Lost hella beer siphoning..

CornyKegs 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
HoppyWeasel

HoppyWeasel

Active Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2010
Messages
26
Reaction score
2
Location
Carmichael
So I had my I.P.A sitting in primary for 2 weeks in a 6 gallon glass carboy and then I switched it to a 5 gallon carboy. I lost so much liquid siphoning it... there was so much hop sediment/yeast that I just left all that thick hoppy liquid behind in the original... now I have maybe 3.5 gallons beer in a 5 gallon container.. I am going to dry hop with cascades as soon as fed ex gets here... Just want to know if all that empty head space is bad for the time being??? http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y258/weaselman311/carboy.jpg?t=1290533828

I hear just leave it in primary for 2 weeks or even longer... then I hear if you leave your basically fermented beer sitting on the yeast it will impart a yeasty flavor to the beer. I'm putting it in secondary to clarify and dry hop. Some one please tell me everything is gunna be allright and that my beer will be safe.
 
HoppyWeasel said:
So I had my I.P.A sitting in primary for 2 weeks in a 6 gallon glass carboy and then I switched it to a 5 gallon carboy. I lost so much liquid siphoning it... there was so much hop sediment/yeast that I just left all that thick hoppy liquid behind in the original... now I have maybe 3.5 gallons beer in a 5 gallon container.. I am going to dry hop with cascades as soon as fed ex gets here... Just want to know if all that empty head space is bad for the time being??? http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y258/weaselman311/carboy.jpg?t=1290533828

I hear just leave it in primary for 2 weeks or even longer... then I hear if you leave your basically fermented beer sitting on the yeast it will impart a yeasty flavor to the beer. I'm putting it in secondary to clarify and dry hop. Some one please tell me everything is gunna be allright and that my beer will be safe.
Click to expand...

The consensus is that leaving it on the Yeast for a long LONG time may impart flavors. We're talking months here. Also, I've read numerous times now, that the extra head space isn't anything to worry about.
 
Usually, there is enough dissolved CO2 in the beer when you rack it that gets released with the movement that will help push a lot of the O2 out of the headspace. I suggest that in the future, you either cold crash or use gelatin before racking, or dry hop in primary then cold crash and/or use gelatin. The yeast/hop/trub will compact significantly and allow for more beer to be claimed.
 
Why are you wasting half of your beer? Let it sit a couple hours and it should settle out further. Try again. If that fails, go ahead and just pour it through a kitchen strainer as gently as you can. There's no reason to waste that much beer. Try not to aerate the beer but it's not a reason to dump it. It'll be FINE. Most of the rules for beer brewing are suggestions/improvements and not hard rules. You also could have dry hopped in your primary for the last week before bottling/kegging.

Next time, pour the wort through a strainer when you transfer from kettle to fermenter and before pitching the yeast. Don't bother racking to a secondary, it's really really not necessary. Let it sit one month in primary, then bottle or keg. Gelatin is also not nessecary imo. If you strain out hops, and wait a month in primary, all the yeast will be a near-solid cake at the bottom of the fermenter. There is really no other sediment/trub to cause problems.

Many books talk about racking to secondary but all the experts here will tell you there are NO WORRIES letting it sit a month or longer.
 
This is why I use bright tanks.. I just cram the cane right down into the muck and I get as much of the beer as possible. Granted I also get some trub ( way less than you would think) And when I rack to the bottling bucket I leave all of it in the bright tank. I generally lose very little beer.
 
If you leave your beer for at least 4 weeks, the yeast cake compacts down really tight. I usually leave about 4 ounces of beer behind when I rack.
 
MikeRoBrew1 said:
Why are you wasting half of your beer? Let it sit a couple hours and it should settle out further. Try again. If that fails, go ahead and just pour it through a kitchen strainer as gently as you can. There's no reason to waste that much beer. Try not to aerate the beer but it's not a reason to dump it. It'll be FINE. Most of the rules for beer brewing are suggestions/improvements and not hard rules. You also could have dry hopped in your primary for the last week before bottling/kegging.

Next time, pour the wort through a strainer when you transfer from kettle to fermenter and before pitching the yeast. Don't bother racking to a secondary, it's really really not necessary. Let it sit one month in primary, then bottle or keg. Gelatin is also not nessecary imo. If you strain out hops, and wait a month in primary, all the yeast will be a near-solid cake at the bottom of the fermenter. There is really no other sediment/trub to cause problems.

Many books talk about racking to secondary but all the experts here will tell you there are NO WORRIES letting it sit a month or longer.
Click to expand...
Next time Im just going to strain the hops I guess... that just seems like wasted flavor to me by straining it out.. then just ferment it for 3 weeks in primary and skip secondary.. Then dry hop it the last week... then bottle it. Thanks for the ideas
 
MikeRoBrew1 said:
Why are you wasting half of your beer? Let it sit a couple hours and it should settle out further. Try again. If that fails, go ahead and just pour it through a kitchen strainer as gently as you can. There's no reason to waste that much beer. Try not to aerate the beer but it's not a reason to dump it. It'll be FINE. Most of the rules for beer brewing are suggestions/improvements and not hard rules. You also could have dry hopped in your primary for the last week before bottling/kegging.

