No tap in my bucket, when should I move to the bottling one?

Question

I'm coming back to homebrew after 20 years. When I started, everybody used to transfer the beer for another vessel for a secondary fermentation.

My old kit has two buckets and I'm fermenting it in the bucket without a tap. I'll need to move it to the other bucket for the bottling.

What's the best time to do it? Should I do it after one week fermenting, or just before bottling?

Answer 1

Only do this before bottling. From all over the forums, and from high profile homebrew people, it seems that keeping your beer for up to four (or even six weeks) in the fermentation bucket is really no problem.

I sometimes move my fermenting beer to a second vessel, in two cases:

• When I want my beer more clear, somehow this helps
• When I open ferment, when the krausen has fallen, I transfer it to a closed vessel

If you use buckets, bottle after two or three weeks. With buckets it is more difficult to take a sample to check if the FG keeps stable (unless you have a wine thief and can afford to lose the sample).