How am I going to bottle this

[Bradinator]

In hindsight I should have used a hop bag. How can I rack this beer with minimal stuff getting into the bottles. I am used to a small bit of unfiltered goodness in each bottle, but I think this is going to bring a lot of hop bits and bites into the bottles.

Do you think putting the hop bag over the bottom the auto-siphon (the end going into the beer) could prevent minimal stuff from passing through and minimize aeration of the beer?

 

[thughes]

I dry hop with loose pellets all the time (no hop bag). 2-3 days cold crash @ 35 F will put all that junk on the bottom and then you just rack normally.

 

[deggenbe]

siphon into bottling bucket, stop siphoning when it gets close to the bottom of the siphon.

as the liquid gets siphoned, most of the hops will stick to the walls of the carboy/fermentor.


i'll be doing 2 carboy's in the next few days and they look just like this.
just go slow and be careful and you should be fine.

 

[duboman]

Place a hop bag around your siphon and then rack to a bottling bucket and you'll be fine

 

[Yooper]

Just start your siphon in the middle of the beer, and lower the racking cane as the level of the beer lowers. Eventually, you'll be between the top floaters and the bottom trub. Lower the racking cane until you start sucking trub, and stop.

Here's a beer I just packaged (a few days later):

That was two ounces of leaf hops and an ounce of pellet hops in each carboy! I had just moved the carboy, so there were tons of hop pellets swirling everywhere. But the racking wasn't too bad.

 

[Bradinator]

So just the status quo as far as bottling eh? Thats good enough for me! I was a bit concerned about breaking through the top layer with the siphon but it seems to be a non-issue.

Thanks!

 

[sweetcell]

+1 to putting a hop bag over the end of your racking cane. sanitize the bag and a twist-tie (you could use an elastic band, but personally i don't want something that soft and smelly in my beer), afix over intake of cane, and off you go. you'll still want to rack from the middle, since you don't want to pick up gunk before you have too. it might eventually get blocked if you suck up from the middle of the hops layer.

if you can't cold-crash in a fridge, you can at least "swamp-crash". use a plastic tub or any container wider than the carboy (i use my boiling kettle), put the carboy in, fill with cold water and ice, replenish ice as it melts. i've gotten my brew to 47*F with very infrequent replacement of the ice. not as good as a proper 35*F cold-crash, but it did a lot to drop suspended sediment.

 

[cheezydemon3]

If you have a very small strainer (I use one of those kitchen sink screens that keeps stuff from going down-unused of course-bent around the hose) to put in the hop bag, it will make a larger ball for crap to get stuck to. Getting the syphon gunked up and clogged SUCKS.

 

[Durhamite]

Secondary.

 

[bmick]

I use a sanitized knee-high pantyhose on the end of the siphon hose, held on with a zip tie. Works great, plus you can wink creepily at the drugstore cashier while buying bulk pantyhose. :cross:

 

[JonM]

Carefully clean your autosiphon and bottling wand afterwards too. Little hop leaves will stick in the nooks and crannies and can hold nasties to infect your next batch.

 

[Bradinator]

I will try a sanitized hop back when racking it to the bottling bucket and let you know how it goes!

 

[Bamsdealer]

I thought the same thing my last batch, but I just started the siphon in the middle and lowered it as the hops dropped. I did count a few hop particles make it through, but they settled out in the bottling bucket and the beer turned out great.

 

[homebrewhaha]

I have a question about this Hops Bag Tied Over End of Racking Cane method. I was bottling this weekend and tried it. Only problem was I my siphon stopped like 5 times because sediment was clinging to the outside of the hops bag and clogged the bottom of the autosiphon. What am I doing wrong? Everyone seems to love this method. I don't understand how I screwed it up.

 

[DeafSmith]

I have a question about this Hops Bag Tied Over End of Racking Cane method. I was bottling this weekend and tried it. Only problem was I my siphon stopped like 5 times because sediment was clinging to the outside of the hops bag and clogged the bottom of the autosiphon. What am I doing wrong? Everyone seems to love this method. I don't understand how I screwed it up.

I've had the same problem with that method, so I found a better way. I have a jumbo size grain bag (35" by 23") that I got from AHS. I line the bottling bucket with the sanitized (boiled) bag, fold the excess over the top of the bucket and secure it with a bungee cord around the outside of the bucket. When I have finished siphoning, I just unfasten the bungee cord and lift out the bag with all the hop gunk and drop it into an empty bucket next to the bottling bucket. Works great. Just be sure the bag you use is large enough to reach all the way to the bottom of the bucket so you don't oxidize your beer by splashing it.

 

[cheezydemon3]

I have a question about this Hops Bag Tied Over End of Racking Cane method. I was bottling this weekend and tried it. Only problem was I my siphon stopped like 5 times because sediment was clinging to the outside of the hops bag and clogged the bottom of the autosiphon. What am I doing wrong? Everyone seems to love this method. I don't understand how I screwed it up.

Ahem...........

If you have a very small strainer (I use one of those kitchen sink screens that keeps stuff from going down-unused of course-bent around the hose) to put in the hop bag, it will make a larger ball for crap to get stuck to. Getting the syphon gunked up and clogged SUCKS.

Maybe I didn't describe it too well....

You want something IN the hop bag, spreading it out.

If it fits through the mouth of the fermenter (another argument for buckets) a vegetable steamer/strainer in the hop bag would be ideal.

Worst case maybe a tea ball, but you want it to stay over the mouth of the hose or cane.

 

[thughes]

I have a question about this Hops Bag Tied Over End of Racking Cane method. I was bottling this weekend and tried it. Only problem was I my siphon stopped like 5 times because sediment was clinging to the outside of the hops bag and clogged the bottom of the autosiphon. What am I doing wrong? Everyone seems to love this method. I don't understand how I screwed it up.

Filtering at the pickup end never worked for me either. Attach the bag to the output end of the siphon hose and try it.

 

[sweetcell]

I have a question about this Hops Bag Tied Over End of Racking Cane method. I was bottling this weekend and tried it. Only problem was I my siphon stopped like 5 times because sediment was clinging to the outside of the hops bag and clogged the bottom of the autosiphon. What am I doing wrong? Everyone seems to love this method. I don't understand how I screwed it up.

during siphoning, where are you sucking up beer from? the very bottom, within the yeast cake? ideally you're intake is in the middle, between the surface floaties and gunk on the bottom. you should be slowly lowering the cane at the same speed as the beer level is going down, so you're always intaking beer from the middle. there shouldn't be too much floating about in there, especially if you've cold-crashed (or even cool-crashed).

 

[homebrewhaha]

I've had the same problem with that method, so I found a better way. I have a jumbo size grain bag (35" by 23") that I got from AHS. I line the bottling bucket with the sanitized (boiled) bag, fold the excess over the top of the bucket and secure it with a bungee cord around the outside of the bucket. When I have finished siphoning, I just unfasten the bungee cord and lift out the bag with all the hop gunk and drop it into an empty bucket next to the bottling bucket. Works great. Just be sure the bag you use is large enough to reach all the way to the bottom of the bucket so you don't oxidize your beer by splashing it.

This sounds good. I'll have to try this next time

Ahem...........
Maybe I didn't describe it too well....

Your description might have been too....cheezy.

ideally you're intake is in the middle, between the surface floaties and gunk on the bottom. you should be slowly lowering the cane at the same speed as the beer level is going down, so you're always intaking beer from the middle. there shouldn't be too much floating about in there, especially if you've cold-crashed (or even cool-crashed).

This is what I was doing, yes. I think most of what I sucked up was dry hop pellet particles. First time dry hopping. I had heard a lot of people talk about using bags to dry hop and not. I went with not. Next time I'll try a swampy crash too.

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[greenbirds]

I have a question about this Hops Bag Tied Over End of Racking Cane method. I was bottling this weekend and tried it. Only problem was I my siphon stopped like 5 times because sediment was clinging to the outside of the hops bag and clogged the bottom of the autosiphon. What am I doing wrong? Everyone seems to love this method. I don't understand how I screwed it up.

You need to have the autoisiphon tip on the end. Then the bag over it all. If you don't use the tip, there is much less surface area of the bag for beer to pass through, and it clogs up.

 

[HeavyKettleBrewing]

This sounds good. I'll have to try this next time



Your description might have been too....cheezy.



This is what I was doing, yes. I think most of what I sucked up was dry hop pellet particles. First time dry hopping. I had heard a lot of people talk about using bags to dry hop and not. I went with not. Next time I'll try a swampy crash too.

Thanks for the help guys!

Have you ever tried pulling a hop bag through the neck of a carboy with wet hops in it? I tried this once. I like the idea of my hops floating around freely. It makes me feel I get more bang for my buck and it is easier to rinse the hops out than try and muscle 3oz of swollen hops out of a 1.5" diameter neck. I use a grain sock over the siphon as mentioned. I also cold crash prior. FWIW, I use whole hops when dry hopping.

 

[Bradinator]

So bottling day came and went. Needless to say it was probably one of the most frustrating bottling days in recent memory.

Racking wand became clogged over and over, the hop bag over the autosiphon created problems siphoning the beer. In the end I ditched the hop bag filter and racking wand and went from hose to bottle directly. Lots of lost beer and mess in the end, but a lot learned from the whole ordeal. Looking back I probably could have done something different to have reduced the losses, but at the time I was frustrated and interested in ended the bottling day quickly.

Fast forward a week, another dry hopped beer, this time using a hop bag in the secondary. Removing the hops was a snap, even pulling it out of the neck of the carboy, though it was only 1oz, and everything else went as normal.

I think if I were to do any more then 2oz of dry hops I would do it in a bucket rather then a carboy, but for this batch I wanted to wash the yeast.

With that said, dry hopping with a bag is now going to be my standard.

 

[sweetcell]

brad -

i strongly recommend that you use a bottling bucket with a spigot (link) and a bottling wand (AKA bottle filler, example here). rack from primary or secondary to the bottling bucket, add priming sugar, and fill bottles using wand. i bottled a 5 gallon bath this weekend because i needed the carboy, and i doubt if i spilled more than a dozen drops.

 

[Bradinator]

Hey Sweetcell

Outside of this bottling day, I always use a wand, but I found that it was getting jammed with hop gunk so much it was impossible to make any progress which is when I ditched it.

The bottle bucket with a spiggot seems like a good idea, especially for $15. I have always used an auto-siphon in the past but that could simplify the process a bit. Do you find that the spiggot gets gunked up much if there is anything free floating?

 

[sweetcell]

Hey Sweetcell

Outside of this bottling day, I always use a wand, but I found that it was getting jammed with hop gunk so much it was impossible to make any progress which is when I ditched it.

The bottle bucket with a spiggot seems like a good idea, especially for $15. I have always used an auto-siphon in the past but that could simplify the process a bit. Do you find that the spiggot gets gunked up much if there is anything free floating?

sorry to bring this discussion back full circle, but i never have problems with gunk getting trapped in my spigot or wand... because no gunk makes it into my bottling bucket, because i use the fine-hop-bag-over-the-racking-cane/autosiphon method (hey, i said i was sorry...)

one advantage of the bottling bucket it that it allows you to do one thing at a time. step 1: transfer beer out of primary/secondary with minimum gunk. step 2: bottle, while not having to worry about how much gunk you're picking up.

if you still fear that you might get floaties in the bottling bucket, maybe consider using an elastic to secure a hop bag to the inside of the spigot. it's a bigger opening than a racking cane, so maybe it won't get clogged up as easily. but best bet IMO is to work on racking beer from the middle with the bag-on-cane method, into a bottling bucket.

 

[Bradinator]

Prior to that batch I had never had any problems bottling because of gunk. I always moved to a bottling bucket and managed to avoid picking up most of the trub from the bottom. This one was different because it was my first time dry hopping and I chose to do it without the hop bag. There was so much free-floating hops (not on top or bottom, but suspended in the beer) I had a very tough time avoiding the bits while moving it to the bottling bucket. It is all good though. Lessons learned and all that.

I rarely use carboys nowadays and just primary for the entire duration so a hop bag is very practical for my setup. Thanks for all the input though!

 

[matt2778]

I just use a 5 gallon paint strainer bag in the bottling bucket. You can get them at the home depot. The bag has an elastic band so once it's stretched around the bucket it stays in place. If I'm bottling out of a bucket I put the paint strainer bag in the fermenter. Never had any issues with clogging and I routinely dry hop with 4-5oz of loose pellets. Once your done you just pull the bag out of the bottling bucket with the siphon hose. A very small amount of fine hop particles may get past the bag but nothing that I find to be an issue with a 150 ibu iipa.