Bubbles in my siphon tube - Beer Death!?

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FizorZed

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Hey all. I transfered my second kit beer to my glass carboy yesterday. And for the second time I noticed small bubbles accumulating in the line as the beer moved from the fermenter to the carboy. These mostly stay in the line, trapped from moving upward by the liquid moving downward. I've read enough that cautions heavily against introducing unwanted oxygen to the mix. Will these bubbles ultimately screw up the beer or is it unavoidable?

Cheers.
 
My first beer had tons of bubbles... moving through the line because I didn't know what the heck I was doing and had a long-ass tube leading up to the bottling wand.

Your beer will be fine!
 
Short answer:
Dont worry about it its normal

Longer answer:
Its not oxygen, fermentation produces CO2 as a by product most gets gassed off through your air lock but an unavoidable amount gets trapped in solution with the beer. As the beer moves trough your tubing it experiences a change in momentum the CO2 is released from solution and forms bubbles in your line.
 
Ive seen this problem fixed on youtube somewhere.If its a racking cane your suppose to bend around the angle in a pinching like way.it adjusts the flow,that is if its air and not co2.
 
I actually gave my auto siphon a pumped and it forced all those bubbles to shoot out and the line was clear. It did it again and I repeated the same step.

its been bottled for 4 weeks now and tastes great. I would say you are ok. It definately bothered my when I saw it but everything turned out great
 
Next time flick the siphon tube with your finger in any areas that the bubbles are accumulating.
 
I've read enough that cautions heavily against introducing unwanted oxygen to the mix. Will these bubbles ultimately screw up the beer or is it unavoidable?

.

What makes you think it's oxygen? As opposed to other gasses coming out of solution ?

Home brewing myth #4 is that any tiny little bit of Oxygen will destroy your beer, and You will be able to detect it.

Nope.
 
My auto siphon does this too and nothing I do seems to stop it. I assume the rubber gasket at the bottom of the racking cane isn't fitting tightly enough. I use a drilled rubber stopper shoved into the top of the auto siphon, to stop the air leak.

For racking from the brew kettle to the primary, it's just additional oxygen into the wort.
 
I had this problem with my auto siphon. The gasket was not very good. I just took a turkey baster (sanitized) and squirted a little wort on top of the gasket to form a better seal. Problem solved. No bubbles any more....
 
if theres a section of the line that is all air no liquid, yeah be worried. pump that simphon a few more times. But if its just some foam nothing to be worried about. thats mostly co2. Pinch the connection near the auto siphon to get rid of whatever you can but dont be worried.

Also maybe re-evaluate your siphon technique if it happens alot. I use an auto siphon, pump it full of starsan, let the hose drop off into a bucket and that starts the siphon. I loose prob a beer out of it, but the knowledge of a sanitized closed connection makes me feel better. Plus ive never had an oxidized taste or infection i can detect from bottling.
 
if theres a section of the line that is all air no liquid, yeah be worried. pump that simphon a few more times. But if its just some foam nothing to be worried about. thats mostly co2. Pinch the connection near the auto siphon to get rid of whatever you can but dont be worried.

Also maybe re-evaluate your siphon technique if it happens alot. I use an auto siphon, pump it full of starsan, let the hose drop off into a bucket and that starts the siphon. I loose prob a beer out of it, but the knowledge of a sanitized closed connection makes me feel better. Plus ive never had an oxidized taste or infection i can detect from bottling.

I always rinse with a cup of distilled water with the auto siphon.:D:)
 
+1 to pinching the hose a few times above where the bubbles are accumulating. I've done this before and it's cleared them.
 
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