My disastrous first rack to secondary

[StophJS]

Posting this will make me seem entirely incompetent, but I hope that doing so will help others avoid the mistake that I made tonight. Maybe someone can tell me there is still a chance my beer will turn out as well. Tonight I racked my second batch ever to a 5 gallon better bottle for secondary. It's a BB Holiday Ale and had been in primary for two weeks. I used an auto-siphon for the very first time, and that's where the trouble comes in. If anyone is planning on using an auto-siphon, do not make the mistake that I made and think that the black cap on the bottom of it is just a cover and not part of the device itself. I attempted to rack without this, and given that I had orange peel bits aplenty in primary (didn't have the sense to strain on boiling day), the beer is most likely ruined now either from oxidation or contamination. As I was siphoning, the uncapped bottom of the auto-siphon became clogged with orange peels about 4 or 5 times, causing me to have to restart about 5 times, and stupidly pump air directly into my beer a couple times in the process as I tried to restart. Every time the siphon would clog, the auto-siphon would begin sucking in air around the seal and I ended up with about half the siphon full of air bubbles. Ultimately once the beer was too low to begin the autosiphon again, I took the hose off and restarted the siphon with my mouth (using listerine first as a feeble attempt to salvage the whole disaster). Clogged again. This time I placed a handheld kitchen strainer over the primary end of the hose and managed to get the rest of the beer without touching the beer directly with my hands. By this time however, the damage had been done and feel I have thoroughly oxidized my beer and possibly contaminated it. Moral of the story, when using an auto-siphon, don't be stupid like me and think the cap on the end should come off. Also, when making a spiced ale, strain on boil day and potentially save yourself a big headache as well.

 

[mccumath]

As everyone one else on here will testify (and multiple other WTF did I do/will my beer be okay threads), everything will work out fine. Bottle your beer like nothing happened and see the process through. Learn from your mistakes (I had my first boil-over today, and I have done a few batches now exactly the same way without incident!) and don't do that again!

Your beer will likely be just fine!
RDWHAHB!

Ryan M.

 

[eastoak]

i've had all kinds of bubbles in my auto siphon and never an oxidized beer. i think it takes a long time for oxidation to show up, my beer is usually gone within a month or two of bottling.

 

[Seven]

I agree with the previous posts; don't label this batch ruined until you've confirmed through tasting (after bottling or kegging) that it is in fact ruined. I've made mistakes similar to what you've described here and the beer still turned out fine.

 

[StophJS]

Well I'll definitely be happy if it doesn't end up being a waste. Next time I'll wise up about the auto-siphon and straining, and hopefully nobody else has to repeat my mistake.

 

[badhabit]

+1 to all the above posts. You can attempt to strain or you can just lift the end of the tube out of the trub!

 

[Unibrow]

Same thing happened to me - my siphon tube became so plugged with orange bits that I was not able to rack the beer properly. The siphon tube was completely blocked and I didn't have time to unblock it + it would just get clogged again anyway.

I ended up gently pouring the beer from the primary bucket to the bottling bucket and it definitely became oxidized. It was still drinkable, but the slight off taste was almost unbearable because it reminded me of the epic siphon fail with every sip.

Moral of the story is to strain your wort into the primary bucket - or keep things secure in a muslin bag for easy removal!

 

[william_shakes_beer]

The Vikings were brewing beer in open top fermenters and didn't have a clue what yeast even was. They didn't have autosiphons or tubing. They survived, so will you. It'll still be beer.

 

[Xaphoeous]

Well I'll tell you what, I'll take one for the team this time and drink the beer for you. I'm just an hour from you near Lansing.

I'll let you know how it all turned out.

Seriously though, I actually frickin stirred my first batch in the bottling bucket to make sure the priming sugar solution was adequately mixed (didn't bother to read anything about brewing yet). That batch turned out really well, so don't worry too much about oxidation.

 

[Rahahb]

I think you will be ok provided you didn't start an infection.

I've been told it's hard to oxidize a beer you bottle since the yeast are going to eat that and sugar on its way to carbing up. Makes sense but I don't know how accurate that statement is.

 

[beaglebaybrewery]

Well I'll tell you what, I'll take one for the team this time and drink the beer for you. I'm just an hour from you near Lansing.

I'll let you know how it all turned out.

Seriously though, I actually frickin stirred my first batch in the bottling bucket to make sure the priming sugar solution was adequately mixed (didn't bother to read anything about brewing yet). That batch turned out really well, so don't worry too much about oxidation.

How do you mix your priming sugar up without stirring? Heck, I stir it well to make sure and get even carbing. Hope I am doing this right..

