Bottling first batch and siphoning woes...

So I bottled my first batch of beer last night. What an experience...

I ended up having major problems siphoning the beer from the carboy into the bottling bucket. I tried all the different tricks and methods and nothing would seem to work. I could get a good flow going for a few seconds, then it would slow down and eventually stop. After much frustration I finally figured out that the connection between the hose and the racking cane was less than optimal and it was allowing just enough air in to kill the suction. I clamped the hose onto the racking cane and after that was able to siphon the rest of the beer.

A couple of questions I do have are;

1) Every time the siphon would quit, the beer would bubble up in the siphon tube. This happened maybe 10-15 times (basically every time I tried to get the siphon going). Is this enough action to cause aeration? If so, how do I tell?

2) The bottling bucket was open for more than an hour while I was trying to get the beer to siphon. Was this potentially detrimental? As soon as I was able to get all the beer into the bottling bucket, I covered it, but it was still open for an extended period of time.

Any exposure to air is going to cause some aeration and oxidation, but don't worry too much about it. Just try to minimize it. Look into getting an auto-siphon, it makes the process quite painless. One pump, and your siphon is flowing nicely.

I'd place the lid on your bottling bucket (don't snap it on tightly, just set it up there loosely) during the bottling process, just to keep dust or other airborne particles from landing in there. If you've got a lid with an airlock hole, use that and snake your siphon hose through the hole. While racking, it's likely that some Co2 came out of solution and formed a protective layer on the surface of your beer. Again, don't worry about it too much, just try to improve your routine each time.

If you haven't notice, a bit part of homebrewing is NOT WORRYING excessively! Things don't always go perfectly, but you have to screw up big time to completely ruin your beer. Don't sweat the minor problems, and enjoy yourself.

I have committed similar sins in the past and still do struggle with siphoning, once in a while. The tiny air gap at the cane connectionis a classic fault.

The beer is quite a bit robust by this point, I would think.

Get an Autosiphon. It's the best $10 I've spent. It makes racking easy.

Sounds like your hose isn't quite the right size for the cane. It should be very very snug and difficult to remove.

Yeah, I definitely think I will get an autosiphon. After the issues I had last night, I can't see not having one.

The hose isn't the right size, it's just a tad bit to big. It went on fairly easily, but I attributed that to the fact that the tube was full of star san. I dunno, in retrospect it makes perfect sense, but being my first time I was a bit nervous and not analyzing properly. I guess I'll just chock it up to a stupid noob mistake and learn from it.

Thankfully, there isn't much I can screw up in removing a bottle cap, so I think I'm in the clear from here.

next time practice a bit with water so you know what to expect

YMMV

:rockin:

i practiced with water and jus could not seem to get the flow going very good so i just went to the LHBS and bough an autosiphon and tried that out and it worked really well i would highly recommend getting one

An autosiphon is the best way to go,I use a 5/16" inch ID hose that is a super tight fit and have no problems.

Well, I have two fish tanks, so I am familiar with siphoning and figured this would be a no brainer... Guess I should have done a test run first. doh!

Saccharomyces +1.

I Still have problems at times with my autosiphon. The problem is always with the hose not being tight. take a scissors and get a new cut.

Also - if you get bubbles a quick fix is squeezing the hose where it meets the siphone and finding where the problem is. then using a small vice grips I LIGHTLY attach it.

However - then I get a new hose with a cleaner cut.

BTW - don't worry about the beer - it'll be fine.