bottling and sediment newbie question

Hey guys,

Bottled my second batch today, but only the first I've done solo. I thought I was so careful to keep the racking cane away from the bottom of the fermenter, and left a couple of inches behind in the fermenter to avoid getting the sediment.

But, with several beers' worth left in the bottling bucket (I was using spigot to tubing to bottle filler), my bottle filler clogged with sediment. I only ended up with 37 beers from a 5 gallon batch because I ended up having to bail out after I contaminated the bottle filler while trying to unclog it.

Any ideas why I would have ended up with so much sediment after being careful to leave it behind in the fermenter? Need to step up to a secondary?

Thanks in advance.

How long are you fermenting? If you keep your beer in primary for 4 weeks, it should be crystal clear and the cake compacted down considerably. Alternatively, you could move to secondary after a couple weeks and let the remain gunk settle out. I guess my point is I don't bottle my beers until there a month or two old and get nothing more than a light dusting of yeast in the bottles.

Well, I let it sit for three weeks, which I thought was pretty good. I'm not sure what I think about its clarity, it looked nice and clear with a good pale color (it's a pale ale) running through the tubing, but pretty dark in the fermenter and bottling bucket.

But regardless, shouldn't I have kept most of the sediment out by avoiding the fermenter bottom with the racking cane and leaving a couple inches behind, or am I missing something?

Three weeks is a pretty good amount of time and it doesn't sound like you did anything wrong. It is strange that you are getting enough sediment to clog your filler. Sorry, I can't think of what could have happened that caused it.

Beers always look darker in buckets and carboys so no worries about that.

No worries, I'm just happy that it sounds ok to you. Disappointed that I only got 37 beers out of it, but if my first solo batch turns out decent I'll chalk it up as a win.

Thanks for your help, it's much appreciated.

Are you using a racking cane that has the tip attachment? This attachment keeps the cane off the fermenter floor so the siphon won't vacuum up the yeast on the bottom.

The attachment comes standard on Auto-Siphons. I've also seen standard racking canes at the LHBS that have the tip on the end.

I'm an impatient bastard, so here's what I normally do (unless the recipe calls for longer fermentation):

-Ferment for approx. 2 weeks
-Transfer to secondary
-Let the secondary sit (covered) for one day. Optional to add Irish Moss for fining (Homebrew and Chemistry: Irish Moss: A brief description)
-Carbonate (I use carbonation drops) and bottle up
-If there's still some visible sediment after sitting, just pour up to the last 1/4" or so.

Off topic, but Irish Moss should be added to the boil (last 10-15 min), not the 2ndary.

Disregard...3 hours of sleep will do that to me. *_*

Jknapp,

See, that's what I was wondering. Not sure how to describe, but here's an attempt. The bottom of the cane (that goes into fermenter) has a little valve at the bottom that looks similar to the one on the tip of the bottle filler. That's at the bottom of the straight tube, then a smaller curved tube with a bent tip fits into that, to be used as the plunger to start the siphon. I thought this was a pretty standard racking cane, but maybe it's not or I'm just using it wrong. Any thoughts?

Problem solved! It just hit me that I found a random little rubber piece on my basement floor the other day. Thankfully, I had the presence of mind to throw it into my brewing equipment box in case it had something to do with that. So, it just occurred to me that it might be the "tip" that Jknapp referred to, so I tried it and it fit perfectly. Wish I had known it before I bottled, hopefully I didn't mess things up too much.

Thanks again for all the help guys, I really appreciate it.

Sounds like you're using the Auto Siphon, which comes with the detachable "tip". You should be able to remove the tip for cleaning - if you don't have this option then I'd suppose that you're missing the small tip. Its about a 3/4" piece that snaps onto the submersed end of the larger diameter outer tube.

Somtimes though, even with the tip, a bit of yeast cake is sucked up, since the suction activity will stir up a bit of the sediment at the bottom of the fermenter. But In my experience, it was never enough to block or stop the siphon.

And, it sounds like you experienced the blockage while you were bottling - I can't imagine that much sediment in the bottling bucket.

Could it be that pieces of hops/trub transferred from your fermenter to your bottling bucket and this is what got stuck in the Auto Siphon? These are the only bits of organic matter that would be large enough to block the flow.

Too bad you only got 37 bottles. Hopefully they'll be 37 good ones!

Our replies must have crossed paths, Jknapp. See above, and thanks so much for your help.