Next time, pour the wort through a strainer when you transfer from kettle to fermenter and before pitching the yeast. Don't bother racking to a secondary, it's really really not necessary. Let it sit one month in primary, then bottle or keg. Gelatin is also not nessecary imo. If you strain out hops, and wait a month in primary, all the yeast will be a near-solid cake at the bottom of the fermenter. There is really no other sediment/trub to cause problems.

Many books talk about racking to secondary but all the experts here will tell you there are NO WORRIES letting it sit a month or longer.
Click to expand...

Awesome post. I use bucket swith lids. It works fine. If you are using a carboy you should be fine.
 
HoppyWeasel said:
Next time Im just going to strain the hops I guess... that just seems like wasted flavor to me by straining it out.. then just ferment it for 3 weeks in primary and skip secondary.. Then dry hop it the last week... then bottle it. Thanks for the ideas
Click to expand...

Most of the boiled hop pellets have already gotten the flavor out of them. If they've been boiled any length of time, there's not much in the way of aroma left in 'em, and the bitterness won't come out just sitting on the bottom of your bucket.

+1 on a strainer after, or a hop-sock (hop bag for me) during the boil

+1 on a bright tank (especially if you are a skilled racker, or can "bright" under CO2)
 
I don't have any problem with racking off the trub when it comes to bottling. I usually ferment at the low end of the range just because my kitchen gets cold at night. After 3 weeks in primary, my yeast cake is compacted and not going anywhere. I can rack to the point where I have the fermenting bucket at a 45 degree angle and the yeast just sits there.

+1 to long primary.
 
HoppyWeasel said:
Next time Im just going to strain the hops I guess... that just seems like wasted flavor to me by straining it out.. then just ferment it for 3 weeks in primary and skip secondary.. Then dry hop it the last week... then bottle it. Thanks for the ideas
Click to expand...

You really aren't getting flavor from the leftover hop particulate anyway. Spend a couple bucks and get a hop bag to use during your boil. The ones for pellet hops are a very fine mesh that not much can get through. It also doubles as a strainer for racking, you can just rubber-band it around the racking cane so anything has to get sucked through the bag to get into the vessel you're transferring to. I would NOT just dump it through a strainer as was suggested earlier, as you will be oxidizing fermented beer. Sure maybe it won't be around long enough for the off-flavors to start coming out, but why take that risk when there's a cheap and easy solution?
 
I don't use hops bags, and I make many hoppy beers. In fact, hops bags can interfere with the hops utilization so if you do use them, make sure the hops are loose in the bag, so that the wort flows freely through it.

As others said, racking from just above the yeast cake is key, and if you use a highly flocculant yeast (like S04) and wait two weeks or so before racking it'll be much easier to rack beer off of the trub. If you chill the fermenter first, much more of the debris will compact also. But I don't usually do that.

Racking to get all of the beer off of the yeast cake takes a bit of practice, but each time it gets easier. Waiting until the trub layer is compacted helps quite a bit!
 
Justibone said:
Most of the boiled hop pellets have already gotten the flavor out of them. If they've been boiled any length of time, there's not much in the way of aroma left in 'em, and the bitterness won't come out just sitting on the bottom of your bucket.

+1 on a strainer after, or a hop-sock (hop bag for me) during the boil

+1 on a bright tank (especially if you are a skilled racker, or can "bright" under CO2)
Click to expand...
throwing hops straight into boil... not straining anything out... fermenting in one carboy for 3 weeks... and dry hopping the last week... then carefully siphoning above the yeast cake... trying to not waste anything.
 
So, do you guys/gals who leave the hop particles think the yeast cake is less compact due to the vegetable matter? Just curious, I've never done it without a hops bag.
 
I left the pellet hops in my wort when going into the fermenter. The hop particles all turned white in there after 11 days. is this normal?
 
well it is possible that what I am seeing is left over krausen particles floating on the surface. I didn't really look that close and I do definelty see a yeast cake at the bottom.
 
Yay someone said I gave good advice that rules. :)

Quote: "I would NOT just dump it through a strainer as was suggested earlier, as you will be oxidizing fermented beer."

I NORMALLY would not recommend this, but if the alternative is wasting 2.5g of beer, then heck yes I would. If you are gentle it really should not noticeably affect anything. I strain all my beers before kegging for final sediment removal (however I use a mesh strainer on the bottom of my racking cane as mentioned on previous page).
 
I've made some pretty trub heavy beers and never lost that much. It won't hurt anything if you suck a bit of it up into the secondary, better that than losing 2.5g of beer, and it'll settle out and compact over time.
 

Similar threads

PokerDad
Headspace in secondary fermentation (PET carboy)
Replies
13
Views
2K
VikeMan
VikeMan
B
Looking for advice
Replies
6
Views
958
Bibbles's Bubbles
B
B
Beer Turned Out Bitter & Sour
Replies
24
Views
2K
hottpeper13
H
yard_bird
Clearing Beer: Bottle Conditioning
Replies
18
Views
2K
Alan Reginato
Alan Reginato
R
Identifying cause of bad taste
2
Replies
50
Views
4K
seatazzz
seatazzz
BrewSwag 300

Latest posts

Back
Top