Volume left behind

[roadtodenali]

I boiled an IPA on 1-5-14 and it has been at 1.020 (OG1.075) for 3 days. I racked to secondary tonight and added 3oz (total) of ahtanum, Amarillo, and citra for dry hopping. I am familiar with the whole secondary debate but as I have posted before, I want to try everything to gain experience and firsthand knowledge.

One thing I am noticing is that, due to the yeast cake/slurry at the bottom of the primary, I need to leave behind about ¾ of a gallon in volume. Its either that or suck up all kinds of grossness into my secondary. Also, unless my siphon has a bit of volume above the tip (2 inches or so) it sucks in all kinds of air. So, to avoid oxygenating the crap out of my brew or sucking crap into the secondary (both crappy ;-))……I leave behind about ¾ of a gallon of volume. Much of it is cake/slurry however there is a bottle or four of brew on their as well.

Is this normal. How much are you all leaving behind on 5 gallon batches? I will be researching ways to improve this.

 

[TxBigHops]

Great question - one I hadn't thought of yet. I'll be racking my first brew to secondary in a couple of days, so I hope you get some good replies. I'm thinking that a little slurry in the secondary won't hurt, and would fall out as it does in primary. Then just leave it behind when you rack to your bottling bucket.

 

[roadtodenali]

Great question - one I hadn't thought of yet. I'll be racking my first brew to secondary in a couple of days, so I hope you get some good replies. I'm thinking that a little slurry in the secondary won't hurt, and would fall out as it does in primary. Then just leave it behind when you rack to your bottling bucket.

Ya, there is some in there. I figure you cant stop it al but I'm talking about almost sucking up like 50% brew / 50% yeast cake. Guessing that's more trouble than the extra bottle or two is worth. I dry hoped without a bag as well so I will already have some shmutz in my secondary anyway.

I did read a tip the other day that I forgot this time but will try next time. One guy put a nylon hop bag over the end of his auto siphon. Properly sanitized it seems like a decent idea.

I plan to cold crash before going to the bottling bucket and Ill try the bag. What I am really looking for here is what people experience on average so I know if I lost more/less than what is normal.

 

[InLimbo]

I factor that volume into my recipe building. I'd rather have the piece of mind of clear delicious finished beer going into my keg, than worrying about getting every last penny I spent on ingredients.

 

[roadtodenali]

I factor that volume into my recipe building. I'd rather have the piece of mind of clear delicious finished beer going into my keg, than worrying about getting every last penny I spent on ingredients.

I could understand that with custom recipes where you could increase ingredients but can you just add a gallon of water to an extract kit meant for 5 gallons?

 

[brewkinger]

No you would not want to add any water to an extract kit to compensate for loss. The stuff at the bottom would only be yeast and hop gunk anyway.

Having said that, I think half gallon (5 12oz beers) is too much to leave behind.
Did you tilt the fermenting vessel slightly as you got near the bottom? I put a small 1" thick wedge of wood under one see and that gets me some more.
Plus like was already mentioned, it is OK to transfer some of that stuff to secondary. It is yeast and you want as much of them as you can keep to do tier job in secondary.
They will settle out again, especially if you add gelatin and/or cold crash.
Just my thoughts but half gallon sounds like too much for my process.

 

[DrunkleJon]

I boiled an IPA on 1-5-14 and it has been at 1.020 (OG1.075) for 3 days. I racked to secondary tonight and added 3oz (total) of ahtanum, Amarillo, and citra for dry hopping. I am familiar with the whole secondary debate but as I have posted before, I want to try everything to gain experience and firsthand knowledge.

One thing I am noticing is that, due to the yeast cake/slurry at the bottom of the primary, I need to leave behind about ¾ of a gallon in volume. Its either that or suck up all kinds of grossness into my secondary. Also, unless my siphon has a bit of volume above the tip (2 inches or so) it sucks in all kinds of air. So, to avoid oxygenating the crap out of my brew or sucking crap into the secondary (both crappy ;-))……I leave behind about ¾ of a gallon of volume. Much of it is cake/slurry however there is a bottle or four of brew on their as well.

Is this normal. How much are you all leaving behind on 5 gallon batches? I will be researching ways to improve this.

Leaving behind 1/2-3/4 gallon is completely normal on a transfer. This trub that you leave behind is the yeast, protein solids, hop matter and everything else that gets transferred into the fermenter. I compensate for this by throwing an extra little bit of wort in the fermenter (usually about 1/2 gallon) and discount the waste (or sample it). If using a secondary, the entire point of a secondary is to get the beer off this trub and yeast cake (for extended aging, or fruiting/adding wood) so you do not want to transfer it if at all possible. I have found that letting the fermenter sit for a while after transferring, then as you come to the last bit of beer you can tip the fermenter ever so slowly to get a little more.

With your siphon, you should be able to remove the cap and suck directly from the bottom of it if you wish, but you do risk pulling more trub through as well.