Siphoning Nightmare - help

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BansheeRider

BansheeRider

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I have an IPA that I have been making for 5 weeks now. I oaked and dry hopped in secondary. I transferred to bottling bucket just now. I have a ton of sediment in the bottling bucket. Should I rack two more times to clear? The sediment is unbelievable and I lost about 1 gallon due to dry hopping. Next time I will be using a hop bag. Suggestions please! I dont want this s**t in my bottles.

Oh...the beer tastes awesome!
 
DO NOT keep racking. you will be exposing the beer to air- bad, and you will be more likely to get an infection- worse.
 
Bottle off your racking cane instead of spigot, that way you can set the depth of the cane. I do this exclusively and it works fine. You will not lose siphon if you're using a good bottling wand.
 
Kahler said:
DO NOT keep racking. you will be exposing the beer to air- bad, and you will be more likely to get an infection- worse.
Click to expand...

Screw it I'll just bottle. Consider it lesson learned. I am a bit pissed off that I didn't get 5 gallons from this though. This is the Octane IPA from Midwest supplies, which is not cheap.
 
tre9er said:
Bottle off your racking cane instead of spigot, that way you can set the depth of the cane. I do this exclusively and it works fine. You will not lose siphon if you're using a good bottling wand.
Click to expand...

I have an auto siphon. This is a good idea! Thanks!
 
If you've added the sugar solution to the bottling bucket then you will have to let it ferment out before trying again, which is a great opp. to rack and let it clear some more.

If not, then you can still rack to a fermenter for some more clearing. Either way, you will have racked a couple of times, which is not great for oxidation if you aren't really careful.

I think you will be ok even if you bottle now, just let it settle a bit for the big chunks to drop and then bottle. The bottle swill clear to a great extend and you'll have to be careful when pouring, but it's not that big a deal.

If I were you, I'd practice the art of siphoning. Or you can buy an Autosiphon and make things easier. They have a thing on the tip that helps keep debris out and starting the siphon is as easy as lifting the cane up and pressing it down. I've used one several times for dry hopped beers and never had a problem getting almost all of the beer out without getting a bunch of yeast and hops with it.

Or the hops bag is not a bad idea either.

Just RDWHAHB. You have made beer, and this small problem isn't going to turn it into a terrible beer. Just use it as a learning experience.
 
I agree, you don't want to keep racking or you will definitely up your risk of oxidation or contamination. I'm not sure of your options at this point other than to bottle. It will settle in the bottle, you will just have to be careful when pouring. Next time you should cold crash after secondary if you can. Put the carboy in the fridge for 24-36 hours and all the yeast and hop debris will settle to the bottom and you can rack the clear beer off the top. I dry hop with pellets and no hop sack and after a cold crash, I rack nice clear beer off.
 
Homercidal said:
If you've added the sugar solution to the bottling bucket then you will have to let it ferment out before trying again, which is a great opp. to rack and let it clear some more.

If not, then you can still rack to a fermenter for some more clearing. Either way, you will have racked a couple of times, which is not great for oxidation if you aren't really careful.

I think you will be ok even if you bottle now, just let it settle a bit for the big chunks to drop and then bottle. The bottle swill clear to a great extend and you'll have to be careful when pouring, but it's not that big a deal.

If I were you, I'd practice the art of siphoning. Or you can buy an Autosiphon and make things easier. They have a thing on the tip that helps keep debris out and starting the siphon is as easy as lifting the cane up and pressing it down. I've used one several times for dry hopped beers and never had a problem getting almost all of the beer out without getting a bunch of yeast and hops with it.

Or the hops bag is not a bad idea either.

Just RDWHAHB. You have made beer, and this small problem isn't going to turn it into a terrible beer. Just use it as a learning experience.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I do have an auto siphon. I thought the auto siphon would keep most of the debris out as opposed to a racking cane. I was wrong and next time I should use a hop bag I guess.
 
