Process Improvement: Racking with fewer bubbles?

[C38368]

So lately I've found that I've gotten pretty decent at making nice, golden-colored pale ales and IPAs, with passable hopping, at least when it comes out of the fermenter. And yet, when I carb it up and pour a class, they almost universally have gone amber, and taste of sherry. At least, I think they do... maybe they taste that way because I think my beer is oxidizing?

Anyway, I still ferment in a six gallon plastic carboy, which necessitates the use of a racking cane. I rack directly into a keg, from which I've attempted to purge as much oxygen as possible, replacing it with CO2. The resulting full keg is then either pressurized and set aside for waiting, or just left hooked up to the gas in a kegerator. I'm sure that my efforts are far from perfect, but they've got to help somewhat, right?

At any rate, my current theory is that i'm not getting a strong enough siphon when racking, as I Can see large bubbles in the transfer. So, with that in mind... does anyone have any advice on how to limit exposure to air during the transfer? I understand that some exposure is, given my current process, unavoidable, but a pale ale should not turn into an amber in the course of a month. Should it?

 

[GPP33]

Sounds like you are probably getting oxygen and likely from the siphon. Here’a Some hints.

-fill the keg with starsan then use your CO2 to push it out. What’s left will be CO2.

-purge all hoses before using them.

-fill the keg from the liquid post and push the CO2 out the gas post or PRV

- as soon as you get your siphon started add a little starsan to the siphon tube above the plunger, air will get sucked past the plunger and into your beer, starsan prevents this.

-eventually ditch the siphon all together and do pressure transfers or closed loop gravity transfers from a spigot so the void created by the beer leaving the fermenter is replaced by CO2 and there’s never a vacuum created that will allow air to get sucked into the system.

 

[Rodent]

@C38368 in addition to the above, you can also add a hose clamp to firmly secure the tube onto your racking cane and eliminate the potential for too strong of a vacuum pull from sucking air at that joint

 

[isomerization]

I’d recommend moving away from a siphon 100%, but if you don’t want to invest in new fermenters (if plastic you can drill a spigot pretty easy), I’d buy this:

https://www.morebeer.com/products/s...arboys.html?a_aid=brulosophy?a_aid=brulosophy

 

[C38368]

Someday, I'll get away from the siphon.

Someday, I'll have a shiny new conical. Because, like wood rats, octopi, and pre-2014 magpies, I like shiny things.

In the meantime, a conical with a spigot is not terribly compatible with the temperature-control portion of my fermentation setup. I used to have one of MoreBeer's blow (really REALLY hard) siphon setups. Then a rodent ate the cap, and I replaced it with an autosiphon, which was probably my first mistake, but it's SO EASY!

Anyway, I like the Starsan idea, and that may be exactly what I was looking for. Cheers! Want a stale IPA?