Bottled my first brew, question on wasting beer in bottom of bucket?

[burmjohn]

Hey all,

Bottled my first brew yesterday. It smelled amazing, tasted good, everything went really well. But, I have a question, how do you get the last 1.5 or so gallons out of the bucket / carboy (no secondary) to your bottling bucket with out sucking up the yeast and hops? I feel like I wasted some beer. I tried tipping it a bit, which only stirred up that yeast cake at the bottom. I also tried attaching a coffee filter to the end of the siphon when I transferred it to my bottling bucket which did not work out well at all. Thanks! :rockin:

 

[JetSmooth]

I just account for a little extra going into the fermenter and call the last little bit a loss.

 

[RobWalker]

First you can buy an attachment for your syphon that will suck water from an upwards direction instead of pointing down - increases your yield a bit.

People recommend against this sometimes, but I usually filter through a muslin bag once fermentation is complete and then let it settle. Gets the crap out so you get more beer, basically - but I'm not very technical

Lastly - just be very gentle when tipping, and employ somebody else to help you

 

[unionrdr]

I have to use an auto siphon in my cooper's micro brew FV. I get 4-6 bottles out from under the level of the spigot. I prop something under the bucket to tilt it forward,then siphon till only a small puddle left on the trub. It doesn't matter much to me if I suck up a little trub on the last couple of bottles. I save those for last,& they clear up nice.
Just make sure they get 5-6 days in the fridge,or more,to solidify the trub against the bottom of the bottle.
Now,having said that,I made a bottling bucket out of the 6.5-7G pale with the "Beer & Wine" & "deluxe primary fermenter" on the front & back. I routed the hole for the spigot up against the black line under the logo near the bottom (just under text). I used the spigot as in the pic,since the tube for the bottling wand fits it snugly.
Then after priming/stirring,I only need to tilt it slightly to get all but the last 1/8" or less. That also leaves behind grity size particles,& some dusty stuff.

 

[Revvy]

Actually all you need to do is make a bottling bucket dip tube, as I described in my Bottling Tips for the Homebrewer Sticky.

It gets everything but about 3 ounces or so. I average 52 beers/5 gallon batch without needing to tip the bucket.

If you leave your beers in primary for a month, like many of us do you will find that even there's not a lot of yeast or hops actually going into the bottling bucket to begin with.

This is my yeastcake for my Sri Lankin Stout that sat in primary for 5 weeks. Notice how tight the yeast cake is? None of that got racked over to my bottling bucket. And the beer is extremely clear.

That little bit of beer to the right is all of the 5 gallons that DIDN'T get vaccumed off the surface of the tight trub. Note how clear it is, there's little if any floaties in there.

When I put 5 gallons in my fermenter, I tend to get 5 gallons into bottles. The cake itself is like cement, it's about an inch thick and very, very dense, you can't just tilt your bucket and have it fall out. I had to use water pressure to get it to come out.

 

[JetSmooth]

Rev, I think his issue is transfer to the bottling bucket from the fermenter.

 

[Revvy]

Rev, I think his issue is transfer to the bottling bucket from the fermenter.

Refresh this page...I covered that as well...

 

[burmjohn]

Actually all you need to do is make a bottling bucket dip tube, as I described in my Bottling Tips for the Homebrewer Sticky.

Hrmmm.. Neat, so I don't get how it works, its just a bent tube with a small opening? How is it not sucking up the muck?

 

[JetSmooth]

Refresh this page...I covered that as well...

Darn you and your edit-fu!

 

[ENS]

I tip mine when racking into the bottling bucket and it does not seem much yeast until t very last. I have an attachment on the bottom of my racking cane that helps keep out the trub. I bought the auto-syphon. What I do is before I start to bottle, I let it settle in the bottling bucket for a few hours, sometimes, even a few days. There won't be much in there any way. It will settle to the bottom and be well below where the output is in your bottling bucket.

 

[unionrdr]

I've been noticing that the trub is the part that's packed down the tightest. There's a tight yeast layer,then a loose sort of dusting on the top. That's what looks to be moving around,to me.
I wonder if some yeasts pack down tighter than others? And how much of that could be attributed to flocculation as expressed?

 

[nefarious_1_]

I've been noticing that the trub is the part that's packed down the tightest. There's a tight yeast layer,then a loose sort of dusting on the top. That's what looks to be moving around,to me.
I wonder if some yeasts pack down tighter than others? And how much of that could be attributed to flocculation as expressed?

I've noticed similar settling in my fermenters. I always go around 4 weeks in primary and everything has undoubtedly settled nicely.

However, it seems to me that there's always a tightly packed trub/yeast layer on the bottom of the fermenter and a lighter colored, almost gelatinous layer of about the same thickness sitting above. The upper layer is what I assume to be settled protein globs and is much looser. It doesn't ever seem to form a tight layer like the bottom.

I used to just suck this top layer up at bottling time, but on my last couple batches I left it behind. This definitely amounted to about 24oz. less of brew, but the bottles seem to have a little less sediment on the bottom. I'm wondering if there's even a point to doing this since it settles in the bottle. I can't say I've noticed a difference in the clarity of the beer.


OP, how long was your beer in Primary?

 

[unionrdr]

Yes,that's the part he's talking about. It doesn't seem to matter how careful I am,some of that loose stuff gets sucked up. And mine sit in primary for 3-4 weeks. With me,it's the last couple of bottles worth in the primary going into the bottling bucket. Now that I have one.
Before,that cooper's micro brew FV was a real pain to get that last 6'r out of it into the bottle. It has a bottling wand that fits directly into the spigot. I changed all that now that I've made a bottling bucket.
It's just a pain to get that last bit out with the auto siphon into the BB.

 

[asidrane]

An auto-siphon clip helps to keep the tip of the siphon from touching the yeast cake. You can pick one up for two or three bucks.

 

[unionrdr]

Good thing to remember,that clip would come in handy. I always seem to forget something on my list going to the LHBS.
Anyway,I hope all this discussion is noteworthy to the op.

 

[burmjohn]

It is thanks! My yeast cake did not look like some huge hard solid mass like those pics above, but maybe what I was seeing getting kicked up was the protein.