How not to bottle.

Friggin whole dry hops clogging the auto siphon... introducing a bunch of o2 into the racking cane. Had to ditch it after a few tries with a ton of bubbles. On to sucking on the hose, dipping the end in star san and into the bottling bucket. Coaxed another couple gallons out this way with little issue then more clogging. Scooped a bunch of hops out and squeezed another gallon. Then tried a sanitized hop bag over the end of the racking cane with little success. Removed that then more sucking on the hose, hands in beer, trying to keep everything clean. Ended up with 1.65 cases of beer from 5.25 gallons in the fermenter. What a shame considering this was my first all grain and my best to date. How do I know? I downed the equivalent of 3 bottles sucking on the siphon hose.

The entire time I'm going through the process, I'm thinking what a disaster after zero issues my first half dozen brews. Funny thing is, I'm learning it really is hard to ruin a brew. There's a chance this batch will be contaminated, overcarbed, and oxidized, yet somehow I think it'll turn out to be my best yet.

Brew on.

Bamsdealer said:

yet somehow I think it'll turn out to be my best yet.

Click to expand...

It probably will! My best IPA to date yet had many of the same problems... I don't think I'll ever dry hop without putting 'em in a muslin bag again!

I'm bottling my first batch this weekend. I'll make sure to follow your explicit instructions to the letter.

YES next time use a hop bag, it makes life much easier.

Also, if you have the same problem next time. When your siphening to your bottleing bucket watch the siphon and keep it at the top of the beer. That way if your going to have clogging issues they will be in the last gallon with 4 good gallons already ready to go.

Did you cold crash? I don't have much experience, but I dry hopped in primary on my last batch (an IPA), just dumping the hop pellets straight into the carboy. I didn't have any problems getting the beer into the bottling bucket, but I cold crashed for about 2 to 3 days. I wonder if this makes a huge difference, or none at all?

Kevin

I have the same prob with all ipas. Get used to it... lol

Didn't cold crash this time and didn't scoop out any dry (whole) hops. If I were using pellets, I probably wouldn't have had a problem. Last time I tried to cold crash with whole hops, only a portion dropped out and I ended up with hops on top and underneath.

After reading recommendations on just racking from underneath the floating hops, I decided I'd give it a try. That'll be the last time.