Questions about brewing without a secondary

[Kincaide]

I've only brewed 10 batches of beer. I've always used a big bucket as a primary, then moved to a carboy as a secondary, because that was what the instructions in my first kit told me to do. It told me to stir that crap out of the wart, then drop the yeast on top and don't mix it at all, then rack it to the carboy after 5 days.

I've now brewed a few batches using all grain, but still using the big bucket as a primary. I picked up a copy of "Brewing Classic Styles" and it seems that most recipes don't require a secondary, so this leads me to two questions (with subsequent questions):

Assuming, I'm going to use a carboy as my only fermentor, liquid yeast, and I'm trying to brew a standard American Pale Ale with maybe a bit of extra hops for fun.......

1. How do I get the yeast into a carboy?
- is it bad to leave the beer on the yeast for 3 weeks?
- should I not dry hop it (recently listening to a Sunday Session about not dry hopping until most of the yeast is gone)?

2. How do I aerate the beer before adding the yeast?
- I don't want to deal with pumps or adding C02. Can I just stir it up in the bucket, pitch the yeast into the bucket, then dump the bucket directly into the carboy using a funnel? This seems to go against my original instructions about letting the yeast sit on the top for a bit.

I could be missing something completely. I'd really appreciate some advice on this.

Thanks!

[spiderwrangler]

1. How do I get the yeast into a carboy?
- is it bad to leave the beer on the yeast for 3 weeks?
- should I not dry hop it (recently listening to a Sunday Session about not dry hopping until most of the yeast is gone)?

2. How do I aerate the beer before adding the yeast?
- I don't want to deal with pumps or adding C02. Can I just stir it up in the bucket, pitch the yeast into the bucket, then dump the bucket directly into the carboy using a funnel? This seems to go against my original instructions about letting the yeast sit on the top for a bit.

1. Pour it in? If you are using a carboy as your initial fermentor, you won't be able to just pour the wort in and will need a funnel unless you are siphoning or using a valve and tubing to get it into your fermentor. If you don't need a big funnel for transfering wort, a small one may make adding your yeast a bit easier. IF you are using dry yeast, you will want to rehydrate in water (the sprinkling method is reported to result in lower yeast viability).
- As long as your yeast is in good health, there should be no issue with it staying in there for 3 weeks.
-There has been some talk recently about not transferring to dry hop, but my preference is still to move it to a second vessel before dry hopping or other additions, but other than that I'm typically single vessel the whole way. My thoughts are that if I'm dry hopping, I want to be rousing them by swirling my fermentor, and I'd rather that all the yeast and trub was settled out and out of the way. If the hops are settling down with yeast and trub, they aren't in contact with the beer. Also, dry hops are enough of a pain to avoid in packaging without all that stuff.
2. If you are pouring through a funnel, you can get a decent amount of aeration there. CO2 won't help you aerate, but assuming you meant O2 and don't want to deal with tanks in general. Pour it through a funnel from a few feet of height, and do the same if you are adding water to top up. Go right to the carboy, don't worry about adding it to a bucket first. Then add the rehydrated yeast to your fermentor after the wort is in.

[TheDarkSide]

Pour the yeast in and shake the carboy to get it moving around. 3 weeks is definitely not an issue. I dry hop in the primary, unless I plan to reuse the yeast. Unless the recipe calls for it earlier ( i.e. Pliny starts the first dry hop in 5 days ), I wait until fermentation is nearly done so it doesn't blow off the aroma.

Before I got my O2 stone and the Home depot air tank, I would shake the heck out of the carboy before pitching my yeast. I use better bottles so I would be careful if you are using glass carboys. The O2 stone with pure O2 only takes about 30-45 seconds, so it may be worthwhile looking into for the future. It has made a huge difference in the fermentations I have had.

[Hoont]

Call me lazy but... the beer on the yeast for 3+ weeks shouldn't be a problem; I dry hop in the primary if 1) I don't want to reuse the yeast and 2) it is a small amount of dry hops (less than 1.5ish oz in a 5 gallon batch); And finally I don't bother oxygenating the wort unless its a high gravity beer (OG 1.060ish or higher) though I do always get a starter going a couple days before brew day, and wake the yeast up before pitching.

[captain carrot]

Yeah, skip the secondary. Give the beer a 2-3 weeks to finish fermenting and bottle or keg.
You could use a sanitized wisk to whip the wort in the bucket but be careful not to scratch the plastic. My vote would be to buy a cheap aquarium pump setup.
Good Luck!