Syphoning 101 Required Big Trub In Little Beer

[merrydown]

TL;DR
Syphoning stopped and air bubbles raced up the tube twice during racking. Would it be because the syphon got trubbed up and the syphon tube was too long?

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I have made wine for 10 years and beer for 4 or 5 months. My third kit, just bottled, I had a syphoning accident and I would like some advice please.

I was making a 5 gallon American APA kit by Youngs. I brewed the beer with a 5 gallon size straining bag inside. I put the dry hops into this 4 days before bottling. SG had been stable 3 days at about .001 over predicted final gravity. I was happy enough.

Bottling day, I took out the bag in the morning to allow some settling before bottling that evening. There was still a fair bit of floating detritus and sediment. I don't think I will bother with the straining bag again - it was tempting as the hop bags I used before seemed too small to allow beer to circulate through the hops. The end result seemed as messy as I thought it would be with no bag at all.

So I figured I'd secure a muslin bag around the autosyphon tip to stop the worst of the trub getting into the bottling bucket. I started racking with the destination end of the syphon on the sugar solution in the bottling bucket. The source end of the rack was halfway up the beer at about the 2.5 gallon mark.

All went well at first and the transfer was smooth. As the top level of the beer approached the syphon tip I started to slowly lower the tip down towards the sediment. I imagine the tip was about an inch or two off the bottom when the syphon tube started filling with bubbles! :-o

Panicking, I looked down and saw the bottling bucket end of the syphon was poking out above the top of the beer (the tube is a touch long I guess, I could have shortened it. The beer flow stopped.

I raised the tip of the autosyphon to check. It didn't look blocked, so I lowered it down into the beer and pumped again to start the flow. It was fine again for about 30 seconds to a minute then the bubbles started racing up the tube again, presumably from the lower end of the tube which had raised its head again, but I am not sure why.

I pulled off the muslin bag and went for it again. I succeeded in transferring the last gallon or so with no problem. However there was a rather significant amount of crud transferred into the bottling bucket. Having dry hopped and primed, there was no way of letting it settle for a day before trying again or anything.

I'm not really sure what I did wrong. Was it that the autosyphonblocked with ****, flow stopped and air flowed back up the syphon as the suction broke? I'm not really sure how it could do that as the source end never left the beer. I am certain that it was deep enough in the beer. I didn't think air should have been able to get in like that. :wha:

I guess I should chop the syphon tube a little shorter to reduce the chance of that happening next time. Have you any other advice for me to avoid this?

Will the air that blasted through the beer in the syphon twice damage the beer I have bottled significantly?

Any help gratefully received!!!

Cheers,

Jim.

 

[Fil]

#1 let the beer sit as long as it takes for gravity to drop everything out as sediment.

#2 the gas in your siphon destroying the effect is the result of disolved co2 being agitated out of suspension by the transfer, Or a leak in the oring seal of your auto siphon -chill and provide an obsticle free flow to minimise co2 agitation from suspension

#3 when siphoning keep the bottom of the tube an inch or so below the surface and track the level as it drops down, that way you can see that the beer your draining off is clear an sediment free. then as the vessel empties a steady gentle tip will deepen the pool of beer for you to draw from. and stop the siphon before you suck any sediment up.

#4 use a bottling bucket if your not kegging or using a pb you can drain the fv into in a single uninterrupted flow.

 

[merrydown]

Thanks Fil,

All useful information. Mostly what I try to do more or less. I was probably 2 inches under for fear of breaching the surface if I moved too much.

Would you recommend leaving the beer to drop and then dry hopping once it has cleared? I thought the best result was supposed to be dry hopping right at the end of fermentation rather than after? Is this not so?

I am happy to leave the beer a week longer or two before dry hopping, if it will have the same flavour benefit as well as being cleaner for racking :)

Jim

 

[Ciaran12s]

Was the straining bag secured around the inlet or the outlet of the syphon?

I had the same problem when I used a straining bag around the inlet end of the syphon. I couldn't get the flow to run smooth until I took the bag off. What I do now is put thebstraining bag over the outlet end of the syphon and it works fine.

 

[Clint]

You could have dodgy seal in your tube...take it apart and gently flare the seal with your finger. It's a bit tricky to relocate bit wetting it helps.

 

[merrydown]

Thanks guys. I don't think that there is a bad seal, though I will check.

Putting the strainer on the outlet sounds like a great compromise on gross filtration without blockage :)

What is the general feeling about leaving the ale to settle out then dry hopping? Is it a fools errand? Would the hop pellets make enough mess that it wouldn't be worth it?

I'm keen to bottle as soon as possible after hopping to avoid aroma loss.

Cheers!

 

[Ciaran12s]

I've never had much success with dry hopping and managing to keep them all out of the bottles. I haven't dry hopped since my last syphon disaster. I've opted for hop teas made in a cafetiere and added at bottling time.

I have a couple of brews coming up that look for dry hopping. If I don't replace it with a hop tea, I'll add them dry at the end of fermentation and use a strainer on the outlet end of the tube and hope for the best really!

 

[Ciaran12s]

I've never had much success with dry hopping and managing to keep them all out of the bottles. I haven't dry hopped since my last syphon disaster. I've opted for hop teas made in a cafetiere and added at bottling time.

I have a couple of brews coming up that look for dry hopping. If I don't replace it with a hop tea, I'll add them dry at the end of fermentation and use a strainer on the outlet end of the tube and hope for the best really!