 

[JeepDiver]

and for future batches, you don't want to filter the orange peel out after the boil, or you won't get near the flavor you want. It is much better to leave it in the primary

 

[JeepDiver]

How do you mix your priming sugar up without stirring? Heck, I stir it well to make sure and get even carbing. Hope I am doing this right..

Put sugar water in bottling bucket, rack on top of sugar. it will get mixed properly.

 

[KevinW]

How do you mix your priming sugar up without stirring? Heck, I stir it well to make sure and get even carbing. Hope I am doing this right..

I pour my priming sugar straight from the pan (200°+) into my beer and gently stir it for about 4-5 minutes and have had no problems at all with my beers!

Key word is "gently", I do not froth the beer, I just keep it moving!

 

[snowydog]

It would have to be left to open air for a week?( long time) before it would oxidize.
There will be enough CO2 still to drive off any O2.
As long as you keep your personal hygiene up before handling any food products it's unlikely you would contaminate it. If your worried, put on a pair of sanitized latex gloves ( you know, the ones the doctors use to ram there finger up your....) Alcohol will kill any microscopic bugs.

 

[beaglebaybrewery]

I pour my priming sugar straight from the pan (200°+) into my beer and gently stir it for about 4-5 minutes and have had no problems at all with my beers!

Key word is "gently", I do not froth the beer, I just keep it moving!

Thats what I do. Makes more sense. I think of it like the honey/water example. One liquid is heavier than the other, the suger water is more than likely heavier so it would have the propensity to not mix as well if you just poured your beer over it.

I will continue to stir. Its not like I am frothing it up....

 

[beaglebaybrewery]

It would have to be left to open air for a week?( long time) before it would oxidize.
There will be enough CO2 still to drive off any O2.
As long as you keep your personal hygiene up before handling any food products it's unlikely you would contaminate it. If your worried, put on a pair of sanitized latex gloves ( you know, the ones the doctors use to ram there finger up your....) Alcohol will kill any microscopic bugs.

Alcohol will not kill any bug. Nursing student here so just fyi it will NOT kill everything!!! One in particular is Clostridium dificile....Spelling is incorrect but many bugs are alcohol tolerant. Just not many we encounter with our beer!

 

[mccumath]

I used to strain my beer while pouring into the fermenter, until I brewed a batch of my seasonal pumpkin ale... I was attempting to pour the beer from the boil kettle into the fermenter through a strainer. The carpet in the brew room still has some orange staining from the pumpkin that did not want to go through the strainer after it gummed up from the 3 cans of Libby's pie filling. And that was how my signature was born...

 

[StophJS]

It ended up being my Dad who held the strainer and siphon tip down over the beer for the last little bit as I started the siphon with my mouth after mouth washing. He had just been out grilling and working outside though so I am definitely hoping that he managed to avoid touching the beer. The beer is about 64 degrees now in secondary though and it's a good 7% ABV though so I'm hoping those two factors combined will shield me from infection. Also hoping that any co2 I stirred up during the rack pushed out most of the o2 I may have gotten into the beer. The airlock was lifted up a little at least after I stuck it in so there was some level of pressure in there. As far as the orange peels, probably really shouldn't have been a problem anyway if I hadn't removed that cap from the autoshipon. Pretty dumb :/

 

[BeerChef17]

I also put my mesh grain bag over top of my siphon tip when I dry hop and such. Keeps out all the hops!

 

[Yooper]

It would have to be left to open air for a week?( long time) before it would oxidize.
There will be enough CO2 still to drive off any O2.
As long as you keep your personal hygiene up before handling any food products it's unlikely you would contaminate it. If your worried, put on a pair of sanitized latex gloves ( you know, the ones the doctors use to ram there finger up your....) Alcohol will kill any microscopic bugs.

Oxidation isn't really going to cause the beer to taste bad instantly- but it's not that it's all that hard to do. One of the most common flaws I find in any beer competition is oxidation. Oxidation might present itself early as a wee touch of astringency on the sides of the tongue, then progress to a "sherry" like flavor as time goes on. Only in severe cases does it taste like the classic wet cardboard flavor described in several brewing books.

My point is that you don't have to open the beer to the air for a long time for it to begin to oxidize. It's imperative to always do your best to not stir, splash, or otherwise aerate finished beer. C02 present does help- but it's not being produced anymore in the beer after about day 5 or so.

That said, a little stirring or accidental aeration probably won't harm the taste much or make the beer undrinkable. But it's quite possible that it's present in most homebrews.