Secondary confusion

[natefitz]

I've got my first brew (All American IPA) bubbling away in the 6.5gallon primary.:rockin:
The LHBS that sold me the hardware told me that my other 6.5gallon bucket could be used as a secondary. After reading more about secondaries I see that it is not recomended to use a secondary with that much air space, so I thought I would get a five gallon carboy. Then I see that if you are adding fermentables to the secondary you should have some headspace or use a blowoff. The recipe I'm working with calls for the addition of .5 ounce hops in the secondary. Is half an ounce of hops going to cause enough fermentation to make the 6.5gallon bucket the better option?

Any help sorting this out would be much appreciated.

 

[Rook]

Hops are not fermentable, so you won't have any problems.

I recommend getting a carboy to transfer to.

ALSO! Buy a carboy cap or an auto siphon to start the siphon to the carboy. I didn't have one for my first batch of beer. I wish I did!!

 

[Blender]

Getting a 5 gallon carboy or Better Bottle is a good choice. Fermentation should be done by the time you trasfer so the secondary is just for additional clearing. You might put a spigot on the bucket and use that for the bottling bucket.

 

[natefitz]

Thanks for the help.
Also, any good advice as to how long I should be in the primary/secondary/bottles?
I've seen differing views, is there a good standard to start with?

 

[c.n.budz]

Thanks for the help.
Also, any good advice as to how long I should be in the primary/secondary/bottles?
I've seen differing views, is there a good standard to start with?

I'm still new to this myself but just about everything that I've read here and elsewhere has said to go with 1 week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary, at least 3 weeks conditioning in the bottles at room temp.

 

[rod]

standard is usually:

1 week primary
2 weeks secondary
3 weeks bottled
enjoy!

edit - i type way to slow