# Racking From The Fermenter. Siphon From The Top Or Connect To Tap?



## dkaos (14/9/10)

Hi All,

I did my first AG brew the other day, BIAB style. It was the Nelson Sauvin Summer Ale from the recipe DB. It tastes and smells delicious, however it's full of hop trub so naturally I'm going to need to rack it. My question is, do you rack from the top of the fermenter by removing the lid and siphoning, or do you connect your racking tube to the tap?

The instructions that I've seen so far suggest connecting the racking tube to the tap but logically this doesn't fly. What are your experiences?

Also, how do you go about cleaning your cubes once you've racked into them ?


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## WarmBeer (14/9/10)

Clints Gadgets said:


> ... however it's full of hop trub so naturally I'm going to need to rack it....


Why? There's no need to introduce further vectors for infection, just bottle straight from primary. Once fermentation is completed, all your trub should compact itself down into the bottom inch or so of your fermenter, underneath the level of your tap outlet.. You can give it a helping hand by cooling your whole fermenter down in the fridge for a couple of days, this will result in clearer beer as well.

To quote Papazian: RDWHAHB


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## hsb (14/9/10)

I just use the tap and silicon tubing. If the trub is deeper than the tap level, lean the fermenter back a bit on something to help get some clearance. 
* I should add I rack most beers to secondary to clean up yeast/trub. Personal choice, maybe you like the floaties, as above it isn't obligatory.

I use no scent Napisan to clean my cubes. Nice hot water, half a capful, good shake, leave a day, repeat then rinse with hot water then I add Starsan seal and leave for next brewday. Seems to work. There's a variety of products you can use to clean them, napisan is probably the cheapest and most accessible. I'd just keep rinsing and repeating if you have lingering smell or residue. I always get them rinsed as soon as I empty them, reduces chances of getting mould/bacteria growing in there or things sticking in the corners etc.


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## kocken42 (14/9/10)

I hope the beer turns out great for ya mate!

I've always generally racked from the tap, but it depends on the amount of sediment!
I have seen primaries where the sediment is covering the tap intake, and that would therefore be a bad idea to rack from there 
Racking from the tap is perfectly fine, if the sediment is compacted enough, you shouldn't get any trub sucking into the tap, and when you near the end of racking, just tip your fermenter forward very gently to get the last litre or so. 

The only problem I have had with it was my hose is a size which slides into the inside of the tap outlet, but it's not a tight fit so when racking, oxygen CAN be sucked into the beer, and pretty heavily oxidising the beer. I overcame this by wrapping a pit of gladwrap and sticky tap around it.


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## hazard (14/9/10)

Clints Gadgets said:


> Hi All,
> 
> I did my first AG brew the other day, BIAB style. It was the Nelson Sauvin Summer Ale from the recipe DB. It tastes and smells delicious, however it's full of hop trub so naturally I'm going to need to rack it. My question is, do you rack from the top of the fermenter by removing the lid and siphoning, or do you connect your racking tube to the tap?
> 
> ...


If you rack from the top then use a racking cane, but if you are going to use the tap, the simply connect a hose to the tap, don't use a racking cane.

I used to rack from the top, and always sucked on the hose to get the beer flowing. Although I never got any infections (thanks to liberal use of listerine before sucking) it did always make me nervous, and I recently moved to racking via the tap. So what i do now is put the mainfermenter on the kitchen sink, the secondary sits below it on the floor, and a hose runs from the tap of the main fermenter and coils in the bottom of the secondary, you don't want it dropping in from in aheight (ie avoid oxidation). I monitor progress of the transfer, and near the end I tip the main fermenter to make sure I get most of the liquid out but leave yeast cake behind. So I have the lid off at this stage and watch the outlet hole closely to see what is happening, at the same time holding my breath so i don't breath germs in there!! This way I only leave a very small portion of beer behind.

I always rack twice, once after primary fermentation, before I cold condition the beer, and secondly into the bottling bucket after conditioning. If I get 23 litres out of the kettle, i will get at 22 litres into the bottling bucket, so losses are small. Once you do it once ior twice you'll be fine.


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## MaltyHops (14/9/10)

hazard said:


> ...
> I always rack twice, once after primary fermentation, before I cold condition the beer, and secondly into the bottling bucket after conditioning. If I get 23 litres out of the kettle, i will get at 22 litres into the bottling bucket, so losses are small. Once you do it once ior twice you'll be fine.


Here's an idea - I've just racked from primary into a cube which I have fitted a
tap/tube/airlock to as per pix below. As the cube has a hump at the bottom, letting
the beer condition with the cube on its side means the sediment will drop down to
the trough when cube is put upright for bottling. If handled gently, very clear beer
can be bottled (except for the last bottle wrung out from the cube).

I find the beer is still gassing during the secondary so putting an airlock stops any
leaks (from the tap mount - I try not to tighten too much to avoid damaging the
thread). This is a pretty neat solution - the cube is quite easy to clean and can
bottle straight from it.


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## cdbrown (14/9/10)

Interesting idea - but why not just put it the way it should be and just use gladwrap and a rubber band over the opening at the top.


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## enoch1973 (14/9/10)

I rack to secondary fermenter via the tap with some silicon tubing. I wouldn't worry about getting some of the crud from the primary in the secondary. It should fall to the bottom in due course. The secondary is cleaned and sterilized the same as the primary... No rinse iodophor.


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## King Brown (16/9/10)

I usually do it from the tap, but last time I did it from the top with a racking cane (didn't have a tap on the fermenter) and no matter which way I've done it, there's never been any trub at the bottom of the second vessel.


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