Racking technique to Bottling Bucket for clarity?

What techniques do people use with an autosiphon to transfer from the secondary to the bottling bucket to ensure the most clarity? Do you put the autosiphon all the way to the bottom, pump and let go? Do you put the autosiphon in the middle of the beer and then follow it down to the bottom as it drains? Do you pump the autosiphon to start above then drop to the bottom?

I'm asking as I recently moved a Tripel using a Trappist ale strand from primary to secondary and noticed that the yeast at the bottom was not a hard cake like the yeast using California US-56 and a lot of yeast sediment moved over. I don't want that to happen when it's time to bottle and was hoping for some tips.

Thanks.

I'm old school and i use a simple racking cane. This way I can clip on a clothes pin to regulated how far down the racking cane dips into the beer. It also allows me to wrap a paint strainer around the tip to filter out and gunk that tries to get in.



One thing you can do regardless, is to add a 1/2 cup of water to the secondary that has had 1 tsp of unflavored gelatin dissolved. THis will speed the yeast drop process for a clearer beer.

I always use the hop bag over the racking cane when filtering out dry hops, but never when dry hops weren't present. Makes sense, I will try using for others to filter out yeast.

Your comment of putting on a clothes pin makes me believe that you keep some distance from the bottom for your racking cane. How much beer above the yeast do you leave on the bottom of the secondary?

sliprose said:

I always use the hop bag over the racking cane when filtering out dry hops, but never when dry hops weren't present. Makes sense, I will try using for others to filter out yeast.

Your comment of putting on a clothes pin makes me believe that you keep some distance from the bottom for your racking cane. How much beer above the yeast do you leave on the bottom of the secondary?

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Very little. Once the level get sort of low. I prop up one side of the bucket with a piece of 2x2 so the beer flows to the corner. If you do it slowly, the yeast cake stays put.

I focus more on avoiding yeast racking from primary to secondary, so that secondary to bottle bucket or keg is pretty easy to avoid racking any sediment.

I clip a clothespin to the autosiphon to keep it about 2" off the bottom until I absolutely have to drop it down. Also, move your secondary to a high place for transfer a couple hours prior to racking since moving the vessel will kick up some sediment. I also prop up one side of it when I move it so that I don't have to tip it at the last minute.

The 2" off the bottom seems like a good idea, especially when moving primary to secondary.

I had a feeling there was a better way than what I have been doing, dropping the autosiphon all the way down. It seems the Belgium yeast strains don't have as solid of a yeast cake as some of the other ale strains so there is a lot more sediment pulled off the bottom.

I prop my fermenter up with a mug myself...then I place a clamp on the autosyphon so it doesn't reach the bottom.

The cleaner you rack the cleaner the final product.