To Rack or Not to Rack?

[Ollie]

Being new to the home brew frontier I have recently discovered the process of racking a beer but never tried it - I looked in the brewing guide you have but it did not have anything on it. Hoping you guys could give me a few tips on a couple of questions I have. Specifically:

I have read that you can rack the beer in the first three to five days of fermentation, why the range in time? Is there a way of knowing exactly when to rack the beer and can you do it at the wrong time within this range or does it not matter?

And when do you add the finnings? in the first fermenter or into the second after you have racked it?

Cheers for any input that you might have! [biggrin] Ollie

[Kearnage]

Racking and finings are an optional extra that, in my mind, add nothing other than risk of infection and bits of cow hooves. (And the possibiltiy of interfering with secondary fermentation). Leaving the beer in the fermenter for a week after fermentation has finished, bottle conditioning and pouring without shaking the bottle first achieves roughly the same thing for me.

Many of our North American friends however have a very different view of this, so there are plenty of opinions out there.

 

Dan

 

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

You'll find lots of conflicting information on the subject. I've never added finnings before but I have racked several batches of beer. I find that it really helps with getting a clearer beer with less sediment in the bottle. The beer is usually drinkable quicker (after bottling) but all in all it's not really life changing. The time frame is there for a good reason, generally there's not much head space left over in the carboy when you rack 23l so you want the initial fermentation to be over (Foam head has risen and receded) otherwise you'll have a mess on your hands. I mostly rack to free up my fermenter to get another batch on the go. Keep in mind that sanitisation is key and moving the beer to another vessel is a possible way to infect a batch, although it isn't too likely because the beer already has some alcohol content. I hope that clears things up a bit for you.

[Andris]

I get same effect by leaving beer longer in primary fermenter - till its perfectly clear (usually 2-3 weeks), yeast by that time is usually compacted on the bottom of fermenter, then move it to bottling bucket, bulk prime and bottle = clear tasty beer.

[Muddy Waters]

I'm a "leave it in the fermentor for an extra week" kinda guy. The only time I move my beer to a secondary vessel is when I choose to bulk prime.

 

As for finings, I've never used them and never seen the need. With time in the bottle it all settles out and doesn't make it's way into my glass unless I really want it to.

[Ollie]

Thanks for the responses guys but they have prompted another question!

To Muddy and you other fellas who say you just leave it in the fermenter for an additional week or two - what is all the talk about the beer getting a bad flavour from the turb about then? Is this not why people rack it off?? Do you guys not get/notice this? As I have never done it I am now wondering if it is worth the time and effort!! Will it actually make the beer tastier?

[Greg]

you might get a bad flavour if you leave it on the trub for months,when the yeast runs out of food and starts eating itself. I dont rack (unless i lager) because im lazy and i dont see any benifits in doing it. If you want clean beer, just chuck the FV in the fridge at 3 degrees for 3-5 days after FG is achieved. It will be very clear then which you could then rack into a keg. Otherwise, it would clear in the bottle anyway. As for taste, give it time in the bottle and it will taste fine.

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

I should mention that I have had the same experience with longer fermenter time as muddy and Andris. I do use a bottling bucket and as long as you don't disturb the trub when moving the beer out of the primary the results are just as good as racking without the extra step. I'm still in the early phase of getting my pipeline going and my goal is to have a lot of beer on hand aging. Hence why I have racked a few batches, I want to put my fermenter to work every 5 days until I have at least 6 batches conditioning in bottles. My friends depleat stock in a hurry when they come over so it's an ongoing battle to get ahead of the demand.

[Ollie]

Staggersalot,

Ain't that the truth! The boys are always happy to drink the home brew but never assist in making any! least they could do is help wash a few bottles![pinched] [pinched] ... Like you I am trying madly to get as much on as possible! Tonight will be my first rack attempt so I free up the fermenter to put another on! Thanks for the input [happy]

[Muddy Waters]

When you guys are talking about racking to free up your fermentor do you mean you are racking to a cube or something?

 

Or are you racking them and bottling straight away??

 

[unsure]

 

I could do with another fermentor at the moment as I have a case of gridlock at the moment - I was hoping to have my Duvel bottled by now but it got stuck at 1020. I've coerced it down to 1010 after 17 days in the fermentor now but it really needs a few days to clear up (I'd throw it in the fridge but I have it in my lone Coopers fermentor which is too fat to fit in there [pinched] - and I wont have time for about 5 days to go out to Bunnings and get a new fermentor so that option is ruled out).

 

I've got 2 1/2 weeks until we go overseas for a month and I'd really like to put on a wheat beer and get it bottled before we head off so that it will be ready with the rest of my vast Xmas stockpile.

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

Muddy, I rack to a carboy and stuff an airlock [pinched] in it to keep the beer safe from contamination. It can be left there for quite awhile and it does clear nicely. Like I said before just make sure everything is nice and clean. One thing that I don't think has been pointed out is that you want to siphon into the bottom of the carboy slowly to avoid airating the beer. kind of like pouring a beer down the side of a glass so it doesn't foam over. I'm not sure how important this step is but I have read it a number of times so I just do it to be safe.

[Ollie]

Staggers, At the risk of sounding even more amateur than I am, what is a carboy?? When you rack it off how long will you leave it for?

