Bad bottling day

[beerturtle]

Had a horrible bottling day yesterday (plus the Pittsburgh lost a big game to Tennessee!). Was coming off a bad night's sleep and broke the curved end of my racking cane off and so, had to cut part of my hose off to get the broken plastic piece out. It seemed as if everything was going to be okay, but then i couldn't get a great seal on the siphon because of this. :mad: It looked like air bubbles were then getting into the line and possibly oxygenating my beer. I believe some of these bubbles were CO2 still in solution. Well, i went ahead and bottled anyway. And later i took a miter saw (a bit angrily, i might add)to my racking cane to smooth out the broken end. This worked well, just move the saw through the palstic slowly.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone thinks oxygenation could be a serious problem here? I don't want to dump my bottles, and i am willing to wait at least a week to see how things go.

[YamahaXS]

you'll be okay but send it too me if you are going to dump it. :D

[Beerconnoisseur]

*mumble* Auto-siphon (http://www.northernbrewer.com/siphon.html) *mumble*

OK, my work here is done. I'll just be moving along, now... ;)

[MmmBeer]

even with the autosiphon, I always end up (furiously) aerating at least some of the beer; sometimes more than others. I have noticed no deleterious effects up to now. And the imperial stout thats on week 5 of ferment in it's tertiary got **quite a bit** more aeration than I would have liked. Tastes fine. I also dry hopped it a lot and it had a pound each of chocolate and black patent, so that might be covering up any nastiness. But nothing detectable. I wouldn't spray the beer into the carboy but I bet you're ok.

[Brownbeard]

I had this happen with my autosiphon too. I have not noticed any off flavors from oxidation.

[Beerconnoisseur]

I, too, notice bubbles at the tip of the racking cane, when I use my auto-siphon. But I've never noticed any off tastes, like stale cardboard, so it's no big deal to me. I go by the results I get, and unless you want to buy a stainless conical fermenter, the autosiphon is great for carboys.

However, one possibility if you have a kegging setup, is you can pre-flush your bottling bucket with CO2. Since the gas in the bottling bucket (be it air, CO2, or whatever) is what causes the bubbling in the transfer hose, a protective blanket of CO2 might not be a bad idea.

Oh, and everyone is using a racking clip, to keep the transfer hose positioned next to the side of the bucket and to minimize splashing.... right? ;) Just making sure.

[beerturtle]

Thanks for your advice, ideas, all. I have put some thought into an autosiphon and will probably pruchase one eventually. Right now, I guess i'll just wait and see how the brew turns out.
:)

[toneyc]

For the little bubbles at the joint of the hose and racking cane/auto siphon, apply a wire twist tie. It stops the tiny bit of leakage.

:)
Toney.

[Brownbeard]

I was at menards last night, buying my turkey fryer, and I got some little hose clamps that should work great.

[ray m]

Brownbeard, I should have you know that you are getting COMPLETELY out of control with this obsession, uh, hobby:p