Bottling Issues

[devilishprune]

So last night I bottled a batch of an amber ale that I brewed about a month and a half ago. I could never find the time to do it, and now I know why.

I dry hopped this batch, and didn't want to get the hop particles in my beer so I used a nylon paint strainer to keep the particles out while drawing that fresh clear beer that I had waited so long to achieve. I even put gelatin in this batch in hopes that it would be uber clear. I boiled up 4.5 oz of dextrose with 1.5 cups of water to prime it and dumped it in the bucket. So I attempted to start the siphon by blowing into the other side of my carboy cap (as illustrated by Walker), and it worked okay at first, but then it would just not keep a siphon going. I got so frustrated that I took the bag off and just used the cane: Still no dice. Then I just gave up and decided to bottle the roughly 2.5 gallons that I was able to siphon and to come back to the rest later. Now, it wasn't til I bottled about a gallon worth that I realized that I might experience some problemas.

Good thinking on my part was to try and rack the rest of the beer onto the remaining priming sugar/beer mixture in hopes that I could dilute the priming sugar to a reasonable amount. I was able to get the rest of the beer, but it was the cloudiest, hop particle-est beer that I have ever seen. I labeled the second half of the bottles "Bad amber ale", so I would know the difference between the two. I guess I could also know because the first ones might just explode.

I'll let you know in 3 weeks!

Anyone else had this sort of problem?

 

[slowbie]

Do you have an autosiphon? I think that's the $10 solution to your problems. Also, even if you bottle cloudy beer, if you put it in the refrigerator long enough after it carbonates it should be pretty clear, just with more sediment on the bottom. A good idea with the first half is to check it in a week for carbonation and every other day after that until it's a satisfactory carbonation level and then put them all in the fridge to prevent bottle bombs.

 

[malkore]

it sounds like you either had hop matter in the siphon tube, blocking the siphon, or your carboy cap doesn't seal well enough (pretty common).

auto-siphon fixes both.

 

[Walker]

The problem would not be due to a leaky carboy cap, but a leaky connection between hose and cane.

The carboy cap is just there to get the siphon started. After it's flowing the cap does nothing.

My plastic canes would always wear out, warp, etc and I would put hose clamps on the connections between hose and cane if I started having problems.

I switched to stainless racking canes and don't need hose clamps anymore.

 

[Walker]

When your siphon was flowing, was is flowing solidly (hose completely filled with beer) or was the flow less than 100%?

 

[devilishprune]

The flow was definitely less than 100%. It was only partially filled and I was having to blow on the cap to basically push the beer out of there.

Now that I think about it, that was the problem. However, I couldn't blow hard enough to fill the cane/tubing completely full.

 

[devilishprune]

Do you have an autosiphon? I think that's the $10 solution to your problems. Also, even if you bottle cloudy beer, if you put it in the refrigerator long enough after it carbonates it should be pretty clear, just with more sediment on the bottom. A good idea with the first half is to check it in a week for carbonation and every other day after that until it's a satisfactory carbonation level and then put them all in the fridge to prevent bottle bombs.

Good idea. I'm out of town for a few days right now, so should I worry about having a closet full of beer when I come back?