racking and oxygen exposure

[SuperBroo]

Hi All,

With the potential problems of oxygen / bug exposure when racking from one fermenter to another....

Would it be better to...
At the start of your fermentation, run a hose form the top of the brewing fermeter into a second empy sanitized one, and put the airlock on the second one. Then the co2 goes into feremter 2 and then oput the airlock, removing all oxygen from fermenter 2.
Then when you want to rack into the second fermenter, its full of co2 and you wont have any risk of oxygen exposure.

Any idea's / reasons why this is unnecessary or a problem ?

Cheers,
Chris

[Tipsy]

Sounds like a good idea to me. I don't rack much anymore though, but for those that do!?

[drsmurto]

Unnecessary in my opinion.

The act of racking distrubs the beer and dissolved CO2 will come out of solution giving you a CO2 layer.

I almost always rack and simply make sure the second container (i use either cubes or plastic jerry cans) and the racking hose is sanitised.

When racking make sure you minimise splashing. I achieve this by coiling the racking hose in the bottom of the second container. I then kink the hose and turn on the tap. This fills the hose up to the kink. Release the kink and the beer flows smoothly into the second container.

As soon as yo have finished racking seal the second container as normal. For me that is simply a lid and the container is then put into the conditoning fridge at 1C for however long i want/need to conditon it for.

Warra is our resident anti-racker. In all fairness, racking isnt required. You can still achieve a bright beer without racking. I do it mainly to reuse the yeastcake and add gelatine/polyclar to the secondary vessel but i could so the same without racking. I just do.

In commercial breweries they dont rack per se. What they do is open a tap at the bottom of their conical fermenters which removs the yeastcake/trub from the beer allowing it to condition in the same vessel. I have seen other breweries who do rack into bright tanks. I'm not sure many breweries condition on the yeastcake.......

[SuperBroo]

Cool,

I'll keep racking, only because it seems to make it clear better in the stubbie.

I have been reading John Palmers book and I am changing my ways a lot now anyway, but racking doesnt seem as important as other things like when you should / should'nt oxygenate the wort, leaving it to condition in the fermenter longer, temperature control, hydrating yeast and yeast type / condition.

Having temperature control, sanitation and patience seem to be the key.

Heck, theres a lot to experiment with !!!

Also been getting some 'Steepacs' from ROY at TWOC, not expensive, and simple for a basic brewer like me.

Cheers to all

Chris, WA

[chadjaja]

Hi my name is Chad and I'm a racker

[warra48]

I don't rack ales, but I do rack lagers.

[Finnagann]

I don't rack ales, but I do rack lagers.

How long do you usually leave your ales in the primary?

[chadjaja]

If its an APA to drink fresh for eg I rack after one week and then leave a further week. That usually does the trick in both reaching FG and when I dry hop in secondary there is still a bit of CO2 but not enough to destroy the aroma of the hops I add.

[warra48]

I don't rack ales, but I do rack lagers.

How long do you usually leave your ales in the primary?

I leave ales usually between two to three weeks before bottling.
However, the last APA I bottled was in primary at 18ºC for 9 days, when I dry hopped it and dropped the temperature down to 3ºC for another 19 days.
I just didn't get to bottling it earlier for various reasons.

Now, that's just what I do. It may well be there are good reasons to rack to a conditioning container. It may be the beers will become drinkable earlier and perhaps it may also enhance stability. I don't know personally, as I don't normally rack. However, my ales do take a fairly long time to condition in the bottle, and don't start to hit their straps until about 3 to 4 months post bottling, and then drink well for months after that. For example, I brewed a Best Bitter on 31/8/09, which I didn't like when I first tasted it. I just left the batch, and opened another bottle a couple of weeks ago, and it's now drinking great. That's fine for me as I keep a fairly healthy stock in my beer cellar, but if you need to access your beer earlier, then it may well serve you to experiment with racking.

It's the old story, ask 3 brewers the same question, and you get 4 different answers.
I'm not anti racking per se, I'm lazy, and want to save myself the bother.
If it works for you as a brewer, then it's right for you.

[gregb]

I'm lazy,... save myself the bother.

Right there with you Warra!

If it works for you as a brewer, then it's right for you.

Amen. This should be installed as a cardinal rule, right up there with sanitisation.

[billybushcook]

I think racking is up to the individual & depends on what you are brewing & the yeast used,

I generally don't rack either, for a long while I was using S-04 Brittish ale yeast which flocs out fairly well, so there was no need.
I'm now doing a few brews with US-05 American Ale yeast & I find it is still pretty grotty after a fortnight in the primary, this & the fact that I want to start using PolyClar means I will be racking & cold conditioning a few brews to see what the difference is.
Also looking at filtering my Mash a little better too, Does/Has any one else tried this? Say 50 Micron??

As the cooler weather comes on I will return to Lagers which do benefit from racking & CC.

Cheers, Mick.

[drsmurto]

Racked a golden/amber ale last Saturday and crash chilled. Gelatine added on Tuesday, polyclar on Wednesday.

Kegged on Thursday.

Poured a pint 30 mins later.

[billybushcook]

Nice looking beer Doc & a great recipe.
I still have two bottles of the same (or similar) recipe which are now about 3-4 months old, saving them for a good mate who loves/appreciates a darker beer.

Got a question for you though??

About to dose my first brew with Polyclar.
Do you stir it in, or just sprinkle it in an already chilled secondary??

Mick.

[drsmurto]

Polyclar usage instructions are here - Link

I use 5g per 20L batch.

Weigh it into an erlenmeyer flask.

Add 100mL of boiling water. Cover with clingfilm.

Put on the stir-plate and stir for 1 hour.

Add this to the beer in secondary at 1C. I pour it into the cube/jerrycan and agitate it slightly. Some people rack onto it.

Leave it at 1C till i am ready to keg but normally at least 24 hours.

[earle]

If I had known how useful laboratory equipment was for brewing when I worked in a lab perhaps I would have thought about procuring some.

[billybushcook]

Polyclar usage instructions are here - Link

I use 5g per 20L batch.

Weigh it into an erlenmeyer flask.

Add 100mL of boiling water. Cover with clingfilm.

Put on the stir-plate and stir for 1 hour.

Add this to the beer in secondary at 1C. I pour it into the cube/jerrycan and agitate it slightly. Some people rack onto it.
Leave it at 1C till i am ready to keg but normally at least 24 hours.

Oops!!
Stirred it in cold. Doh!!

Mick.