Transferring to new vessel:

Question: when transferring from a primary to a secondary what is the best procedure for getting the most amount of beer from the primary without getting into and also transfering the trub at the bottom? Especially if the primary is a bucket that you cant see through. I am both worried about wasting beer and sucking up a bunch of sediment into the secondary rendering it a waste of time

thank you!

I always use buckets for primary, so I know what you mean about not being able to see! I use an autosiphon, and start by holding it about 1/2 way under the surface of the beer. I give it a pump, and the beer flows. As the level drops, I can begin to see the black tip at the end of the autosiphon. As the level of the beer draws down, I just keep lowering the autosiphon so that the end is under the surface of the beer. When I get near the bottom, I gently tip the bucket, so that I can put the end of the siphon just over the trub, but not suck any up. It takes a bit of practice, but it works great.

I use a bucket with a spigot, and just open it up. The spigot is up off the bottom a bit, so when the beer starts to get low, I tip it gently forward, trying not to gather any more trub than I have to.

If you secondary, you can not worry so much about not getting the trub, but I still like to try to get as little as possible without being too obsessed about it.

I also use an autosiphon when I transfer form a carboy. I had no idea how much I missed that thing until I accidentally warped it in a kettle of hot wort. Not that I don't have one, I am back to siphoning by hand, which sucks big time! Need to get a new autosiphon ASAP!!

Homercidal said:

I use a bucket with a spigot, and just open it up. The spigot is up off the bottom a bit, so when the beer starts to get low, I tip it gently forward, trying not to gather any more trub than I have to.

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I also have a spitgot buckett first batch .. So what happens if some yeast gets in the bottling bucket, will I have a probelm?

Why worry about not being able to see in a plastic bucket when you have the lid off anyway?

I use an auto-siphon and it keeps any of the yeast cake from entering the tubing, I pretty much get it all into secondary.

Just racked another batch last night as a matter of fact.

So the yeast cake must be much more solid than I imagine if the cap of the autosiphon keeps it from going thorugh