Bucket with Spigot & Blowoff
I do my primary fermentations in a plastic bucket because they’re easy to clean and with a spigot they’re a snap to drain into secondary.
Spigot
Nothing remarkable here, really; I got the idea out of a BYO article. Using a spade bit I put a 7/8″ hole in the pail 1″ above the bottom; this is high enough to be above your average yeast cake. The parts are a 1/2″ ball valve, a 13/16″ ID silicone O-ring (McMaster #9396K32), and a 1/2″ plastic conduit connector.
The last part you can find in the electrical section of your hardware store. I like the conduit connector part because unlike a pipe nipple it has a built-in shoulder allowing it to seal the O-ring very well against the bucket wall.
And the outside of the bucket; in this photo you can see how the yeast cake is right below the valve. For fermentations with more yeast the cake will be up to the level of the outlet and the first bit of beer coming out will be yeasty. However once the yeast immediately surrounding the outlet is gone the rest of the flow is clear.
Blowoff Tube
My bucket’s lid came with a lid with a large stopper hole which works fine for stoppers but not for a blowoff tube. So I bought another lid and installed a fitting for attaching a blowoff tube or a stopper + airlock. It revolves around a 3/4″ female PVC to 3/4″ male NPT fitting. I chose 3/4″ PVC mostly at random.. however my bottle brush does easily fit inside for cleaning. 3/4″ pipe threads are a little over an inch in diameter so I used a 1″ spade bit for the hole and then widened it a bit with a dremel tool. The O-ring is about 1″ ID. A good seal here really isn’t important, it’s just there to keep goo in and airborne bugs out.
Underneath is a locknut and washer both of which are from the electrical section.
The rest of the blowoff tube is just more 3/4″ pipe and elbows. I used a “street” elbow coming off of the lid in order to reduce the overall height of the contraption; this thing has to fit in my chest freezer!
