Siphoning beer to bottling bucket

[YeastFeast]

Earlier today I moved my beer from the primary to a bottling bucket. 7 days ago I had dry hopped my APA with whole hops just tossed through the carboy hole. I'd say probably 1/2 of them sank and the rest were still floating on the top after a week.

I attached a muslin bag to my siphon with rubber bands and sanitized.

I'd say about 80% of the beer went perfectly smooth into the bottling bucket. Then all of a sudden tons of bubbles started flowing through the siphon tube. The end of the siphon tube was still fully submerged so I'm guessing the muslin bag started getting clogged with hops leaves, etc. and started the bubbles??

I then pulled the siphon, took the bag off and continued to siphon the rest.

1.) Should I be concerned with oxidation now??
2.) Has anyone experienced something similar?
3.) Should I "bag" the whole hops next time or use hop pellets instead?

This is only my 3rd batch ever, so everything is a learning experience.
Thanks!

 

[natasatan]

I'm no expert, but there should be no worry about oxidation at all. I've never experienced anything similar to this. Seems odd though. I've used both whole and pellet for dry hopping and I would rather use pellet since they seem to break up and sink to the bottom making it easier to siphon.

 

[RM-MN]

1. No
2. Yes
3. Maybe

The bubbles were probably air sucked in at the connection of the hose to the racking cane. You likely didn't get enough oxygen to notice dissolved in your beer. The top of the beer in the bottling bucket was also exposed to air. Would you worry about oxidation from that? I don't. I do prefer to use pellet hops but mostly because they hold less beer when I rack it to the bottling bucket so I don't lose as much of my precious beer.

 

[Burrito]

I agree with RM. No need to worry. I've had bubbling occur during racking and never noticed any negative effect. I do use a hop bag tho for dry hopping and have had positive results

 

[AkTom]

Last Friday as I was racking to bottling bucket ( my second can extract ) my auto siphon was pulling in bubbles. Is there a way to seal that off or should I not worry about it? Sorry to hijack your thread... It is similar though.
Tom

 

[shortyz]

Last Friday as I was racking to bottling bucket ( my second can extract ) my auto siphon was pulling in bubbles. Is there a way to seal that off or should I not worry about it? Sorry to hijack your thread... It is similar though.
Tom

i try to jam the hose on a little farther...

 

[YeastFeast]

The bubbles were probably air sucked in at the connection of the hose to the racking cane.

I'm confused. The hose is connected outside of the carboy to an AutoSiphon. The air had to be coming from the bottom of the AutoSiphon? Sorry, I didn't explain that in detail enough in the original post.

 

[dsaavedra]

Since the hose slides over the racking cane in the auto siphon, it has a larger inner diameter than the inner diameter of the racking cane itself. This can cause little pockets of air when you get beer flowing through it. I think that is what RM-MN was probably referring to.

 

[Setesh]

I'm confused. The hose is connected outside of the carboy to an AutoSiphon. The air had to be coming from the bottom of the AutoSiphon? Sorry, I didn't explain that in detail enough in the original post.

Yes, what is happening is that air is getting in between the plunger and the outside wall of the autosiphon. That is why I stopped using them. You will probably notice that when you first stick the autosiphon in and create the siphon with it some beer will leak past the plunger and sit above it. This beer keeps any are from getting through, but this beer will eventually get sucked through and that is when the air gets in. I tried using keg lube on the plunger gasket, but that helped very little.

I just use a piece of tubing now. I fill it with starsan and siphon into a pot until beer comes out, then move to the keg. Another advantage of just using tubing (or tubing connected to a plain racking cane) is that you can maneuver it right to the wall of the fermentor so you can see it and know where you are pulling from. On a really dark beer I just had to guess where the bottom of the autosiphon was, but with the tubing right up against the side of the carboy I can tell exactly where I'm pulling from, when I need to tilt the carboy, and when I need to stop racking.

 

[unionrdr]

The problem I have with the racking cane is replacing the tubing on it with 3/8" ID tubing. Can't get the work clamp tight enough to stop sucking so much air I have to pump it the whole time. Turns out the original tubing was 5/16" ID. It has to fit the bend of the racking cane part tightly. But I only need it for my BB secondary. The rest of my fermenters have spigots. I like the Italian red/white ones best. They have a recess on the end of the spout to fit 3/8" ID tubing for racking or bottling wands. Fits tightly & no streams of air bubbles.

 

[YeastFeast]

Good stuff guys. Going to have to give the siphon a second thought based on what you've said.