Accidentally aerated when transfer to 2ndary

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kramer

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While siphoning from the primary to secondary, I got some air at the very end, which kind of "fizzed"/bubbled into the secondary for a couple seconds. I know o2 is not a good thing to introduce.....think this could be a problem?
 
Those couple of bubbles from the end of a syphoning are nothing to worry about... Now letting the whole transfer splash around in the secondary and then shaking the carboy up... that would make for some wet cardboard ;)
 
what about if you get a small bubble where the siphoning cane connects to the tubing that goes to your keg?
 
"Accidentally aerated when transfer to 2ndary" ... sorry for a second there I thought maybe you farted while siphoning. While you might think it will effect your beer, and make the dog go into the other room, it won't hurt anything either.

I agree with Shafferpilot. Honestly, a little air is no big deal and at times unavoidable. After all, unless you're transferring your beer under vaccuum there is going to be air in the secondary. Think about it, the whole surface area of the beer is exposed to air. That 2 or 3 seconds of micro bubbles didn't equal out to enough surface area to do squat.

Personally, I think the whole fear of aeration is a bit over blown. Is it a valid concern, yes. I will not dispute that. Is it a bit exaggerated to the point we're worrying about exposure times in the seconds? Yes I do.

Just relax, your beer will be just fine. :D
 
what about if you get a small bubble where the siphoning cane connects to the tubing that goes to your keg?

If this is just one bubble and not an air leak I would say that it is actually stationary. It may look like a lot but the bubble is probably just "wiggling" as the liquid passes it. It would not add any oxygen at all.
 
If this is just one bubble and not an air leak I would say that it is actually stationary. It may look like a lot but the bubble is probably just "wiggling" as the liquid passes it. It would not add any oxygen at all.

Even if it did allow transfer of oxygen from that one air bubble, it would eventually become pretty depleted of O2 and not be of concern.
 
I also get those last bubbles sometimes. Nothing to worry about as far as I can tell.

My last batch, when I racked to bottles, had bubbles flowing through the tube the whole time, only it wasn't oxygen. It was peculiar really, but it seemed like there must have been a lot of c02 in the solution.

At first I thought it was solids shooting through the tube, then I slowed the flow and noticed it was bubbles. First time that had happened.
 
Since you are transferring to secondary and not to keg or bottles, the yeast will consume the small amount of O2 you might have introduced.
 
So I'll piggyback off of this. How bad is it if I didn't add the bottling sugar until I had siphoned about a third of the beer into the bottling bucket and then had a little bit of splash when I poured the sugar/water solution into the bottling bucket?
 
None... So long as you don't leave the beer open to the air for an extended period of time or splash it aggressively during your pour you'll be OK.
 
Might as well tag another question onto this...
My first batch of apfelwein is getting the cardboard taste. It was 9 weeks in a 5g better bottle, aged at room temp for 4 weeks, then thrown in the fridge. All in all it is 17 weeks old now.

The thing is, I have no idea what could have oxidized it. Used an autosiphone to bottling bucket with no siphoning. Havn't had any taste of oxidation in more than one bottle of another batch

Any ideas?
 
and it bubbles the entire time during transfer?... yeah, that can be a big problem

How do you cure this? For the life of me I can't figure out what is causing this, I see no air leaks in the tubing. Only on my first batch so I'm sure it will not be an issue on this one since it will dissappear rapidly but I'd like to avoid it in future batches.
 
How do you cure this? For the life of me I can't figure out what is causing this, I see no air leaks in the tubing. Only on my first batch so I'm sure it will not be an issue on this one since it will dissappear rapidly but I'd like to avoid it in future batches.

The diameter gets a little bigger at the junction between the racking cane and the tubing. The puts a little negative pressure on the wort, which creates a little air cavity. It's a low pressure air cavity, not a 100% O2 air cavity. I'd guess there's very little if any O2 in that bubble.
 
ok, I've been lurking enough to know, rdwhahb... lacking a hb, I'll sub in something that can be filled and capped later :)
 
the important issue is whether or not bubbles are moving down the tubing. If it is just one bubble sitting in the tube, tumbling around, but not moving down the tubing, it is not a problem. if, however, it is an air leak between the flexible tubing and the cane, and little bits of the bubble are constantly moving down the tube with the beer, it is a problem. don't confuse CO2 bubbles with this though. tiny bubbles of carbonation coming out of suspension is not an issue and is normal. The way to tell the difference is to squeeze junction and if there is an air leak, you will find that if you squeeze it one way, the bubbling stops and if you squeeze it another way, the bubbling increases big time. If that is the case, remove the flexible line and cut off the bit that was stretched by the cane; starsan the end of the cane and push the tube on as far as you can get it being careful NOT to break the cane as they get a little brittle where they heat and bend it.
 
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