Beer Forum

Can I use a 5-gallon water jug as a secondary fermenter? Trying to keep costs down right now.

I believe you can if it is a #1. Look at the bottom for the recycling symbol. Or just skip the secondary and leave it in the primary.

That is what I have been doing. Is it ok to rack from fermenter to another fermenting bucket in order to clear out some sediment?

Its ok and old brewing books suggest it but it really does not help in reality. You also open up the door for infection or oxidation with the added transfer.

Do you have the ability to cold crash the beer. Bringing it down to 32ish after it is completely done fermento ng will drop all the sediment out. Way better option for clearing your beer.

What yeast are you using? Why do you need to clear the beer? Do you have hazy beers coming out of your bottles or kegs?

Well, for my APA I just bottled, I used a US-05 Safale yeast. I left that ferment for 2 weeks then bottled. With the Scotch ale, I did do a rack to another fermenter, I did this do try and help with clarity, I also added oak chips. Not even sure if this was necessary.

My guideline for using a secondary is if I'm going to manipulate the beer post fermentation (dry hop, spice, oak, nibbs, etc) or if its a larger.

My normal fermentation is 2 weeks the cold crash prior to kegging. Possible fining if the beer seems really cloudy.

If I wanted clearer beer I'd just fine it prior to cold crash (preform then at the same time) then move on to kegging and drinking.

A few notes:

If you are using dry yeast and not rehydrating you may want to rack to secondary if you are going to do a long ferment. You don't want your yeast to die and break down in your beer. If you hydrate the yeast properly or use a healthy liquid culture you don't have to worry too much.

As for racking to help clear the beer...well it doesn't help. If you just let it sit in primary for another week or cold crash it you will not have an issue.

Getting off the trub is really only necessary if you are doing a clean lager.

As for doing a secondary for nibs dry hopping oak etc. You really only need to if you want to reuse the yeast. Not an issue with dry yeast for most because it is cheap enough to just pitch a new pack.

So...just don't do it. If you have cloudy beer you have an issue somewhere else. Make sure you get a good hot and cold break. Look at the grain you are using to see if you are getting protein haze from the there. If your haze is yeast then you can fine it out. If you are bottleing then you can add a different strain that can flock out in the bottle better like sierra nevada does.

A proper fermentation will take care of a whole lot of shitty brewing. Build a stir plate (gogle it) look on amazon for an erlinmeyer (can't spell) and start doing starters with liquid yeast. Then look at some of the ghetto fabulous ferment temp control options and I suspect haze will no longer be an issue.

I was given a free mini fridge (craigslist) and added a $15 pid from ebay and my ferments are spot on with no effort.

15 for temp control 15 for the flask and your beer will make a flying leap above where it is and you can still ferment in a single bucket.

Hope that helps.

Assuming your sanitation techniques are good and you don't splash your beer around when transfering, you should be good with using that water jug. The biggest downside is that you definitely don't want to do long term storage in that thing because that plastic is oxygen permeable. You may pick up some oxidation if you leave it more than a couple of weeks.