Bottling nightmare- a question

[Siarr19]

Just finished off my 2nd brew (Festival Golden Stag). I'd legged my 1st in pressure barrel which went fine. Decided to bottle this lot and had major problems with my auto siphon stopping. Kept having to pump it to get it going and saw an alarming amount of bubbles getting drawn into the beer. I ended up letting the last 5 litres or so go as it was getting so bad. So, how likely is my beer to be wrecked and can you suggest how I avoid this in future? Thanks in advance.
Ps I drew off a pint of the stuff I chucked and it tasted amazing, really hope it'll be ok.

 

[markmark]

I think any problem will be minimal.
It is of course best practice not to introduce air whilst bottling, but the yeast will gobble that up when re-fermenting and priming the beer.
I would bet that you will notice little difference if you drink it within a reasonable time frame. Long term storage might magnify any issues.

 

[IOMMick]

Just finished off my 2nd brew (Festival Golden Stag). I'd legged my 1st in pressure barrel which went fine. Decided to bottle this lot and had major problems with my auto siphon stopping. Kept having to pump it to get it going and saw an alarming amount of bubbles getting drawn into the beer. I ended up letting the last 5 litres or so go as it was getting so bad. So, how likely is my beer to be wrecked and can you suggest how I avoid this in future? Thanks in advance.
Ps I drew off a pint of the stuff I chucked and it tasted amazing, really hope it'll be ok.

I purposely bought a second pressure barrel to use purely for bottling to stop this (and to rack for secondary fermentation as well), for the sake of 16 quid from Wilko. I combined it with this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Home-Brew-Wine- ... w+bottling and it's a piece of **** now (although I had to use some PTFE tape to shove the bottler valve into my existing tap because I don't think you can get the Wilko tap off).

 

[jonnymorris]

Little bottler. I wouldn't bottle without one.

 

[JonnyD]

as jonny morris said, use a bottling wand. so simple and easy to use. http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... uKrhP04noA

 

[Siarr19]

Cheers all. I do have a bottling wand. The problem was when I was trying to rack the beer into my bottling bucket; auto siphon just would not behave.

 

[Siarr19]

I think any problem will be minimal.
It is of course best practice not to introduce air whilst bottling, but the yeast will gobble that up when re-fermenting and priming the beer.
I would bet that you will notice little difference if you drink it within a reasonable time frame. Long term storage might magnify any issues.

Glad to hear it Markmark- can't see this one lasting too long, early signs are it'll be a belter!

 

[JonnyD]

Cheers all. I do have a bottling wand. The problem was when I was trying to rack the beer into my bottling bucket; auto siphon just would not behave.

i have always used a bog standard syphon, take the tap of the end and give it a good suck. Never had any problems and cheap

 

[Redsnapper]

Just had the same problem with an auto siphon with a bottle wand on the end.However too fast flowing,the siphon tube just a bit too large a diameter and this introduced lots of air.And lots of mess,lost 2 litres of beer all over the place.Had to keep pumping the siphon.Froth was coming out of the bottletops.Result is bottles are not filled to an inch off the top,some 2 to 2.5 inches.All over the place once they settled down.
So I am worried the beer will go off with too much air in some of the bottles.
In future reckon I will use the Auto siphon for racking and get my second FV fitted with a tap that I can attach the bottler directly to.This should fix it I hope. :hmm:

 

[Pinchy]

As others have said a little bottler is a MUST have for bottling beer.

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/cgi ... 69#a101369

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chapelwood-CPW0 ... B004478Q0G


I first worried about letting air into my brew. When I bottle with the little bottler I still get some bubbles going through it but this hasn't caused a problem for me yet :)

 

[LeithR]

I've never used an auto siphon so don't really know what it is but a piece ordinary siphon tube of sufficient length to lie on the bottom of the bottling bucket so when you siphon the beer into the bottling bucket the beer swirls rather than splashes thus no air introduced and all will be ok, the swirling action also mixes the priming sugar into the brew correctly as well. Then use the little bottler or I just use a short piece of Vossy's tube attached to the tap of my bottling bucket and fill each bottle.

No problem!!

I think you can over complicate some of these activities. :

 

[rpt]

What exactly is the problem with the auto syphon? I have never had an issue using mine to rack from FV into bottling bucket.

 

[Redsnapper]

I made the mistake of attaching the bottle wand onto my autosiphon.But the siphon tube is just a fraction too large.So it was going like the clappers.I raised the bottles into my sink to slow it down and keep so much beer off the floor.However for the last 10 litres the siphon kept stopping and needed pumped.This caused a lot of air and froth.Inconsistent level of beer in each bottle.
This just shows you that all through from opening the kit to opening the bottle there are a lot of potential mistakes that you can make to compromise your final product.I think it will be OK. But I have taken a mental note to do it differently next time.

 

[nobyipa]

once your syphon is primed with water you do not get any air bubbles

[youtube:2jfesr39]UcPN9jMeLGI[/youtube:2jfesr39]
run the water out stop when you get to the beer then bottle
:thumb:

 

[Redsnapper]

Should have been like that!!! But beer was pouring down the siphon tube and down the OUTSIDE of the bottler as the plastic siphon tube was just a bit too large in diameter.So the valve was not stopping all the beer.It was only a fraction too big so I thought should be OK..........errr. No!

 

[winelight]

as JonnyD says an ordinary siphon tube is all you need... but as nobyipa says just fill with water rather than suck, although before I knew about that technique I always used to suck with no ill effects

The less equipment you have the less you pay and the less you have to clean... no need for little bottlers or auto siphons. Keep it simple... I believe the little bottler halves the speed the beer comes through the tube, too?

 

[daf]

Just finished off my 2nd brew (Festival Golden Stag). I'd legged my 1st in pressure barrel which went fine. Decided to bottle this lot and had major problems with my auto siphon stopping. Kept having to pump it to get it going and saw an alarming amount of bubbles getting drawn into the beer. I ended up letting the last 5 litres or so go as it was getting so bad. So, how likely is my beer to be wrecked and can you suggest how I avoid this in future? Thanks in advance.
Ps I drew off a pint of the stuff I chucked and it tasted amazing, really hope it'll be ok.

I purposely bought a second pressure barrel to use purely for bottling to stop this (and to rack for secondary fermentation as well), for the sake of 16 quid from Wilko. I combined it with this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Home-Brew-Wine- ... w+bottling and it's a piece of **** now (although I had to use some PTFE tape to shove the bottler valve into my existing tap because I don't think you can get the Wilko tap off).

Exactly what I do!

 

[PaulCa]

+1 for "fill with water". It's the simpliest way for siphoning anyway. Just fill the tube from the tap, hold you finger over both ends, then pop one end in the source vessel and drop the other end in the receptical. The only downside is you introduce a tiny amount of water.

And also +1 for the little bottler. You can get them without the tap fitting and they just attach to a bit of pipe.