Separate bucket for sanitizer?

while not NEEDED I do find it quite useful. Easy to mix up a batch of sanitizing solution in a bucket. then you can just throw in anything that needs to be sanatized (funnel, hoses, etc). Also great for sanitizing bottles as you can siphon the solution from a bucket into individual bottles easily

 

You can make up your sanitizer solution in a bucket and soak things in it, but it is not the most efficient way to use sanitizer. A lot of people keep it in spray bottle and spray their equipment down. For these folks, a large bottle of sanitizer will go longer than it does for me. I confess to indulging my infection paranoia, so I do make large containers of sanitizer to dunk items. I found this especially convenient when bottling. I usually make this solution during the boil or during chilling. I make it in the fermenter I am about to use to sanitize the fermenter. Then I rack it to a Rubbermaid container (sanitizing rack cane and hose interior). Then all coldside items that contact the beer go in to get sanitized - the cane and hose, thermometers, spoons for stirring the whirlpool, a 1-cup measure cup (for sampling wort for gravity reading), a liquid measure cup for rehydrating dry yeast (if going that route). I'll keep this sanitizer solution for several days so if I want to do another gravity reading, I can sanitize a cup, if I am dry hopping, I'll sanitize the weights I use to help submerge the dryhop bags, etc.

 

I would say
(1), helpful to have something for sanitizing,
(2) obviously important and indispensable,
(3) For most beers, you won't need a secondary. For the beers that do, use a carboy, not a bucket, to reduce exposure to oxygen.
(4) When I bottled, I found it very useful, in conjunction with a spring loaded bottle wand

 

True you don't NEED to secondary, but the only time I have really had off flavors in my beer is when not doing a secondary fermentation. My fermentations are at least 4 weeks and I really don't want the beer sitting on all that yeast and sediment for such a long time.

As for the OP's post, I think you can never have too many buckets. They are very cheap and effective. I have multiple buckets for many purposes.. grinding grains, cleaning and soaking, sanitizing, etc. The one thing I no longer use a bucket for is fermentation. I have found that the final product is better using glass in both primary and secondary. I use a 6.5 gal carboy for primary and 5 gal for secondary. It is a pain in the ass with regular carboys, but I recently got the Big Mouth Bubblers and they are very easy to clean and easy to move around if you buy the holsters for them. Basically just a huge jar with a lid. I didn't like them at first, but with how easy they are to clean, I think they are great now.

 

I have 4 primaries, 2 secondaries, 2 bottling, 1 sanitizer, 2 grain, 2 mashtun elevators and 3 two gallon buckets. Grand total is 16 vessels. Not counting jugs, flasks or kegs.

 

If you are getting off-flavors, than perhaps you do NEED a secondary. But it is worth rethinking why you are getting off flavors. You shouldn't be getting off flavors from the beer sitting on the yeast for four weeks. The most common off flavor from prolonged exposure to yeast is a beefy flavor attributed to autolysis of the yeast. But that should not happen in 4 weeks. Perhaps the problem is that you are not racking effectively from the primary to the bottling bucket, or from the primary to the keg, picking up too much yeast sediment. In that case, a second racking from secondary to packaging helps you separate the beer from the yeast picked up in the first racking. I don't want to come across as a know-it-all -- far from it -- but I am pretty sure if you look at the recipes that are winning awards these days, most do not call for secondaries. Nowadays, I only use them for fruit beers and sour beers. I would also use them for especially big beers intended to be aged, but I don't brew these. For most beers, secondary is an added step that unnecessarily exposes your beer to additional oxygenation.

 

Kolsch beers are typically fermented cool for ales (high 50s to low 60s) and subsequently lagered (stored cold for a period of time). I'm not really sure what the traditional lagering period is. I've brewed one, and I left it in the keg for about 6 weeks before serving. Before I kegged, when I made lagers, I lagered in the bottle after primary fermentation. No secondary stage. I never competed with those beers, but I thought they were pretty good. My point is that even for this beer, I don't think you need to do a secondary. However, no arguments will be won today on whether secondary fermentation is superfluous. People have been arguing it for years. Ultimately, you will find a brewing process that works for you. If it doesn't happen on the first batch, don't get discouraged.

 

If you want to keep things simple to start, I'd recommend a bucket for fermentation and another for bottling. On brew day, you can use your bottling bucket for the sanitizer. Likewise, on bottling day, you can use the bottling bucket for sanitizing your bottles and siphon. Then, once the siphon is ready to go, put the siphon in the fermenter and empty the bottling bucket of sanitizer. An extra bucket is certainly a useful thing to have around, and pretty cheap to boot, but you don't really need one. If you get a carboy and want to use it for fermenting, then that's fine too (as long as it has enough head space for your krausen).

 

I always have spray bottles of sanitizer around the brewing areas. Then there is a keg of sanitizer just because, as you can flush hoses and such, or take the lid off and soak items.

 

After 22.5 years at this, I have lost count of what I have.