Getting ready for 1st batch?

Mainebrew · 11-05-2008, 01:59 PM

My first brew will be a nut brown ale, and I will be doing the mixing in a 5 gal mixing bucket. My question is I have 2 6 gal carboys and I am going to transfer the batch from the bucket to the carboy. Is It ok to just funnel it in with a slow pour or should I siphon it?

Thanks

**petep1980** · 11-05-2008, 02:00 PM

I think the idea of syphoning is that you leave all that crap behind at the bottom of the primary.

**Yooper** · 11-05-2008, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mainebrew

My first brew will be a nut brown ale, and I will be doing the mixing in a 5 gal mixing bucket. My question is I have 2 6 gal carboys and I am going to transfer the batch from the bucket to the carboy. Is It ok to just funnel it in with a slow pour or should I siphon it?

Thanks

Welcome to HBT!

Once your beer has started fermenting, you want to minimize any chance of oxygenation. That means very gently siphoning into the carboy, and then again very gently siphoning into the bottling bucket and using a bottling wand to bottle. Siphoning your beer or wine is called "racking" and it's pretty easy to do. I like using an auto-siphon with some tubing so that it is easy to start the siphon and keep it going.

When you rack, you'll put the tip of the tubing you're using at the very bottom of the receiving vessel, so that the beer doesn't splash at all going into the carboy.

Another advantage in racking, besides protecting the beer from oxidation, is that you remove the finished beer off of the trub on the bottom. There will be a thick cake of dead yeast, protein particles, hops, etc on the bottom, and you just siphon the clear beer from above that trub. When you get closer to the bottom, and start to suck up trub, you just stop the siphon. If you poured, you'd mix all that up.

**Yooper** · 11-05-2008, 02:04 PM

Oh, I think I misunderstood your question! You're talking about using the carboy right away, before you pitch the yeast?

You're going to ferment in the carboy?

If that's the case, why the bucket? That's just another thing to sanitize.

Mainebrew · 11-05-2008, 02:09 PM

I was going to pitch the yeast in the mixing bucket, or should I pitch it in the carboy? That was pretty much my question, can I mix everything in the bucket including pitching the yeast, then pour into the carboy for the fermenting stage?

**Yooper** · 11-05-2008, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mainebrew

I was going to pitch the yeast in the mixing bucket, or should I pitch it in the carboy? That was pretty much my question, can I mix everything in the bucket including pitching the yeast, then pour into the carboy for the fermenting stage?

Well, you could, but why? Are you using dry or liquid yeast? If you're rehydrating dry yeast, you could just pour it in without stirring right before you close up the carboy. For liquid yeast, the same.

What I would do is cool the wort in an ice bath in the sink, dump it into the carboy (you can strain it through a strainer if you want, as long as it's sanitized) and then add your top off water, stir it up (or shake it) and then add the yeast.

I don't think you'd easily get 5 gallons of wort in a 5 gallon bucket, then try to stir it and then pour it.

RedOctober · 11-05-2008, 02:53 PM

Ok I think I know why he's doing this....

After my wort has cooled I like to aerate it by pouring it back and forth from pot to bucket. The carboy's neck doesnt allow the rapid aeration that the bucket and pot do.

After the forth pour I pitch to bucket and then pour to the carboy.

:P