Learn from my Fail (Rack it right)

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by inchrisin, Sep 16, 2012.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. inchrisin

    inchrisin Pooh-Bah (2,013) Sep 25, 2008 Indiana
    Pooh-Bah

    I recently used my 6 gal better bottle for a primary fermenter for a Kolsch style beer. I tend not to use it because I'd rather not use a funnel when brewing. After fermentation, I did a crap job of racking my beer into the keg. I tried to tilt the better bottle at an angle and move the autosyphon to the edge of the bottle to collect as much beer as I could. I sucked up A LOT of trub. I thought to myself, "It'll all drop to the bottom of the keg and the trub will blow out in the first glass of beer." WRONG! I'm 12 glasses into the keg and I'm still getting lots of flakes of crap in my glass. It's still so bad that I throw the glass of beer into the freezer to drop the flakes out for 20 min and then I drink about 11oz out of 12 oz of beer and pitch the last sip.

    Long story short, it's better to lose a glass of beer in the bottom of a fermenter than to hope it works itself out in the keg. Make sure you get totally set up before you start your siphon and don't be afriad to cut yourself off before you hit the trub. While the beer in my glass isn't bad, it's just far too much work to try to drink clean beer.
     
    #1 inchrisin, Sep 16, 2012
  2. AlCaponeJunior

    AlCaponeJunior Grand Pooh-Bah (3,452) May 21, 2010 Texas
    Society Pooh-Bah

    This might not work with a better bottle, but then again, beer engineers can do virtually anything...

    Two days ago I bottled a batch. I just got some paint strainer bags, and had an epiphany... I wrapped a paint strainer bag around the bottom of the auto-siphon. Didn't have any issues at all, and got virtually zero trub into the siphon. It seemed to work well. Has anyone else tried this?
     
    #2 AlCaponeJunior, Sep 16, 2012
  3. FATC1TY

    FATC1TY Pooh-Bah (2,564) Feb 12, 2012 Georgia
    Pooh-Bah


    I do this when I don't cold crash carboys that I dryhop with pellets. Sometimes I'll dry hop for a week or two and then the last addition goes in the keg in a bag and connected to the lid.. But if I do it all pellets and in secondary, I'll generally skip the cold crash, and use a paint strainer around the siphon. I don't get anything in the keg, but I also don't push the limit and stick it down in the gunk and see if it works still.

    OP- You could also look into buying a screen to go over your dip tube. I have them on 2 of my kegs where I cut the dip tube 1/4 inch and installed the screen over them. I do this for the kegs I dry hop in. I use leaf or pellets, doesn't matter, put them in a fine hop bag and suspend them in the keg from the PRV body with a SS clamp. I get nothing in my beers, even the 1st pour is pretty clear. Completely drinkable.

    I know that doesn't help with your crappy racking job, but in the future it could help and you could still be greedy! We all hate to toss beer, period. Try the screen, and/or the paint strainer bag next time.
     
    #3 FATC1TY, Sep 16, 2012
  4. BushDoctor

    BushDoctor Initiate (0) Oct 27, 2007 New York

    I have primed beer in my keg thinking the first couple of pints would be yeasty and the rest of the beer would be fine. Every single beer was very turbid and the very last pint blew the rest of the yeast into the glass. It took up yeast with every pour. I will probably only do this with weizens in the future.
     
    #4 BushDoctor, Sep 17, 2012
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.