Racking to Secondary

This may be (another) dumb question, but...
Is it necessary to use a racking cane to transfer a beer to the secondary ? If I just pour it in slowly using a funnel, am I running a rick of oxidation ?

I want to rack today, after a month in the primary, but my sipon tubing has a bad cloudy haze, with a couple of white areas, and I can't get it completely clean, so I don't trust it.

kjung said:

Is it necessary to use a racking cane to transfer a beer to the secondary ? If I just pour it in slowly using a funnel, am I running a rick of oxidation ?

I want to rack today, after a month in the primary, but my sipon tubing has a bad cloudy haze, with a couple of white areas, and I can't get it completely clean, so I don't trust it.

Click to expand...

Yes, definitely rack instead of pouring. Your tubing should be long enough to reach the bottom of the secondary, so it has no opportunity to splash at all. Some of us even purge the secondary with Co2 first...avoiding oxidation is important!

I find that tubing never looks perfect even after one use. But if it's suspect, I'd run out to the hardware store and pick up some new beverage rated tubing. If you can't get some today, just put off racking until later...your beer is quite safe in secondary, and a longer delay may even help.

My tubing has picked up the color of iodaphor but it's still good. I always run hot water through them after use to rinse out residual sugar and sanitize before use. They probably won't stay clear regardless of what you do to clean them.

I always run some Oxiclean through the tubing immediately after use, then finish off with sanitizing solution (Iodopher) before hanging it to dry. Even after this I still get some white spots in the tubing after the water drys, but I haven't had a problem.