Bottling disaster! Advice please!

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Rosshedley

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Had a bit of a bottling disaster tonight. Did a NEIPA for first time. Seemed to go well. Starting SG was slightly high but finished bang on. Came out as 7 % instead of 6.8. Had trouble siphoning though. Only time this has happened to this extent in 5 years. I definitely used more hops than I usually do. 100g to 2 gallons (as per recipe) so think this may have clogged pipe. Mix was really thick and cloudy. There definitely seemed to be more dry hop powdery stuff in mix than other brews. Couldn’t get the siphon going. Drank a pint in less than 5 mins. Gulp! Saw no option but to pour half the mix through sieve into bottling bucket. I know this is bad practice and may oxidise. What should I look out for to spot oxidisation? What went wrong?
 
I think you're right about getting clogged. Have to be more careful where the end of the siphon goes / put something over the end that's like a mesh screen perhaps / cold crash it first to have it all settle / use a spigot if that's an option..... Keep the hops settled and avoid sucking them up. Many ways to get there.
 
You will want to drink this batch as fast as you can, and you will still likely have major loss of hop aroma and flavor. You will also likely have some significant darkening of the beer.

NEIPA's are probably the most sensitive beers when it comes to oxidation. Pouring thru a sieve to the bottling bucket is way more exposure to O2 than this style can tolerate without rapid degradation.

There are many threads on HBT discussing O2 problems folks have had with NEIPA's.

Good luck.

Brew on :mug:
 
I bottle, I dry hop loose and I do not cold crash. So I'd say I'm in a very similar starting situation as you.
Usually by the time I bottle, I've got most of the hops settled at the bottom, but with some significant portion still floating on top.
During the transfer I try to keep the tip of the racking cane a few cm below the surface level, that way I'm sucking up little hop material, at least until the last few liters.
I also place a deep monofilament filter bag in the bottling bucket, something like this for example:
https://www.candirect.eu/Monofilament-filter-bag-150l-size-2-175-liters
The bag reaches the bottom of the bucket, so the beer won't actually be exposed to more oxygen as in a "normal" transfer without this filtering step
(The bag remains submerged in the beer during the transfer, there is no splashing around and such).
This will stop virtually all but the finest dry hop particulate from landing into your bottling bucket.

This is how I do it but as said above, there are many ways to tackle this issue.
For instance, I know that most NEIPA bottlers would strongly advise you to bottle directly from the fermenter. This is probably the best practice with respect to minimizing O2 pickup. Then on the other hand, it is almost impossible to do this without either a thorough cold crash to settle the hops, or bagging the dry hops (which IMHO diminishes significantly the flavor- and aroma extraction...). And a cold crash can also bring its own oxidation problems if you cannot do something about preventing air suckback.
 
Thanks everyone! Really helpful as ever.

My main learning points are to:
A. Bag the hops in both initial brew, and fermenter if dry hopping
B. Get some kind of auto-siphon. Someone elsewhere recommended a corny system.
C. I may also explore that bottling bucket bag mentioned.

I am also concerned that I transferred more than the usual amount of dead yeast cells to the bottle bucket, and in turn the bottles - but guess this will sink to the bottom of the bottles, and I’ll just have to pour very carefully.

Cheers again,
Ross
 
I am also concerned that I transferred more than the usual amount of dead yeast cells to the bottle bucket, and in turn the bottles - but guess this will sink to the bottom of the bottles, and I’ll just have to pour very carefully.

Yes, IMHO this would only be a very minor problem compared to the oxidation potential and, to a minor extent, dry hop debris that may have ended up in your bottles (I don't know if this was the case).
Dry hop particles can create nucleation points for CO2 that may cause bottle gushers upon opening. This does not happen with excess yeast.

But your main issue here is most definitely oxidation. As a positive it is a small batch and you can drink it quickly :)
 
Would you guys let this condition for a full 4-6 weeks, or just crack open after 2?

Under the conditions you described definitely crack open after 2 (or even after 1, actually...) and see how it is progressing.
If it is carbed, put those bottles in the fridge immediately if you can, this will help in slowing down oxidation.

I find that also my bottle conditioned IPA/NEIPA do get better after 4-6 weeks (of those only 1 conditioning at room temp, the remaining either in the fridge
or in a cooler basement).
However if the beer has experienced significant oxidatative damage your best bet is to really drink this as soon as possible.
 
If you are making 2 gal batch why cant you cold crash it? If it won't fit in the fridge or freezer put it in a cooler and fill with ice. That will drop all particulate matter so no clog, unless you don't position the siphon pick-up correctly. Why go to all this trouble to make oxidized beer?
 
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