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syphon emergency!
Fellow Brewers:
was transfering my belgian saison ale from a glass carboy to the secondary fermenter glass carboy. Was only able to use syphon for about 3-4 gals, then it "sucked air". Tried to use it again with fresh water to create a new suction. but to no avail. Had to pour from one glass carboy to the other glass carboy. This created lots of bubbles.
Question: 1.) Will this additional oxygen hurt the beer?
2.) though I saw new foam on top of the transfered beer this morning. Does this mean it has renewed fermentation or it is left over air bubbles? The air lock is still bubbling, but at reduced rate as compared to prior to the transfer
If it was just the last gallon or 2, no big deal. You do obviously want to try to avoid this when possible, but if you did it alraeady- no biggie. Chances are if you had full fermentation and full attenuation, then the airlock is from the escaping bubbles. BEcause of the stir up you may have a small bit of new ferm, but that shouldn't last long.
Question: you said your secondary was a glass carboy, is it a 5 gallon, not a 6 1/2? You want to use a 5 gallon (or fill completely) when using a secondaery to reduce the amount of exposed surface area, (beer filled right to neck).
Second is rather than dumping your beer, you could use the inside of your siphon as a racking cane, and either start the siphon by filling w/ water and releasing it until it draws beer, or fust sucki it up, then spray a little starsan on it. (the brewchez technique we call that one)
actually, I am using a 6.5 gal carboy secondary.
I actually tried to refill my syphon hose with water and tried again to syphon but it did not work.
So you were using an autosiphon???
I have the auto siphon. Sounds like you and I have the same problem.
I put my autosiphon in a bucket of sanitizer, I pump it until its filled with sanitizer. Then I "thumb" the tubing end and carefully pull the inner racking cane out of the body of the autosiphon. I swear a little bit at the siphon. Then I just use the racking cane as a stand alone tool. I put it in the beer, holding it off the bottom, then I let the sanitizer run into an empty bucket until the beer flows, then divert it to the awaiting carboy.
You can do this just as well with water, but you still need to sanitize the cane and stuff.
I said it once, I'll say it again- the autosiphon is the tool of the devil!
I can not use it one time w/o some sort of tragedy- spill from the top,spill from the bottom, trapped sanitizer pour out the line- something.
2 nights ago I racked a porter to keg and had no issues, while I was cleaning this demon tool, I held the tubing above and behind my head to let it drain, and ended up sticking my knuckles right into the ceiling fan in my kitchen and bruised them up pretty good.
Is it worth it?
That and I constantly burn my hands on brass ball valves- I just can't help myself.
yes:
before I use it, the syphon has been soaking in a isophor solution overnight.
Tool of the devil? That is something I never heard of before. I just do not like to brew in plastic, so I am stuck with carboys.
Well, thanks for all for your advice. I did try to wipe down the kitchen with bleach wipes before the transfer and I locked the cat in the bedroom before transfer, so I should be OK.
I must be lucky, or special....I've rarely had problems with my auto-siphon....I just pump it up, let it flow, and wait until the level gets low in the source bucket.....I let it sit right on the bottom, and it never really sucks up too much gunk either....
ricka182 wrote:
I must be lucky, or special....I've rarely had problems with my auto-siphon....I just pump it up, let it flow, and wait until the level gets low in the source bucket.....I let it sit right on the bottom, and it never really sucks up too much gunk either....
Maybe there are some weird spatial anomalies at my place and Thirsty's place that tend to funnel bad fortune on our autosiphons.
I love my autosiphon I've never had any issues with it other than the occasional squirt while cleaning/sanitizing.
I've been using my auto siphon since day 1 and I've never had any problems with it. I put it in the carboy and lift up on the racking cane and let the beer inside the siphon rise to the level of the beer in the carboy. Then I give it a quick push down and let it go. Nothing more to it and it doesn't get any easier than that.
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