Dumped my brew instead of siphoning when racking off. Is it ruined?

[makum101]

Just gone to rack off my Coopers Stout kit after primary fermentation finished. Siphened it into a sterilized brew bin then washed and sterilized the original bucket and poured (yes poured) the brew back as I needed the other bucket for a sugar wash. Will I have oxygenated the brew and spoiled it by pouring it rather than siphoning it?

 

[strange-steve]

It's probably not done it much good, but only time will tell if it's ruined. Why did you rack it in the first place?

 

[Cwrw666]

Well, when I fill a pressure barrel from an FV I just open the tap and let it pour down into the PB. Never had a problem with oxygenating it doing this so my guess is it'll be okay. Your brew will have been full of dissolved CO2 so that should help keep it safe.
On the other hand when a PB runs out of pressure and you let air glug in through the tap, the beer is actually depleted of CO2 (hence no pressure) so that really is a bad idea.
I expect to be shot down in flames, but there you go...

 

[IainM]

I guess that depends on what 'poured' means. If poured gently down the side of the bucket at an angle, it should be ok. If poured from a height directly so that is splashed on the bottom, it might not. I guess you'll find out.

 

[makum101]

It's probably not done it much good, but only time will tell if it's ruined. Why did you rack it in the first place?

I normally syphon the finished brew into a clean bucket before bottling to get it off the sedement.

 

[makum101]

I guess that depends on what 'poured' means. If poured gently down the side of the bucket at an angle, it should be ok. If poured from a height directly so that is splashed on the bottom, it might not. I guess you'll find out.

Hmm might be ok. It was poured gently from the height of the lip of the clean bucket. Not down the side but gently into the bottom. This created a 2" 'head' which has now dissapated. Ive not bottled it yet. Still sitting there in the bucket. It looks devoid of CO2, head completly gone. I will be priming and bottling tomorrow morning.

 

[Robin54]

Just gone to rack off my Coopers Stout kit after primary fermentation finished. Siphened it into a sterilized brew bin then washed and sterilized the original bucket and poured (yes poured) the brew back as I needed the other bucket for a sugar wash. Will I have oxygenated the brew and spoiled it by pouring it rather than siphoning it?

About 50% of the folk on here would say your beer is ruined. There again there's another 50% who would say it isn't. Its a bit like going to the doctors and you believe every word. You would ...wouldnt you??? he's a doctor.. he's reads a lot of clinical papers and writes the odd paper himself...and been peer reviewed by his best mate...besides the fact that loads are struck off every month for malpractice.
I think you will be fine OK

 

[ravey]

I looked into the effects of oxidation and what I read suggested the effects are noticed months down the line, so maybe give it enough time to condition and then neck it.

 

[IainM]

About 50% of the folk on here would say your beer is ruined. There again there's another 50% who would say it isn't. Its a bit like going to the doctors and you believe every word. You would ...wouldnt you??? he's a doctor.. he's reads a lot of clinical papers and writes the odd paper himself...and been peer reviewed by his best mate...besides the fact that loads are struck off every month for malpractice.
I think you will be fine OK

Actually, 100% of the previous replies said 'I don't know' followed by an educated guess.

 

[IainM]

Hmm might be ok. It was poured gently from the height of the lip of the clean bucket. Not down the side but gently into the bottom. This created a 2" 'head' which has now dissapated. Ive not bottled it yet. Still sitting there in the bucket. It looks devoid of CO2, head completly gone. I will be priming and bottling tomorrow morning.

Good to bottle soon - if only a little bit of oxygen got in then it'll be consumed by the yeast as they chomp on the priming sugar.

 

[Robin54]

Makkum said "might"...so thats 100%... ???

 

[Callumbo]

All comes down to if you want to bottle it or tank it and hope for the best. I'm hoping it's successful for you. So screw it! Bottle or keg it and see what happens. You've done to much work not to sip it and see. Good luck

 

[strange-steve]

I normally syphon the finished brew into a clean bucket before bottling to get it off the sedement.

It's not really a necessary step unless you're aging for a few months.
As everyone has said, it's impossible to tell if you've done any harm so just cross your fingers and continue as normal.

 

[DoctorMick]

My tip, drink it quickly. From memory, the effects of oxygenation get worse with time so the best way to mitigate it is to drink it. :

It'd be a really useful experiment to set a few bottles aside and try a few months later to see if there are actually any adverse effects to introducing the oxygen because, as was pointed out above, we're all just guessing really.

 

[Slid]

I looked into the effects of oxidation and what I read suggested the effects are noticed months down the line, so maybe give it enough time to condition and then neck it.

Yes! Good fall back position if in doubt.

 

[makum101]

I bottled it yesterday. I made it short - 17L with 1kg of DME. Primed it with 83g dissolved table sugar. Bottles are stiffening up already.

I'll crack one open in two weeks time and see what its like. and hold a few back for a 3 or 4 months. I did taste it yesterday and it was very good. No off flavours at all.

I am impressed with the speed of fermentation of this Coopers kit. 3 days to ferment down to 10.012

Ginger beer next up (xmas brew) with an added bottle of Ruddles Flaming Hot Ginger Compound for an extra winter warming kick.

 

[jceg316]

I vote that it's probably not ruined, at least not in the short term anyway. As @DoctorMick pointed out getting oxygen into the beer usually means the off flavour develops over time, and this is usually a wet cardboard flavour. Brulosophy did an experiment with hot side aeration which concluded that there were no adverse flavours from splashing the hot wort, but the beers were drunk pretty quickly after they were brewed which kind of defeated the point of the test.

 

[Slid]

I bottled it yesterday. I made it short - 17L with 1kg of DME. Primed it with 83g dissolved table sugar. Bottles are stiffening up already.

I'll crack one open in two weeks time and see what its like. and hold a few back for a 3 or 4 months. I did taste it yesterday and it was very good. No off flavours at all.

I am impressed with the speed of fermentation of this Coopers kit. 3 days to ferment down to 10.012

Ginger beer next up (xmas brew) with an added bottle of Ruddles Flaming Hot Ginger Compound for an extra winter warming kick.

Coopers is a commercial brewery and uses its brewery yeast for its homebrew product line. A brewery really needs speed at all points in the brewing cycle, so the Coopers yeast is fast. Very fast indeed. I think it helps that it works very well at the temps of a centrally heated house in the UK.

 

[makum101]

Been a month since now and its come out just fine. A very nice stout. No cardboard smell at all. I got away with it ha!

Lesson learnt though.

 

[Callumbo]

Glad to hear. I think beer can take a lot more damage than we think