PICTURE: Did I oxidize my beer?

To make a long story short, I hate my auto-siphon. It's been cruel to me in the early stages of our relationship.

Today, I bottled my first batch. Racking from my secondary to my bottling bucket was an experience. The auto-siphon, at two different times, introduced bubbles into the line. Consistent bubbles. I'm not sure why it did. To make matters worse, I couldn't just pinch the line and fix it. And I know the auto-siphon wasn't above the surface of the beer. I kept a close eye on that, and it was always below.

Here's a picture of the later stages of racking into my bottling bucket, after the issue with the bubbles ended. I'm not sure if you can tell by a picture (maybe you can), but did I introduce oxygen/oxidize my beer? Also, how can I avoid that bubble fiasco next time?

Thanks in advance, everyone.

the beer looks fine. Relax dude. it sounds like the bubbles may have been caused by something getting stuck in the inlet of the siphon maybe. its not a big deal and it has happened to many of us i am sure. In the future just make sure you watch the inlet to the siphon and keep it free from debris and also make sure it is higher than than the bottling bucket.

A lot of times there is a bubble that gets stuck in the tubing just beyond the racking cane. It just circles around. It looks bad but does not really introduce any oxygen to the beer.

At the end of every siphon I have done it bubbles. I have had no issues from this.

Don't worry I think it takes a lot more than that to cause a problem.

kh54s10 said:

A lot of times there is a bubble that gets stuck in the tubing just beyond the racking cane. It just circles around. It looks bad but does not really introduce any oxygen to the beer.

At the end of every siphon I have done it bubbles. I have had no issues from this.

Don't worry I think it takes a lot more than that to cause a problem.

Click to expand...

^this, totally. when my siphon stops, whether cuz i stopped it or cuz the bucket/carboy is empty, some bubbles come through. i've never noticed any staling (oxidation) flavors in my beers.

kh54s10 said:

A lot of times there is a bubble that gets stuck in the tubing just beyond the racking cane. It just circles around. It looks bad but does not really introduce any oxygen to the beer.

At the end of every siphon I have done it bubbles. I have had no issues from this.

Don't worry I think it takes a lot more than that to cause a problem.

Click to expand...

I watched these bubbles come from the base of the siphon, so it wasn't just where the racking cane meets the tubing. However, with what everyone's saying, it sounds like this won't be a big deal.

Thanks, everybody!

Happens to me all the time, no big deal.

Two sources (well 3) of bubbles in autosiphon are: 1) where the tubing connects to the racking cane - a hose clamp will fix this, 2) at the bottom of the cane part at the seal between the cane (piston) and the sleeve - this is harder to deal with - don't store the parts together, and before you start the siphon, let some beer flow past the seal on top of the piston. This will slowly be sucked back in (rather than air) 3) bubbles of CO2 coming out of solution - nothing to worry about.

Another cure for both 1 & 2 is DON'T SIPHON SO FAST. The faster one siphons, the more likely you are to pull air in somewhere. Keep the height difference small and siphon slower and you are less likely to suck any air in

pjj2ba said:

Two sources (well 3) of bubbles in autosiphon are: 1) where the tubing connects to the racking cane - a hose clamp will fix this, 2) at the bottom of the cane part at the seal between the cane (piston) and the sleeve - this is harder to deal with - don't store the parts together, and before you start the siphon, let some beer flow past the seal on top of the piston. This will slowly be sucked back in (rather than air)

Click to expand...

This is exactly right. I stopped using the dang thing do to #2 problem.