First attempt at racking=disaster

[Pugilist]

Well I am thoroughly aggravated. While my first "real" brewing kit beer is fermenting, I still had my two Mr Beer kegs I got as a gift. I had the pale ale I made with UME instead of booster fermenting. I figured I would transfer it to my other MB keg today to let it hang out before bottling.

Everything was set, I got the racking cane and hose all sanitized, etc and started the siphon process. It stopped after about 20 seconds. I put more sanitized water into the tube, levelled it and started again...stopped again (obviously operator error).

I said screw it, got some nice vinyl tubing that would fit over the MB tap and slapped it on. Ran the other end into the MB keg and tried tapping it in. The beer in the tube foamed up like a draft beer and bubbled.......so much for not aerating the beer. I pitched a fit and dumped it all down the drain.....

Rather discouraging and sorry for the bad vibes....but DAMN I am frustrated!

 

[Mk010101]

Yeah, the MrBeer kits aren't really made for tapping/transferring. Mine too foamed when I transferred to a secondary tank, but I let up on the flow and it worked ok. It just took a REALLY long time.

Maybe next time, just skip the secondary and go straight to the bottles. You should do everything you can to save your beer!

 

[Wolf]

Well I am thoroughly aggravated. While my first "real" brewing kit beer is fermenting, I still had my two Mr Beer kegs I got as a gift. I had the pale ale I made with UME instead of booster fermenting. I figured I would transfer it to my other MB keg today to let it hang out before bottling.

Everything was set, I got the racking cane and hose all sanitized, etc and started the siphon process. It stopped after about 20 seconds. I put more sanitized water into the tube, levelled it and started again...stopped again (obviously operator error).

I said screw it, got some nice vinyl tubing that would fit over the MB tap and slapped it on. Ran the other end into the MB keg and tried tapping it in. The beer in the tube foamed up like a draft beer and bubbled.......so much for not aerating the beer. I pitched a fit and dumped it all down the drain.....

Rather discouraging and sorry for the bad vibes....but DAMN I am frustrated!

You probably need to let the tubing fill up before you let it run. So open the tap, then kink the tube somehwere towards the bottom and let the tubing fill up, then release it and let er rip.

 

[Fiery Sword]

Next time don't dump it! There is usually no need to dump beer, even if your process itsn't perfect. There are many stories on this board about people dropping hammers or screwdrivers into beers that have turned out great. I've even had a dog take a nice drink of cooled wort before and it turned out to be a great beer!

EDIT:
.....and if you are going to be racking beers to and from anything, do yourself a HUGE favor and buy an autosiphon!!!!

 

[ahsndpro]

.....and if you are going to be racking beers to and from anything, do yourself a HUGE favor and buy an autosiphon!!!!

I second that....the autosiphon is an excellent investment

 

[MariaAZ]

The first time I used my racking cane, I had quite a bit of bubbling at the point where the hose connected to the cane. The instructions that came with the equipment recommended squeezing the hose where the bubbling started. I did, and it "broke up" the bubbles and from there out the beer flowed quite smoothly.

 

[Markusface]

You probably need to let the tubing fill up before you let it run. So open the tap, then kink the tube somehwere towards the bottom and let the tubing fill up, then release it and let er rip.

A bottle wand would do this perfectly, I bought one a couple of months back and it is so useful for transferring beer without aerating :rockin: