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Messed up my first racking job - now which is the lesser of two evils...?

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Maerok

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Jan 12, 2012
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So going off the minimalistic instructions I got with the beer kit I've been using I racked the Scottish ale I've been working on to the carboy. It's using Windsor British-ale style yeast.

Afterward I was curious about a few points and found I'd done the following things wrong:
-Put the hose to the bottom and transferred the trub (didn't use the simple racking wand I have because I thought it was for transferring from the carboy to the bottling bucket; I thought only the wort-preparation trub was trub when I was doing this)
-Transferred the beer above the level of the beer in the carboy (adding unwanted oxygen, etc.)
-Mouth siphoned, but I'm worked on figuring out a better way for the next batch

But I did manage to remove some of the trub from being transferred to the carboy. I'm certain at least half made it into the carboy though. I don't feel like I should be too worried since there has really only been minimal activity by the yeast (not too energetic) but it's certainly becoming beer at this point. There had been no bubbles in the airlock but I'd seen prior posts here about the subject so I let it ride. If that's not occurring too rapidly then hopefully the yeast cannibalism problem and other side effects won't occur too significantly.

My overall question is this: would it be better to let it just do it's thing with more trub than there should have been in the carboy, or would it be better to rerack it at the risk of contamination once I let the sediment resettle? I'm no so much worrying as I am curious about which is more important in the process. I've certain applied this lesson to racking the gallon of cider I have going as well (which I never thought to do until I started with beer).
 
So you racked to a secondary? Not really needed. You sucked trub into the secondary. In your case it doesn't matter. You siphoned by mouth.... a no no but you'll be ok. Did you take an OG reading?

Just let it be.
 
It seems like you've got some homework to do on racking! But dont worry the trub into the fermenter isn't a huge deal let it go for now and figure out a way to properly rack your beer. Search here or read palmers how to Brew on racking and you should find what you need to know. Also if you pick up an autosiphon it'll make your life much easier. Just sitck it in the wort and pump a few times and you got a siphon. Good thing is from all this you'll learn from your mistakes and do much better next time!
 
A lot of people don't even bother transferring to a secondary these days. Instead, they leave it in primary until bottling, so it stays on all the trub. Sitting on some trub is fine. Also, you shouldn't be seeing much fermetation in secondary unless you add more fermentables (syrup, honey, fruit) when you transfer.

Second the autosiphon, and try to get as little trub as possible into your bottling bucket and you'll be fine.
 
Okay, I'll pick up an autosiphon for the next round. I'll be sure to do my homework for priming and bottling. Maybe a stout next time around.
 

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