling bucket to ferment in I would get one without a spigot in the future. As far as your beer goes I doubt you will get an infection and if you we're ready to dry hop most of your fermentation should be finished if anything it will kick start more fermentation.

The biggest concern would be the oxygenation of the wort but again if most of your fermentation done you will more than likely be OK. Relax and have a home brew. All will be fine

 

[Tree55Topz]

Okay, thanks for the opinion. And yes, it is a bottling bucket. In an effort to save money I planned on using it for the 2 weeks of fermenting instead of getting a secondary fermenter, and then will use the spigot and a funnel with a hose on the end of it to bottle my beer.

 

[m_stodd]

+1 Don't ferment in a bottling bucket.

Go through fermenting and bottling and see how it turns out, no (good) reason worrying about it.

Also, yeast + wort = beer, so after you pitch yeast, refer to it as 'beer'.

 

[m_stodd]

Okay, thanks for the opinion. And yes, it is a bottling bucket. In an effort to save money I planned on using it for the 2 weeks of fermenting instead of getting a secondary fermenter, and then will use the spigot and a funnel with a hose on the end of it to bottle my beer.

1. Don't use secondary unless you have a very good reason. You're just going to introduce more oxygen
2. Don't fill bottles with a funnel and hose, you're going to introduce a TON of oxygen

For filling, I'd recommend getting an autosiphon and spring loaded bottling wand. What's important is filling from the bottom up, that's how you minimize exposure to oxygen

 

[unionrdr]

Not true at all. I bought the Cooper's micro brew kit a couple years ago,& the spigot never leaks. The spigot on the BB ale pail doesn't leak once you get used to not screwing it on so tight that the seal squeezes out of place, since his was floating on the fermenting wort,the lock nut must not have been tightened at all. They just don't come loose.
So it's all just a matter of geting used to how much to tighten them to get a leak proof seal. If I can do it,anyone can.
Anyway,since it's only day 5,the rest of fermentation might use up a good bit of the air whipped into the beer while pouring back & forth. Just finish your process & give it time. It might yet turn out ok.

 

[MuddyCreek]

I've used a bottle bucket for fermenting as well. Never had any problems as long as you have a good seal on the spigot.

As noted, tightening too much has an opposite effect.

 

[Tree55Topz]

Okay, my worries have somewhat receded. I am confident it will turn out alright. I guess I have a lot more investing to do in this hobby before it fully pays off! thank you all for your thoughtful input

 

[zeg]

Lesson #1: always thoroughly test the seal on your spigot with a load of water or sanitizer. (To save you the next lesson, go ahead and make sure it's in the "off" position, too.)

Your beer either is or isn't contaminated and either is or isn't oxidized. Nothing you can do now except finish it and hope for the best. Odds are on your side that it'll turn out fine. A hoppy beer is far less susceptible to problems because you probably wouldn't age it for a long time, so even a pretty serious oxidation isn't likely to ruin it before it's consumed.

There's no major reason not to ferment in a bottling bucket, except that it's extra effort to sanitize and it probably creates scheduling problems. I've done it a couple times without incident when timing worked out better that way. Some people even purposefully ferment in a vessel with a spigot to avoid siphoning, it's not a terrible idea.

Bottling-wise, I would definitely not involve a funnel in the process. If you want to do it without a bottling wand, attach the hose directly to the spigot and fill the bottle from the bottom up. The wand, either spring-loaded or gravity-operated, will make it far easier, but you can accomplish the same goal by opening and closing the spigot. I think it's a $3 well spent, but it's up to you.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah the bottling wand is def a great,yet cheap investment in your sanity. Trust us when we tell you these things. Most always think of buckets with spigots as bottling buckets. But many fermenters that obviously aren't bottling buckets come with spigots. I think it just makes things easier. You just have to learn how to snug'em down just right so as not to leak. That dang autosiphon got used once. Streams of bubbles could not be stopped siphoning from secondary one time. The secondary was only 8 days,& was my bottling bucket. And my bottling wand was on the other end of the autosiphon tube. Never again if I can avoid it.