greenfrog5
Well-Known Member
I had 2 beers ready to bottle and thought I could bang them both out last night. I was also going to try washing and harvesting the yeast (for the first time) from a Red Ale. The other (Red IIPA) had been dry hopping for almost 2 weeks so it NEEDED to come out now, and the yeast wouldn't be harvestable.
Yeast-washing water, dinner, priming solution, setting up to bottle the Red Ale all took so long, I eventually realized a double-batch bottling marathon was probably not in my future. To cut my losses, I decide to swap for the IIPA, which needs bottling more urgently, saving the Red Ale and yeast washing for later. Good decision! Then I realize the 3oz of dextros that is cooling might not be right for the IIPA (lost volume from hops, style, etc), but I check and it is fine.
Finally the priming solution is cool, I sanitize everything, setup the bottling bucket, dump the priming solution in and cover it with the lid to setup the siphon. I must have gotten distracted, because when I took the lid off of the bucket I thought I had left some sanitizer in the bucket, and immediately dumped it in the sink!
Of course, I just continue along and start the siphon, and after 5 seconds realize what I've done. I'm siphoning my IIPA into any empty bucket, and just tossed the priming solution that took an hour to make down the drain. And its already 9pm (I got home at 6:45). I had the presence of mind to smoothly pull the autosiphon inner-tube out to stop the siphon with minimal disturbance to the thick trub the autosiphon is sitting in. Only a couple of ounces have transferred, and I cover the bucket and decide what to do.
I know some people don't sanitize the sugar and just mix it and toss it, but many recommend boiling it. I realize I have sterile water (now just warm) in mason jars for yeast washing, weight out 3 more oz of corn sugar, dissolve it in the sterilized water and toss it in the bucket. Starting the siphon again, it initially gets plugged with hops, but after cleaning, I get it going, and the beer flows very clear and smooth.
I end up having a full 5 gallons (less loss to dry-hops than expected), and get 638 ounces into 22oz and 12oz bottles. Narrowly averted a disaster, should make great beer!
Next time I dry hop, I'll need to try the hop bag on the autosiphon as a filter, because of clogging and the last few beers were pretty chunky, eventually clogging my bottling wand too. I guess that the signal "you've gotten enough." I used both pellet and leaf hops for dry-hopping, and it seemed to be the dissolved pellet chunks getting into the autosiphon, not the leaf?
Aaron
Yeast-washing water, dinner, priming solution, setting up to bottle the Red Ale all took so long, I eventually realized a double-batch bottling marathon was probably not in my future. To cut my losses, I decide to swap for the IIPA, which needs bottling more urgently, saving the Red Ale and yeast washing for later. Good decision! Then I realize the 3oz of dextros that is cooling might not be right for the IIPA (lost volume from hops, style, etc), but I check and it is fine.
Finally the priming solution is cool, I sanitize everything, setup the bottling bucket, dump the priming solution in and cover it with the lid to setup the siphon. I must have gotten distracted, because when I took the lid off of the bucket I thought I had left some sanitizer in the bucket, and immediately dumped it in the sink!
Of course, I just continue along and start the siphon, and after 5 seconds realize what I've done. I'm siphoning my IIPA into any empty bucket, and just tossed the priming solution that took an hour to make down the drain. And its already 9pm (I got home at 6:45). I had the presence of mind to smoothly pull the autosiphon inner-tube out to stop the siphon with minimal disturbance to the thick trub the autosiphon is sitting in. Only a couple of ounces have transferred, and I cover the bucket and decide what to do.
I know some people don't sanitize the sugar and just mix it and toss it, but many recommend boiling it. I realize I have sterile water (now just warm) in mason jars for yeast washing, weight out 3 more oz of corn sugar, dissolve it in the sterilized water and toss it in the bucket. Starting the siphon again, it initially gets plugged with hops, but after cleaning, I get it going, and the beer flows very clear and smooth.
I end up having a full 5 gallons (less loss to dry-hops than expected), and get 638 ounces into 22oz and 12oz bottles. Narrowly averted a disaster, should make great beer!
Next time I dry hop, I'll need to try the hop bag on the autosiphon as a filter, because of clogging and the last few beers were pretty chunky, eventually clogging my bottling wand too. I guess that the signal "you've gotten enough." I used both pellet and leaf hops for dry-hopping, and it seemed to be the dissolved pellet chunks getting into the autosiphon, not the leaf?
Aaron
