Bottling Bucket

[logcellar]

We are very new to winemaking. The homebrew store where I buy my supplies suggested using a bottling bucket with a spigot to bottle our wines and prevent sediment getting into the bottles. Do I transfer the wine from the carboy prior to bottling? If so, how long to I need to wait until the wine settles again after syphoning it into the bottling bucket? Very confused!

 

[Runningwolf]

We are very new to wine making. The homebrew store where I buy my supplies suggested using a bottling bucket with a spigot to bottle our wines and prevent sediment getting into the bottles. Do I transfer the wine from the carboy prior to bottling? If so, how long to I need to wait until the wine settles again after syphoning it into the bottling bucket? Very confused!

I would make one last racking to a carboy where you can clearly see your wine for several weeks to ensure it is truly cleared. Then when you are ready to bottle rack to your bottling bucket and bottle from there.
Some people use these buckets successfully. They are also the culprit to many accidents as the spouts eventually leak. I personally would not go that route.

 

[Runningwolf]

By the way welcome to the forum. Feel free to pop in any time and ask questions. We'll help walk you through any step.

 

[Lurker]

I would make one last racking to a carboy where you can clearly see your wine for several weeks to ensure it is truly cleared. Then when you are ready to bottle rack to your bottling bucket and bottle from there.
Some people use these buckets successfully. They are also the culprit to many accidents as the spouts eventually leak. I personally would not go that route.

Follow the Wolf, no bottling bucket. I made a bucket with a spout, it sits under the table gathering dust. Go right from the carboy or into gals. And then into bottles. Your choice, if no pump, the auto siphon is great.

 

[Luc]

If you know for sure your wine has finished fermenting (measure the final SG !!) and there is no sediment in the carboy you can bottle directly from the carboy. No need to do another step.

Luc

 

[Tom]

Get a Buon Vino Bottle Filler. You will not need a bottling bucket w/ spigot.

 

[roblloyd]

I agree. The Buono Bottle filler is great. So much easier than wands and starting/stopping siphons. I dripped maybe 2 tbls of wine doing 2 batches. OK I spilled a little but that was my fault not the filler.

I would rack to a clean carboy or bucket so you don't transfer sediment if there is any in the carboy.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Welcome aboard!!!

I agree with above - i would not use the bucket with spigot. And i would do one last racking and wait a few weeks to ensure that there is no sediment - then bottle from there. I also use the Buon Vino bottle filler and it is an excellent piece of equipment - it costs about $20. This can be used with a vacuum pump to bottle or you can let gravity do the work.

 

[cpfan]

Personally I have never used a bottling bucket. I usually bottle from a carboy, although sometimes from a primary. I use an Auto-Siphon and a bottling wand.

Why buy a bottling bucket? Get another carboy instead.

Steve

 

[BobF]

Spigots available from HBS are leaky. I like using a bucket, so in place of the spigot I added a barbed fitting for 3/8 tubing. I use a clamp instead of a spigot:
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/large-tubing-clamp.html

Some day I will get a buano filler so I can use vacuum to bottle. In the mean time, I siphon 3g at a time into my bucket and put the bucket on a high shelf to let gravity do the job so I work at counter level w/o lifting heavy glass jugs.

I *hate* having to have the bottles on the floor ...

 

[Runningwolf]

Bob it sounds like you've got a system that works well for you. That is the most important thing. Eveything thing is dependant on the size of your operation, budget and space.

 

[tonyt]

The hose can slip off the spigot and wine goes everywhere. After that I haven't used the spigot again.

 

[BobF]

Bob it sounds like you've got a system that works well for you. That is the most important thing. Eveything thing is dependant on the size of your operation, budget and space.

Yep. It's working well right now. The bucket (food grade, 5G) was $6 locally. The fitting was $1.50 and I already had the clamp. I tried the spigot -two of them- and they both dripped.

This setup is to use the Ferrari filler which doesn't get along well with siphon (for me).

At some point I'll get one of the buono fillers to eliminate steps from the process. Prolly right after I bottle the 4x6g and 7x3g I have going right now.

My first Ferrari leaked like the dickens, but midwest happily made it right with a replacement that worx pretty good.

My bucket came with a gasketed lid so at some point I'm going to try a fitting in the lid to see if I can use vacuum to transfer to the bucket - *that* would be pretty kool.

 

[tonyt]

My bucket came with a gasketed lid so at some point I'm going to try a fitting in the lid to see if I can use vacuum to transfer to the bucket - *that* would be pretty kool.

My primary bucket has a gasket lid also and I drilled an extra hole and added rubber eye so I can vacuum rack in and out of it. Works great, the lid does suck in a bit with the vacuum pulling. I just put a piece of tape over the extra hole if I am clamping down during primary. The nice thing is that I can vacuum rack from bag-in-box to primary and no heavy lifting and splashing.

 

[Runningwolf]

My bucket came with a gasketed lid so at some point I'm going to try a fitting in the lid to see if I can use vacuum to transfer to the bucket - *that* would be pretty kool.

Keep us posted on this. My guess is the lid will collapse after the sides cave in. But with out trying you don't know. Try it out on water first.