 

Muddy, As it is my first time racking (did it last night) I racked it off into my spare fermenter and sealed it up again with the air lock etc and plan to leave it for another 5 or so days before I will bottle it... Is this what you would do?

[Muddy Waters]

Hi Ollie - To me a carboy is a fermentor so we better wait for Slurtis to clarify. It sounds like he is referring to something else though.

 

As Slurtis alluded to, I hope you used a hose to transfer it to your other fermentor as you only really want to be splashing your brew around is at the time of mixing and pitching. Unlike him I don't siphon I just use the tap with a food grade hose.

 

I assume fermentation is complete??? If so I reckon 5 days would do the trick. I wouldn't bother racking in future unless you really need to - such as an explsove and messy stout fermentation perhaps or for extended lagering of a....lager [biggrin] ...another thing I don't really bother with, but then again I don't really make a lot of lagers. Other than that it is a waste of time.

[PB2]

A carboy is a vessel, normally made from glass, that has relatively parallel sides until it narrows dramatically at the neck with suffient opening for inserting a rubber bung or similar (with or without airlock), no opening for a tap so it requires a syphon to remove the fluid.

 

Oh, and in most instances, racking a brew serves little purpose - we don't recommend it. Might add a more comprehensive answer to the Brewing FAQs [biggrin]

[Squishy]

 

Muddy, As it is my first time racking (did it last night) I racked it off into my spare fermenter and sealed it up again with the air lock etc and plan to leave it for another 5 or so days before I will bottle it... Is this what you would do?

 

Muddy.... Tell ollie what you think of the airlock and how much you love to use it[lol] [lol] [lol] [lol]

 

 

[Muddy Waters]

Sorry Squishy - I let myself & everyone down by forgetting to talk about my love of airlocks [biggrin]

 

The farting sound they male makes me laugh [ninja]

 

Ollie - If you search around the site enough you will find that I find airlocks as useful as tits on a bull. I subscribe to the "No Lid & NO Airlock" system...otherwise known as the sytem of champions [biggrin] . I just cover the top of the fermentor with glad wrap and secure it with the o-ring from the discarded lid. The benefits of this are that you can see in the top and see all the action - you don't need to remove the airlock take a sample or to move the fermentor (if you haven't found out already you can suck water in through the airlock if you do either of these things without remving it or loosening the lid [pinched] ).

 

The benefits of airlocks are far outweighed by the benefits of not using one - Some would say this was a matter of opinion but I would say it is a fact [lol]

[Andris]

Sorry Squishy - I let myself & everyone down by forgetting to talk about my love of airlocks [biggrin]

 

The farting sound they male makes me laugh [ninja]

 

Ollie - If you search around the site enough you will find that I find airlocks as useful as tits on a bull. I subscribe to the "No Lid & NO Airlock" system...otherwise known as the sytem of champions [biggrin] . I just cover the top of the fermentor with glad wrap and secure it with the o-ring from the discarded lid. The benefits of this are that you can see in the top and see all the action - you don't need to remove the airlock take a sample or to move the fermentor (if you haven't found out already you can suck water in through the airlock if you do either of these things without remving it or loosening the lid [pinched] ).

 

The benefits of airlocks are far outweighed by the benefits of not using one - Some would say this was a matter of opinion but I would say it is a fact [lol]

 

I guess its cool if you have some pet-free space... I have to take cats out of stuff when I do anything - mix, sanitize everything (including cats) and I can imagine how they would love some foamy bit noisy wort fermenting - paws and nose in and play with it = furball or (God forbid) cat ale. If you have dogs, I image they would drink from open fermenter same way they do from toilet - dog ale and farting drunk dog as a bonus? Nevermind of all the small fruit flies that just love this stuff, especially in autumns when their mission is to get inside your house.

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

A carboy is a vessel, normally made from glass, that has relatively parallel sides until it narrows dramatically at the neck with suffient opening for inserting a rubber bung or similar (with or without airlock), no opening for a tap so it requires a syphon to remove the fluid.

 

Oh, and in most instances, racking a brew serves little purpose - we don't recommend it. Might add a more comprehensive answer to the Brewing FAQs [biggrin]

 

Thanks for that PB2, very good description [cool] As for the benefits of racking the only one I have found so far is that it allows me to make more beer faster. I have lots of carboys but only two fermenters. My fermenters are basically just big buckets with lids. No airlock for me, except as a method of sealing my carboys. I do a couple of wraps of cling wrap around the lid of my fermenter just to make sure that it is sealed.

 

Andris Muddy isn't open fermenting, he's replaced the lid on his coopers fermenter with cling wrap [ninja]

 

[Muddy Waters]

Slurtis - Can't you ferment in your carboys? I'd have thought they'd be perfect. Cleaning might be a bit tricky though.

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

I could do reduced volume batches in the carboys, maybe 19l. I have done 23 liter batches in the carboy and it usually makes a mess due to the limited head space. Another way of doing it would be to start at a lower volume and then top up after the krauzen subsides. Cleaning is a PITA though so I just use the carboys to clear my beer and make room in my 46 liter buckets. I've never had an issue with too much foam in the buckets.[ninja]