Racking cane filter question

I have used the nylons trick (though they were newly bought, not the wife's), and it works, if you can keep the material from getting sucked into the cane. But it's usually not necessary. If you rack carefully, especially with a racking cane that has a protective 'tip' at the bottom (like on an autosiphon), you can really minimize the amount of trub picked up. But no, adding any type of filter to the 'input' end of a cane/siphon shouldn't cause oxidation, assuming the beer is smoothly flowing when it exits the other end.

 

You say the bottling cane, are you talking about the transfer from fermentor i> bottling bucket? If so, then nylons or fine mesh bags can work, but honestly just being careful and not disturbing your racking cane while it is transferring is the easiest thing to do. Keep your fermentor tilted so that the cane is at the lowest point.

You would not risk oxidation if you did any of these tricks because the cane is submerged in your beer and has no contact with air in order to introduce any oxygen.

 

I have used a paint strainer bag over the racking cane for years. Oxygen? Where would the O2 come from on the cane side?

 

It would. You don't want any unnecessary agitation on the 'output' side of a racking.

 

You could line the bottling bucket with a paint-strainer bag, but there would be no need to remove it from the bottling bucket until you were finished bottling. It seems to me that by doing this there would be no potential aeration issue.

 

Well, you'd still be passing beer through the bag's holes in the open air (at the rising liguid to air boundary) as the bucket is being filled, which will cause some added aeration. I don't really have a sense for how much though.

 

I use two 5 gal paint strainer bags on the end of the auto siphon for beers that are dry hopped. At first I was using one and it clogged on me one time. I started getting air bubbles in the tubing until I was able to get some of the hop material off the side of the bag. Since then I switched to two and have had no issues. For beers that aren't dry hopped I don't use them.

A couple other tips for bottling.
The day I bottle I will usually move the fermenter to where I am going to bottle a few hours ahead of time. This will give time for anything that got kicked up while moving the fermenter to settle back down to the bottom. I would like to leave it over night to settle but I don't trust my cats.

I put a book under one end of the fermenter so it is slightly tilted. I then siphon on the side that is tilting downwards. This way I can get almost all of the beer and get very little of the yeast cake.

Use a priming sugar calculator and weight your sugar.

Have a few extra bottles and caps sanatized and ready. I have found cracks in bottles as I am getting ready to fill them.

 

I see where your concern is, and I have never done it that way. Use a sanitized 5 gallon nylon paint strainer bagon the cane to filter what is going into the cane, then you don't have to do anything on the outlet side. Well, except to avoid splashing, get the end of the tubing under beer ASAP.

 

I usually sanitize a nylon grain bag to the side of the bottling bucket and stick the siphon out into that. They both go to the bottom of the bucket and it grabs a good amount. I did this last night when transferring a coffee stout that had coffee grounds in the secondary. I could see putting it on the other end might be better, but this is pretty easy as well.

 

Here's a racking cane filter on Amazon for $7.54 shipped. I can't speak to its effectiveness but it looks like it'd do the trick.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ASIN=B006FX4ZCK&linkCode=as2&tag=hombrefin-20