Straining into Bottling Bucket?

[Satokad]

One quick question before I bottle my first batch today. If I put one of those 5 gallon mesh bags (sterilized, of course) into the bottling bucket to remove more sediment before bottling, will pulling the bag out agitate it enough to aerate it and harm the wort?
Thanks.

 

[BigJoeBrew]

I wouldn't think so, just remove slowly. Not sure how much sediment one of those bags would catch, either way you would learn if it was worth doing for next time.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I have some thoughts and tips, take what you will.

Most of the "sediment" is too fine to be removed by a paint strainer.

When transferring the beer into the bottling bucket and into the bottles, the goal is to introduce as little oxygen as possible.
Straining is a great way to introduce oxygen.
Too much oxygen will cause oxidation. Bad for flavor.

If the beer is not clear enough for your personal preference, think about giving it more time, cold crashing, and/or using fining agents like gelatin. Even if it's not clear when it's bottled, it certainly may drop clear with additional time and refrigeration after bottling and carbonating.

There's nothing wrong with drinking cloudy beer. The appearance doesn't affect flavor.

You shouldn't be transferring any "sediment" into the bottling bucket.
If you had to move the fermenter, you probably need to let it sit for some time (up to a day) before doing the transfer.
Rack very carefully to avoid disturbing or picking up sediment. If your fermenter has a spigot, make sure clear beer comes out before transferring.

Cheers

 

[IslandLizard]

Once you add yeast to wort it becomes... beer!

You don't want to aerate (and thus oxygenate) finished beer (containing alcohol), so don't let it splash when transferring. Ever!

As @RPh_Guy said, a mesh bag won't hold back any fine sediment or cloudiness.

You could tie a fine mesh hop sack around your racking hose and lie it down on the bottom of your bottling bucket. That should filter out some sludge without aerating your beer.
But...

Instead, it's much better to suck beer from around the middle level of your fermentor and lower the siphon slowly as the beer level drops. When you get close to the yeast and trub layer, tilt the fermentor 45 degrees to keep the well of beer deep, and stop the transfer as soon as trub is being sucked in. Putting one of those plastic inverter tippies on the siphon's bottom (the end inside your fermentor) helps a lot in not sucking up trub too.

Cold crashing for a few days should also drop most haze and cloudiness.

 

[Arbe0]

leave the trub on the bottom. I normally leave about .5 gallon or more so I don't get the trub in the bottles or carboy. Be sure to cold crush to settle the tub.

 

[Satokad]

Thanks for the responses. Just did it the normal way....sort of. First time bottling and there may have been a few mistakes along the way. The biggest being that we didn't put the sugar solution into the bottling bucket before we started siphoning. Pretty sure we got it mixed in properly, but time will tell. The other casualty was my wife's grandmother's antique kitchen chair. Should have known better than to use that as a stool for the bucket but, hey, who knew that the valve would start leaking when it got 5 gallons of pressure pushing on it? Fortunately, my wife can be very patient with some of less amazing moments.
On a very positive note, it smelled great and tasted even better than when we took a sample at the dry hop. Looking forward to next Thursday when we crack one open.

 

[IslandLizard]

who knew that the valve would start leaking

There should be a rubber washer that goes on the valve body inside the bucket, against the bucket shell. Then the nut tightens the whole thing. Good and snug, hand-tight is enough. Don't over-tighten as it may deform the rubber washer and cause leaks. Also check for and remove any plastic burrs left around the hole from drilling. Test with water if not sure it all works.

I'm quite sure Grandma's chair has gone through quite a bit more during the test of time. You just added more character. Put a towel under buckets to catch drips and condensation and don't slide or scratch.

 

[Satokad]

There should be a rubber washer that goes on the valve body inside the bucket, against the bucket shell. Then the nut tightens the whole thing. Good and snug, hand-tight is enough. Don't over-tighten as it may deform the rubber washer and cause leaks. Also check for and remove any plastic burrs left around the hole from drilling. Test with water if not sure it all works.

I'm quite sure Grandma's chair has gone through quite a bit more during the test of time. You just added more character. Put a towel under buckets to catch drips and condensation and don't slide or scratch.

That chair spent many years out on a homestead in the middle of South Dakota. I would imagine you are right in all the things it has seen....including the raccoon in the kitchen. I had both rubber washers and I did hand tighten it, but I'm guessing I didn't get it tight enough (with the leaking being my first clue). The towel and a 'younger' bucket stand will be standard fare moving forward.

 

[duffy5018]

For the rare occasions I bottle these days, I place the bottling bucket on the counter over the dishwasher, and fill the bottles on the open dishwasher door. When you're done, close the door, and you're (mostly) done cleaning up.

 

[Satokad]

For the rare occasions I bottle these days, I place the bottling bucket on the counter over the dishwasher, and fill the bottles on the open dishwasher door. When you're done, close the door, and you're (mostly) done cleaning up.

This is a great idea!

 

[DVCNick]

I'm a newbie as well so take this for what it's worth.
I've followed most of the advice in this thread (no way to cold crash the fermenter yet) but still, in my first couple hoppy kits, I ended up with lots of hop debris in the fermenter, bottling bucket, and bottles. Now once the bottles are refrigerated it all drops out and you can pour the bottle and successfully leave everything behind. But it is still annoying to have hop debris in the bottle, and also, I had to bottle about half those batches straight from the spigot since the bottling wand quickly clogged with hop debris. I didn't splash, but probably still not the best for oxygenation.

I've since done another batch (just so happened to be first all-grain) and it was also my first attempt to seriously address this... I got a super fine mesh hop spider, and used it to contain the hops in the boil kettle. It even got tipped over once by accident, and I'm sure some hop material made it out, but a lot was still there, so after cooling I was able to just lift out a significant portion of the hop material.

Also, I "whirlpooled" the kettle before transferring to the fermenter. This was surprisingly effective in collecting the remaining boil kettle debris in the center, and I think I got a lot less of it into the fermenter than prior batches.

Lastly, this recipe didn't call for dry hopping, but on prior batches I've just thrown the hops straight in with no attempt to contain them. In the future I think I'm going to try bagging them so they are contained.

I'm hoping these measures are going to greatly reduce the free hop debris in the fermenter, and therefore the bottling bucket.

 

[dkeller12]

The hop spider is what significantly helped with hop debris in my finished beer, so I highly recommend getting one. They are very inexpensive to make and worth the pennies it takes to make it.

 

[Jag75]

For the rare occasions I bottle these days, I place the bottling bucket on the counter over the dishwasher, and fill the bottles on the open dishwasher door. When you're done, close the door, and you're (mostly) done cleaning up.

This is genius!

 

[Saunassa]

That chair spent many years out on a homestead in the middle of South Dakota. I would imagine you are right in all the things it has seen....including the raccoon in the kitchen. I had both rubber washers and I did hand tighten it, but I'm guessing I didn't get it tight enough (with the leaking being my first clue). The towel and a 'younger' bucket stand will be standard fare moving forward.

Take a look at the spigot when not in the bucket. Mine would slowly seep out while bottling, found that there was a little molding flash that prevented the washer from sealing. used a scalpel and trimmed it smooth both in the threads and the flat that touches the washers. No leak after doing that.