Equipment Malfunction Poured beer from secondary to bottling bucket

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RIXBREW

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I recently was on bottling day of a batch of extract Belgian tripel. Beer aged in secondary for 3 months and was at 1.014 fg. Tasted nice also at this point. When I went to suction the beer from secondary to bottling bucket I got no suction and was at a loss how to get the beer into bottling bucket. I know the best option would have been buy a new suction and tubing but I was pressed for time and opted to gently pour the beer into the bottling bucket. All the yeast came over too. I then added my priming sugar and bottled as is. Any thought on how my comedy of errors will affect the beer? My hope is that since this was a high gravity beer and i have drank many belgian beers with yeast cakes on the bottom of bottle. I want to believe it will be ok but I'm concerned. Any thoughts, predictions? Thanks for any input
 
A ghetto method of getting a suction is where you rinse your mouth with some Vodka or something, then suck on the tubing as you would a straw, and the flow will start.......
 
Other than potentially oxidizing the beer it will be fine. Once the beers finish priming refrigerate them for 3 weeks or more. This will settle all that stuff out and compact the cake on bottom. When you pour the bottle it will tend to stay at the bottom without mixing with the beer. Pour slowly and carefully!
 
Oxidation and 3 inch yeast cakes in the bottles for short.

When you say no suction, do u mean from not having a proper seal between the siphon body and the cane?
 
Does it matter that it fermented in secondary for 3 months and was hg beer?

That probably hurts you more than anything. That long in secondary and it probably had released most or all of the CO2 that acts as somewhat of a protector against oxidation.

As compared to a scenario where one just pulled a beer off primary a week ago and it still had some CO2 and potentially some live yeast that could fight off the oxidation a bit.

I say drink this batch as soon as possible. Have a party or give it away to friends.
 
Well the batch still has to prime so I'm thinking another month on that then refrigerate and go from there
 
When you poured it did it splash all around or were you super careful? I've racked a batch with a incorrect size tube (draws in bubbles) and I was super worried about oxidation but it ended up turning out fine. Can you see how much cake/trub is on bottom of the bottles?
 
No gently super slow careful with a pal holding the bottling bucket. I was aware of oxidation possibilty just caught between rock and hard place with time and bad equipment
 
Ok, I wouldn't lose sleep over it. As long as the bottles aren't half full of gunk I bet it will be fine.
 
You probably oxidized it. It takes a little while for that flavor to show up (I think like a month or 2) so just drink em fast!
 
A slow careful pour shouldn't have oxidized the beer in any significant way. You should be fine but I expect you'll have way more sediment in the bottles than you prefer.
 
All you had to do was prime the hose with water .... and start the siphon the old school way ... siphon into a glass until the beer comes out ..
Bigger question is why you put it in secondary ...
 
I put the siphon tube into the beer as always normally one or two pumps and it drains the beer smoothly into the the tubing and into my bottling bucket. Not sure why the syphoning did not work or how water would have changed anything, I'm just hoping my solution did not ruin this batch I have five months invested in.
 
RIXBREW said:
I put the siphon tube into the beer as always normally one or two pumps and it drains the beer smoothly into the the tubing and into my bottling bucket. Not sure why the syphoning did not work or how water would have changed anything, I'm just hoping my solution did not ruin this batch I have five months invested in.

Take the pump off .... just use the hose. Don't rely on technology to do what simple applied physics will do for you. Put a racking cane on one end .... fill the whole shooting match with water. Takes a little practice to keep the water in there until you get the racking cane in the beer ... and the other end lower... and in a vessel ... but very cheap ... easy... and nothing is ever going to break down when you need it most. Practice with just water in your fermenter first to get it down. Been brewing since 1985... and have never used another method ... or spent a dime on something that is just going to break or wear out
 
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