Oxidation ?

[alects]

I was racking a yarrow saison when I noticed that my auto-siphon was sucking air into the hose. I would fix the issue only to have see more bubbles after a minute.
It's in the secondary now with too much headspace(3.5 in 5gal carbuoy) and I'm wondering what the next best step is... It's bubbling every 3.5.
All things considered I know the should-haves of the sitch. I'm just wondering whether to bottle it now and condition it there, hoping to decrease staling.. Or to condition it in the secondary for a couple more weeks.
Any suggestions?



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[pjj2ba]

I'd let it ride where it is. If it is bubbling, then the yeast are using up the O2. the bubbling could just be CO2 coming out of solution though.

As to the autosiphon, air leaking around the seal is common. The best cure is to not siphon so fast. Make the height difference between the start and finish less. This generates less sucking force. Another thing you can do is to put the autosiphon in the beer and let it set for a while. Some beer will sneak around the seal (or you can pour some from the top). This way rather than sucking in air, it will suck in beer instead.

 

[pdietert]

How far off of your FG were you when you racked into secondary? If you do not mind the higher ABV you could add some corn sugar to the secondary and get the yeast going again. It will use up the oxygen and purge the head space.

 

[alects]

It was at 1.008... It's already borderline imperial, but additional sugar may be good idea.
There are bits of yarrow rising and falling, so I'm hoping the yeast is still active and consuming oxygen.... Right?
I've always conditioned in a secondary and never had any issues.
I've also never bottle conditioned- save priming sugar, so I wouldn't know what difference to expect doing it that way.





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[pdietert]

There are bits of yarrow rising and falling, so I'm hoping the yeast is still active and consuming oxygen.... Right?

Yea, but to what extent, you seem to almost be at FG.

I've also never bottle conditioned- save priming sugar, so I wouldn't know what difference to expect doing it that way.

Bottle conditioning would help but I do not think it would be enough.

Now I will admit I am a little anal about oxidation. I have never lost beer to infection (knock, knock) but I have to oxidation.

Here are my suggestions:

Add enough corn sugar (or possibly DME but that might offset your numbers too much) to bring up the gravity ~10 points and let it ferment out. I have never had this happen and do not know if it will help much, or even if it really needs that much help, but besides the higher ABV, its not going to hurt.

Now if you plan on drinking all of this within the next 3 - 4 weeks or so, I would not do anything, You probably will not notice it. But I would suggest kegging now and keeping it as cold as drinkable/possible. Keeping it cold will delay oxidation.