I just racked my iipa off of dry hops from the primary to avoid this. I also lost quite a bit, maybe 3/4 of a gallon to hops and 3/4 gallon from blowoff.
 
BansheeRider said:
Thanks! I do have an auto siphon. I thought the auto siphon would keep most of the debris out as opposed to a racking cane. I was wrong and next time I should use a hop bag I guess.
Click to expand...

The tip of the autosiphon works fine if you have only a small bit of yeast/trub but when you dry-hop or have a ton of yeast/trub on the bottom it will start sucking that stuff up. I siphon about half-way down (I have a rubber band around the auto-siphon and then clothes-pin the rubber band to the bucket) and then I monitor the level, put a block of wood under the front of the bucket and slowly lower the siphon little by little while watching where the trub level is. It takes some babysitting, but it's worth it. I never use a hop bag.
 
BryceL said:
I agree, you don't want to keep racking or you will definitely up your risk of oxidation or contamination. I'm not sure of your options at this point other than to bottle. It will settle in the bottle, you will just have to be careful when pouring. Next time you should cold crash after secondary if you can. Put the carboy in the fridge for 24-36 hours and all the yeast and hop debris will settle to the bottom and you can rack the clear beer off the top. I dry hop with pellets and no hop sack and after a cold crash, I rack nice clear beer off.
Click to expand...

I don't have a fridge that can hold a 5 gal carboy. I was thinking about this before I decided to dry hop but went ahead and did it anyways. The hops have been in for 7 days and never dropped to the bottom. When I moved the carboy the hops started to drop right when I decided to rack :eek:
 
BansheeRider said:
I don't have a fridge that can hold a 5 gal carboy. I was thinking about this before I decided to dry hop but went ahead and did it anyways. The hops have been in for 7 days and never dropped to the bottom. When I moved the carboy the hops started to drop right when I decided to rack :eek:
Click to expand...

Try cold crashing in a tub of ice water next time. Have to constantly add ice, but it will help.
 
Do most people loose beer when dry hopping? I didn't plan to dry hop until a week before bottling.
 
BansheeRider said:
Do most people loose beer when dry hopping? I didn't plan to dry hop until a week before bottling.
Click to expand...

You will always loose beer when dry hopping. You will especially notice it on an IPA when you are using 3+ ounces of dry hops. I figure that I loose close to a gallon due to trub and dry hopping when I do an IPA.
 
Well I lost 1.5 gallons which is almost a case of beer. I am :mad: Not sure if dry hopping is worth it. I am drinking an amber ale now that is delicious and it wasnt dry hopped, and I got about 50 beers from it.
 
I don't bag my dryhops nor do I typically rack to secondary, and my IPAs are still quite clear and sediment free when transferring to the bottling bucket after 3-4 weeks. I don't lose much beer either. You must be doing something else very wrong.
 
HeadyKilowatt said:
1.5 gallons is a lot of beer to lose to hop absorption- I assume you were using whole cones? If so, yeah, you're gonna lose some beer for sure. Next time dry-hop with pellets.
Click to expand...

bobbrews said:
I don't bag my dryhops nor do I typically rack to secondary, and my IPAs are still quite clear and sediment free when transferring to the bottling bucket after 3-4 weeks. I don't lose much beer either. You must be doing something else very wrong.
Click to expand...

I dry hopped with almost 4oz of pellet hops. One thing I didn't do is move my secondary to where i want to siphon from and let it sit over night for the sediment to drop.
 
put your autosiphon inside a paint strainer bag while racking. This will filter out all the dry hops. This is the way I do it and I never have an issue with dry hops ending up in my bottles.
 
BansheeRider said:
I dry hopped with almost 4oz of pellet hops. One thing I didn't do is move my secondary to where i want to siphon from and let it sit over night for the sediment to drop.
Click to expand...

I dryhop with that amount or more, and I don't move to secondary either. No issues. Time to reevaluate your processes my friend. The cause of your concerns is not what you think it is.
 
Some was lost from a violent fermentation and dry hopping. This is only my second batch so lesson learned.
 

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