I just cane across a recipe for an IPA which calls for a glass primary and a glass secondary. I've only got one carboy. If I ferment the primary in a bucket it won't change any flavor right?

correct.

nope, you'll be just fine.

What about a bucket for my secondary? same thing?

you can do it but its not the best thing. mainly due to the amount of head space that you woudl have in there. Try to either get a 5 gallon bucket or use a 5 gallon carboy.

Glass vs. Pail? No love for SS?

you can just skip the secondary and age in the primary. if you tend to get a lot of hop residue in the primary this isn't the best option but for many beers it is. Another thing, if the IPA calls for dry hopping (and all the good ones do) you can do that in your bucket after primary ferm has ended. It's easier to clean up.

I happened by TastyBrew and noticed the thread on glass versus plastic. This topic always piques my interest. What makes home brewing so great are all of the choices we have. Some swear by glass. Some swear by plastic. I not only use these types, but also stainless, as DanR alluded to. Each offers unique advantages to a brewer. What’s important is that we keep an open mind in the brewing world. You may use only glass, while someone else uses only plastic. There’s nothing wrong with diversity and we shouldn’t shun others who think differently.

It’s very much like forums. Sometimes a brewer will spend most of the day answering questions in a regular beer forum, however, at night, while he’s enjoying the fruits of his labor, he may wish to expand his interests and go to a forum that allows topics other than beer. While he could go elsewhere on the internet, he feels more comfortable with the friends he has made on the regular forum. This was once a problem here at TastyBrew, but a very wise and intelligent man came up with a solution. Create a forum, within a forum, that allows experienced brewers a place to go and relax from the stress of answering complicated questions. It was a perfect world, so it seemed. However, we all know that there is no “perfect world” and a few malcontents starting abusing the freedoms they had in this special forum and made it uneasy for others.

As with different types of forums, different types of fermenters also offer problems of their own. Glass can break, plastic can scratch and stainless can dent. When these problems arise, one can simply eliminate that type of technology and move on to another, but a better approach would be to deal with the particular problem. Glass can be padded to prevent breakage. Stainless can also be padded to prevent denting and plastic will be less likely to scratch if particular tools are used more carefully. It can even be repaired, by carefully cutting out the scratches and smoothing them out. If it’s too bad, then that particular fermenter may have to be thrown out, but there’s no reason to throw out the all of fermenters of that type, just because of one or two bad ones. Address the particular problem, correct it and go back to enjoying the ability to be able to choose the fermenter of your liking.

Once again, forums are no different. Address the problem, cut out whatever is damaging it and smooth things over. Don’t just throw it out.

Just offering my thoughts. Happy brewing.

BB

wow that was DEEP BB

"What about a bucket for my secondary? same thing?"

I wouldn't want to do an extended secondary in a bucket as they're permeable.

Travis, this is one of the more hotly debated questions. Most brewers seem to agree that for your average beer, a one or two month stint in a plastic bucket isn't going to be a problem. If you go beyond two months, and again this is just being conservative, then you should consider racking into glass or stainless.

Less people agree on not doing a secondary at all but I've pretty much stopped doing them except for two reasons. The first is the above mentioned one, if I want to age for a long time I'll rack it to glass. The second is if I am adding something like fruit in which case I'll add the fruit to the primary and rack it to a secondary only to get it off the fruit and clear up a bit before packaging.

I decide on secondary on a case by case basis. If I can get away without it, I do. If I want to dry hop before kegging, I'll do a secondary. Also, if the beer isn't clearing as quickly as I'd like, I've found that xferring to secondary for some reason accelerates the clearing.

i'm on the same sheet of music as Denny on the use of a secondary.

I usually have enough beer on hand that I can leave one in the primary for a month without worry. Now when my kegs start running dry faster then i can make beer i will start doing 10 gal batches a weekend and then its 2 weeks primary 2 weeks secondary so i can clear my primaries fast enough to get something else in them.

And I still use both glass and plastic but not enough money for SS yet. Just don't see a need to spend that much money on a fermenter yet.

As my kids and I all get older, I'm finding that I'm no longer comfortable having a bunch of glass carboys all over the place. I've given almost all of them away. Depending on a myriad of factors, I'll use either buckets, SS or Better Bottles. (Right now they're almost all filled. Yikes.)

And like Denny and Paul, if I can get away without a secondary, I'm doing it. Really been loving the results lately too.

This subject has been beat to death! http://www.tastybrew.com/forum/thread/174532
Look up in search. Still not as popular as the Guinness recipe.

Cheers! Jeff