Auto siphon sucked in loads of air

[jakeperks]

I bottled my third batch tonight. The beer had some sediment that refused to settle, so I decided to attach a hop bag to the end of my auto siphon to filter it out. However, I think the resistance it created caused air to get sucked in through the outer tube, which got mixed in with the beer as I racked to my bottling bucket.

I've bottled regardless and I'll find out what effect the air may have in a couple of weeks, but in the mean time can anyone give some general ideas as to what I could expect?

 

[mike024]

How much air? I have had it happen on a small scale with no noticeable effects. What I have noticed is when I am not paying attention at bottle time and hold my wand to high. This causes some air intake that goes into the bottle. I have had a couple bottles here and there taste oxidized and flat. You should be okay, if it wasn't a lot.

 

[AlCophile]

Quick: if you have an aeration stone and CO2 or nitrogen, you might sparge, ie., place stone at bottom and flush batch with gas for a while(?). MAY pull O2 out. A trick used in liquid chromatography, but, they use helium. Try it.

 

[jakeperks]

How much air?

A constant stream of bubbles. Quite a lot of air.

 

[jakeperks]

Quick: if you have an aeration stone and CO2 or nitrogen, you might sparge, ie., place stone at bottom and flush batch with gas for a while(?). MAY pull O2 out. A trick used in liquid chromatography, but, they use helium. Try it.

Sadly I have none of those. If it's undrinkable I'll just have to chalk it up to experience,

 

[ColoHox]

I bottled my third batch tonight. The beer had some sediment that refused to settle, so I decided to attach a hop bag to the end of my auto siphon to filter it out. However, I think the resistance it created caused air to get sucked in through the outer tube, which got mixed in with the beer as I racked to my bottling bucket.

I've bottled regardless and I'll find out what effect the air may have in a couple of weeks, but in the mean time can anyone give some general ideas as to what I could expect?

Look up the off-flavors associated with oxidation when you try a bottle.I bet you won't notice a thing.

 

[BrewMasta]

Why not get a bottling bucket, rack to that, then use the bottling line/ wand, which is hooked to the end of your spigot to bottle with, it's a very inexpensive set up if you don't have one. I find that if I have any sediment in my carboy when racking, the auto siphon doesn't pick it up, or if it does its very little as it has a tip on it that keeps it off the bottom a bit, sort of baffling the flow of sediment into the auto siphon.

 

[Erroneous]

I've had 2 batches with oxidation issues. Both times they tasted like wet cardboard. If this happens then there is nothing you can do to get rid of it. Next time you could try cold crashing your batch by clearing out lots of room in your fridge and throwing it in there or put it upright in a cooler with ice packed around it. This should make most of the sediment fall out but you should let it warm up to fermentation temps before adding fresh yeast at bottling time.

 

[Nuggethead]

I used to use an auto siphon and always fought the air intake. Sometimes it sucked in air around the tubing and sometimes around the inner seal. I won't use them now for anything, just a stainless racking cane and tubing, no air, no leaks and never an oxidation problem.

 

[jakeperks]

Why not get a bottling bucket, rack to that, then use the bottling line/ wand, which is hooked to the end of your spigot to bottle with, it's a very inexpensive set up if you don't have one. I find that if I have any sediment in my carboy when racking, the auto siphon doesn't pick it up, or if it does its very little as it has a tip on it that keeps it off the bottom a bit, sort of baffling the flow of sediment into the auto siphon.

I have a bottling bucket, that's what I was racking to. The problem with the sediment is that some was suspended and hadn't settled after three weeks, which is something that I haven't come across before.

 

[jakeperks]

I used to use an auto siphon and always fought the air intake. Sometimes it sucked in air around the tubing and sometimes around the inner seal. I won't use them now for anything, just a stainless racking cane and tubing, no air, no leaks and never an oxidation problem.

I thought it had developed a problem, but I tested it later with water and it was fine. I can only imagine that there was a huge amount of resistance because of the hop sack and the vacuum created by the siphon overcame the seal drawing air in. If there's one thing I've learned tonight then it's this... better to have a few floaters in your beer than a load of air. I'm sticking with the auto siphon but I won't interfere with the intake again.

 

[pwkblue]

if that happens again...just pour a little sanitized water into the auto-siphon on the back side of the plunger. It should stop the air leak

 

[mdgagne]

Don't store your auto siphon with cane in the auto tube. I did that with my first and it was ruined after a couple months.

 

[RM-MN]

Are you sure you sucked air? Was the tubing loose on the autosiphon? If it was tight you might have been seeing bubbles of CO2 coming out of suspension in the wort due to the lower pressure with the filter on the end of the autosiphon. My tubing wouldn't go onto the autosiphon until I ran hot water over the tubing so it would stretch. I can't get it off anymore.

 

[arborman]

I had the exact thing happen to me yesterday siphoning into a keg. I think the problem was that I put the bag tightly to the bottom of the siphon. I found when I moved it down and had space between the siphon bottom and bag, it stopped bubbling. I'm worried I botched my batch of IPA!

 

[GenIke]

if that happens again...just pour a little sanitized water into the auto-siphon on the back side of the plunger. It should stop the air leak

This, except I just used beer. I keep a turkey baster handy when I auto siphon.

 

[jakeperks]

Are you sure you sucked air? Was the tubing loose on the autosiphon? If it was tight you might have been seeing bubbles of CO2 coming out of suspension in the wort due to the lower pressure with the filter on the end of the autosiphon. My tubing wouldn't go onto the autosiphon until I ran hot water over the tubing so it would stretch. I can't get it off anymore.

The tubing's as tight as can be. That's an interesting theory about the CO2, but I fear it was more likely to be air.

 

[jakeperks]

Don't store your auto siphon with cane in the auto tube. I did that with my first and it was ruined after a couple months.

I've never stored them together. Not because I was aware it would ruin it, but because it was more convenient, so it's good to know I accidentally did the right thing there!

 

[jakeperks]

if that happens again...just pour a little sanitized water into the auto-siphon on the back side of the plunger. It should stop the air leak

Simple and elegant. I like it!

 

[jakeperks]

This, except I just used beer. I keep a turkey baster handy when I auto siphon.

Genius. By definition I have plenty of beer to hand!