Using Bottles As Secondaries?

[mr_tyreman]

Hey guys i cant find anything relating to using bottles as secondaries?

Can i fill up bottles and use a glad wrap lid, while they finish of fermenting? and then add carb drops and cap?

i have been using kegs as secondaries, but now that im bottling i was just wondering if this is common practice or not.

or should i just fill the bottles from a secondary?

cheers for your help.

 

[JestersDarts]

Hey guys i cant find anything relating to using bottles as secondaries?

i was just wondering if this is common practice or not.

I've never heard of doing it... cant find it either.. conclude its far from common..
does it have a benefit for your methods?

 

[mr_tyreman]

saves me using a secondary fermenter when i get a stuburn ferment, i could just whack it in a bottle let it finish and cap it up.

im scared about filling bottles until they have got to 1.012 or less.

cheers

 

[reVoxAHB]

It's better to leave unfinished beer (eg beer currently fermenting) in it's total volume. Splitting, while it's fermenting (even in secondary) means you're potentially, unevenly, splitting yeast count affecting overall yeast vigour and health. It means you'll get variances from bottle to bottle with some finishing lower than others, some cleaning up better than others and so on.

I'd stick with sec in kegs (total volume) or just grab another ferm and away you go. If going to bottles early intended as shortcut, this one's not worth it. You have to go to bottles eventually anyway (which is most of the work) where racking total volume to another vessel (or dropping yeast from primary) takes a few minutes at best. Point is, I wouldn't entertain this to save the few minutes of transfer in volume to proper secondary.

reVox

 

[JestersDarts]

saves me using a secondary fermenter when i get a stuburn ferment, i could just whack it in a bottle let it finish and cap it up.

im scared about filling bottles until they have got to 1.012 or less.

cheers

fair enough on a stubborn ferment -

I wouldnt split it to 30+ bottles as a solution - what a pita!
I would try and re-invigourate the ferment in primary if youre stuck for places to transfer your beer to.

 

[zebba]

How are you going to test if they've dropped off those last few points?

 

[crozdog]

It's better to leave unfinished beer (eg beer currently fermenting) in it's total volume. Splitting, while it's fermenting (even in secondary) means you're potentially, unevenly, splitting yeast count affecting overall yeast vigour and health. It means you'll get variances from bottle to bottle with some finishing lower than others, some cleaning up better than others and so on.

I'd stick with sec in kegs (total volume) or just grab another ferm and away you go. If going to bottles early intended as shortcut, this one's not worth it. You have to go to bottles eventually anyway (which is most of the work) where racking total volume to another vessel (or dropping yeast from primary) takes a few minutes at best. Point is, I wouldn't entertain this to save the few minutes of transfer in volume to proper secondary.

reVox

+1.

you can use a cube to secondary in instead of another fermenter. that will free up your kegs for finished product!