Question on Syphoning

[linearcraig]

I've read on the Omg guide that you want to avoid getting oxygen into your barrel when moving the beer from the FV into the barrel.

Now firstly, I thought the point of conditioning was to allow for a slight secondary ferm, which would require oxygen....yeah?

Secondly, it recommends making sure that your syphon pipe is long enough to go from the bottom of your FV up and over, down to below it, into your keg and then curl around a bit at the bottom to avoid splashing. But the standard (like mine) seems to be 1 metre so I cant achieve this.

Any tips for some one whos never done this.

PS. I'm making a lager, but cant bottle.

Thanks

 

[boozy_shoes]

The amount of conditioning/fermenting in the bottle doesn't need any extra oxygen, it will just absorb what bit there is around and prevent oxidation.

Just try to reduce splashing as much as you can with what you've got, it's all you can do. I'd be more concerned with putting lager in a barrel, many on here have tried it but struggled to get the high carbonation to make the mouthfeel of lager. Have you got any 2 litre pop bottles you could sterilise and syphon into? as this would get you closer to the lager experience. If not try and get down to one of the supermarkets and buy their 17p economy range lemonade and use the bottles, 13 will be enough and for the £2 odd it will cost you I think you'll enjoy the lager far more.

 

[PD]

after a beer has fermented and the yeast has converted the available sugar to alcohol, oxygen is a bad thing for it.
It will cause the beer to oxidise and taste bad..
There will be enough oxygen molecules in the beer for the yeast to work on the priming sugars and convert into CO2 the gas we need .
When it comes to syphoning theres a great risk of adding oxygen by mixing the wort up and splashing it around which we need to avoid. Buy a long enough length of plastic tubing ( from the nice people who sell fish tank equipment. It is cheap enough.
It needs to be able to reach from the bottom of your fermenter, up and over the top and down to the bottom of the collecting vessel, so the wort can just flow out without tumbling any distance, splashing and collecting extra oxygen.
It also needs to be sterile.
The end that goes into your fermenter should have a length of rigig plastic syphon tube attached together with a sediment trap, this will help in you removing the wort without sucking up lots of dead yeast and debris.

 

[rpt]

Yeast can work both aerobically and anaerobically. In the former, it uses oxygen and reproduces. Once the oxygen has all gone it works anaerobically and makes alcohol. In both cases it generates CO2. So you don't need any oxygen to carbonate your beer.

 

[LeedsBrewer]

I have just the standard wilkos one which is pretty short. I'd suggest you bring the barrel up so that the top of it sits just below the bottom of the Primary FV and if the tube still wont reach the bottom then try to run the beer down the side of the barrel to reduce splashing.

Oh and +1 for the buying cheap lemonade bottles. It'll be much better than the barrel.

 

[linearcraig]

I still live with my parents at the moment and they dont like the idea of bottle bombs lol.

I'm going to buy a ridged syphon pipe for the side of the fermeter and maybe use ridged pipe for the keg. Should work.

I know that I wont get the best results with a keg but its my first brew and i'm not looking for perfection. I'll be moving onto ales after this.

 

[LeedsBrewer]

You get bottle bombs with glass bottles. I've never heard of plastic bottles being a problem. If you check that fermentation is complete by using your hydrometer and prime with the correct amount of sugar you'll have no problems.

 

[eggman]

What bits have you got with your tubing? Have you got a rigid section and sediment trap and bucket clip? These will make life easier.
I use this simple syphon with another length of tube attached to the tap, this way it can easily reach the bottom of the barrel
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