Racking without picking up trub

So, I am about to rack my first brew to a bottling bucket from my glass carboy this weekend to bottle. When I racked to the secondary I picked up a good amount of trub (as is evident by the layer at the bottom of my secondary fermenter). I would like to avoid this when I rack to my bottling bucket. I have an easy siphon, I thought I followed correct protocol (following the beer level down, tipping at the bottom, etc.). I was wondering what other people do to avoid trub. Do people siphon through a filter? What do you filter with? Which end of the siphon do you put the filter on? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a bunch all.

I typically push my siphon well into the beer and try to angle it so that I can see the bottom tip of the siphon through the side of the carboy (obviously dark beers make this difficult) and just try to keep it as close as possible to the yeast cake as I can without touching it. Using this method I get very little if any trub out from the primary and I use no filter at all so I'm not sure how it's making its way into the tube with your setup. Can you actually see thick material flowing up into your tube and then back out into the other vessel? Also, if you moved the carboy to a table, counter etc before siphoning did you give it an hour or two to settle back down?

You probably didn't actually transfer very much trub from primary to secondary as the yeast that has collected at the bottom of your secondary, more than likely, just settled out of suspension. Racking again, in the same way you did previously, to your bottling bucket will give good results but I'm sure there will still be a certain amount of yeast/sediment in the bottom of your bottles after carbonation and conditioning because without yeast to eat the sugar you aren't going to get carbonation.

I cover the end of my siphon with a hop sock. Just wrap a rubber band around it and it keeps particles from floating in.

Super helpful all. Thanks. I definitely did not give it time to settle before I racked. Could I use the bag I got to steep my grains in (cant remember what it is called, starts with an m) to cover the end of the hose? Thanks again all.

I honestly can't see a mesh, grain bag, covering the end of your hose, drastically reducing the amount of yeast that will transfer from your secondary to bottling bucket. If you really want to get the least possible yeast in suspension you could cold crash the secondary and then siphon very carefully from the upper level of the liquid, leaving an inch or so before reaching the trub. But, as I mentioned before, without yeast to eat the sugar you aren't going to get carbonation.

I too would recommend cold crashing for a few days if you can. I have noticed extremely compact yeast cakes this was and it makes it very easy to rack to a bottling bucket or keg without getting much sediment. It also allows the beer to clear up much quicker and better. There will still be enough yeast in suspension to carbonate your beer.

I just don't have the space or ability to cold crash, otherwise I totally would. I think I will just move it to where I am going to rack it from 24 hours before and let it settle. Thanks again for all of the help.

Ogri said:

You probably didn't actually transfer very much trub from primary to secondary as the yeast that has collected at the bottom of your secondary, more than likely, just settled out of suspension. Racking again, in the same way you did previously, to your bottling bucket will give good results but I'm sure there will still be a certain amount of yeast/sediment in the bottom of your bottles after carbonation and conditioning because without yeast to eat the sugar you aren't going to get carbonation.

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+1

This is exactly what I was going to post after reading the OP.

It wasn't your technique, but rather the almost magical effect of racking on dropping yeast out of suspension. This works on most yeast strains (Kolsch is one example where it doesn't work very well).

If you want really clear beer prior to packaging you generally have a few options: rack to secondary (most of the yeast will fall out within 48 hours), cold crash in primary for a few days (not quite as effective), or chill/add finining agents for a few days (gelatin or Isinglass)/cold crash in primary (pretty darn effective on all strains).

mikecshultz said:

I just don't have the space or ability to cold crash, otherwise I totally would. I think I will just move it to where I am going to rack it from 24 hours before and let it settle. Thanks again for all of the help.

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This is a great tip for reducing that issue. I rake freely from my primary to secondary...I'm trying to get all the beer and could care less if I get trub at the end. It usually settles into a tight ring in my carboy that I can easily avoid when going to the bottling bucket.

One thing that I sometimes do if I get a lot of trub is to put the edge of the carboy or bucket on a 2x4 while it is fermenting so that it is angled and the trub settles to one side. Then when I rack I take the carboy off of the 2x4 and have a nice clean area to put the racking cane into. Works great at getting almost all the beer out trub free.

D_Nyholm said:

One thing that I sometimes do if I get a lot of trub is to put the edge of the carboy or bucket on a 2x4 while it is fermenting so that it is angled and the trub settles to one side. Then when I rack I take the carboy off of the 2x4 and have a nice clean area to put the racking cane into. Works great at getting almost all the beer out trub free.

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Good tip. Thanks!

D_Nyholm said:

One thing that I sometimes do if I get a lot of trub is to put the edge of the carboy or bucket on a 2x4 while it is fermenting so that it is angled and the trub settles to one side. Then when I rack I take the carboy off of the 2x4 and have a nice clean area to put the racking cane into. Works great at getting almost all the beer out trub free.

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Sweet MacGyver tip!