I know what you mean, I pulled a muscle in my back a few weeks ago wringing out a tea towel
Hazelwood Brewday
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I know what you mean, I pulled a muscle in my back a few weeks ago wringing out a tea towel
My back has eased today so I was able to dry hop Summer Breeze and keg my latest batch of stout.
This is Summer Breeze in the main section of my brewshed and held at 12C. It was dry hopped with 50g Citra pellets, the head space was flushed with CO2 through the hole in the lid, and a balloon partially inflated with CO2 fitted. It will stay here like this until Friday when I will keg it.
The stout reached a final gravity of 1020 which is a point higher than last time but otherwise looks, smells, and tastes the same. This is now carbonating and conditioning in the brewshed for when my current keg of stout runs out - not that I’m running low just yet.
This is Summer Breeze in the main section of my brewshed and held at 12C. It was dry hopped with 50g Citra pellets, the head space was flushed with CO2 through the hole in the lid, and a balloon partially inflated with CO2 fitted. It will stay here like this until Friday when I will keg it.
The stout reached a final gravity of 1020 which is a point higher than last time but otherwise looks, smells, and tastes the same. This is now carbonating and conditioning in the brewshed for when my current keg of stout runs out - not that I’m running low just yet.
I have had back trouble for years and have now organised things so I don't have to lift anything heavy. It is one of the reasons why I will have no truck with cold crashing etc., - there is no way I am going to lift a 23 litre fermenter in and out of a fridge!
Today I kegged a batch of Summer Breeze and it was a little challenging because the syphon kept filling with gas. I hope this was CO2 being released from the beer because it stopped the syphon from working and I effectively had to pump the beer into the keg. If the gas was air squeezing past the syphon seal I pumped air through my beer dozens of times as I filled the keg and it will be rotten in no time. Very frustrating. I’ve never had taps on my fermenters because I don’t altogether trust them but right now I’m starting to trust my syphon even less!! 
Anyway, this is how it looks today…
Anyway, this is how it looks today…
Brewnaldo
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Today I kegged a batch of Summer Breeze and it was a little challenging because the syphon kept filling with gas. I hope this was CO2 being released from the beer because it stopped the syphon from working and I effectively had to pump the beer into the keg. If the gas was air squeezing past the syphon seal I pumped air through my beer dozens of times as I filled the keg and it will be rotten in no time. Very frustrating. I’ve never had taps on my fermenters because I don’t altogether trust them but right now I’m starting to trust my syphon even less!!
Anyway, this is how it looks today…
View attachment 55808
Far be it from me to take liberties with your liver function, but you, me and everyone else knows the only solution to this issue......
Buy a new syphon!
Give me taps any day. Only ever had one problem which was my own fault: I overtightened it and distorted the washer on the inside.
To be fair, I do tend to replace the rubber washers that they come with by silicone ones.
To be fair, I do tend to replace the rubber washers that they come with by silicone ones.
Today I kegged a batch of Summer Breeze and it was a little challenging because the syphon kept filling with gas. I hope this was CO2 being released from the beer because it stopped the syphon from working and I effectively had to pump the beer into the keg. If the gas was air squeezing past the syphon seal I pumped air through my beer dozens of times as I filled the keg and it will be rotten in no time. Very frustrating. I’ve never had taps on my fermenters because I don’t altogether trust them but right now I’m starting to trust my syphon even less!!
Anyway, this is how it looks today…
View attachment 55808
I had FVs with taps but swapped them out for ones without. It Was such a faff having to take them off, clean and sanitise them all properly, then put them back and check it all for leaks again.
What @Clint said I think.
Let's face it, the number of brews our Hazelwood gets through, that syphon's almost certainly knackered.
Today I kegged my English Pale Ale. It’s based on my English Bitter recipe but with a lighter grist (crystal 30 rather than crystal 225 and 20g roasted barley rather than 30) and using First Gold hops. The ABV is the same as for my English Bitter but both OG and FG finished two points lower leading to a marginally dryer beer. First impressions are very good and I’m already starting to think of a re-brew in the very near future! This is it…
I’m pleased to say my syphon worked flawlessly today which gives me a little confidence that the gas preventing me from siphoning yesterday’s beer was actually dissolved CO2 coming out of the beer. I do have a fermenter with a tap fitted and will use that when brewing Summer Breeze - and any other beers I ferment using a CO2 balloon. My working assumption is that the CO2 rich environment is allowing the beer to carbonate while fermenting (cask ales carbonate with virtually no pressure so this does ring true for me).
I’m pleased to say my syphon worked flawlessly today which gives me a little confidence that the gas preventing me from siphoning yesterday’s beer was actually dissolved CO2 coming out of the beer. I do have a fermenter with a tap fitted and will use that when brewing Summer Breeze - and any other beers I ferment using a CO2 balloon. My working assumption is that the CO2 rich environment is allowing the beer to carbonate while fermenting (cask ales carbonate with virtually no pressure so this does ring true for me).
FWIW I've especially noticed more bubbles when I'm kegging a beer that's been fermented cold - I think it's because CO2 is forced out of solution as it warms up in the lines.
I think that’s definitely part of the story. The other part perhaps is the turbulence and pressure drop from being sucked through a narrow slit at the end of the syphon into a lower pressure tube.
Very good point - that will definitely lead to a localised pressure drop (Bernoulli effect)
Brewnaldo
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Love this. I am not a particularly clever man, but I often like to confuse people by beginning sentences with "Well Bernoulli said......"
Easily my favourite inventor of things that occur naturally
When I was a nipper I was absolutely fascinated by the demonstration of the Bernoulli effect where you hang two ping-pong balls by threads so they rest about 2cm apart; then blow air between them using a drinking straw. The results were so different to what I expected.
Brewnaldo
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IIRC it was a college lecturer who was explaining the principles of winged flight/lift whose patter I burgled in order to bamboozle folk. It must have been him becuase my high school physics teacher and I had some pretty serious creative differences
Yes, I remember the same experiment. What’s more I also had differences of view from “Penguin”, our physics teacher. His final report said that I’d chosen to follow my own interests in preference to the school syllabus and that he was sad to say it would likely result in my failing the exam. In the event I answered the questions I had learned through self-study and passed with grade “B” O-Level. Stick that up your beak Penguin!
Awesome!Yes, I remember the same experiment. What’s more I also had differences of view from “Penguin”, our physics teacher. His final report said that I’d chosen to follow my own interests in preference to the school syllabus and that he was sad to say it would likely result in my failing the exam. In the event I answered the questions I had learned through self-study and passed with grade “B” O-Level. Stick that up your beak Penguin!
Time to keg the last of my current tranche of beers, another batch of Mild. I now have an empty fermentation cabinet so I’m free to crank up the temperature and start the third tranche of beers - more on that shortly. In the meantime, this is the Mild…
Class in a Glass.
