Brewed a pumpkin ale for the first time the other weekend and am thinking about racking soon, being as I used about 60 oz of roasted pumpkin I got about 3 fingers of pumpkin goodness at the bottom of my primary. Was looking for some advice on what is the best way to siphon into secondary without sucking up most of the sediment? CHEERS!
I personally haven't done this but lots of BAs put paint strainer bags over there racking tube to keep hops from clogging the siphon. I am unsure whether this would also work for pumpkin 'goo' but maybe it would work? Cheers!
General advice for avoiding goo (I have done this with fruit purees)... Don't lower the tip of your racking cane/autosiphon all the way to the bottom. You'll lose a little more beer, but it's better than the alternative.
I usually end up siphoning into a strainer bag (that naturally is sanitized). It can be a bit of a pain to do in a carboy but its possible. I have stuck the bag in, brought it up and around the neck and put rubber bands around the neck. Stick the siphon output as far down in the carboy as possible and tilt to avoid splashing. Once you are done you'll have a big clump in the bag so you cant just pull it out. You can pull one side of the bag so you spread the pumpkin goo all over inside the bag and make the cross section smaller. I also keep the siphon tip off the bottom for as long as possible, starting with it nearly at the top. I almost always put it to the bottom eventually though I'm greedy like that...
