jharres
Well-Known Member
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.
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.