Growing Concerns About Racking

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Armstrong

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Hi All,

I am getting more and more concerned about some of the brewing practices that people are embracing ... more the point, the inexperienced brewers who in my opinion are biting off more than they can chew.

One of the growing problems seems to be with racking.

Now before anyone starts jumping up and down, i am not saying that the practice has not got merit ... what I am saying is that many new brewers are adopting this practice without mastering the understanding or sanitation type skills to make the process successful.

It is a weekly occurance that a brewer walk into the shop with a bottle:-


"Can you give me an idea what the problem is with this beer ... I have racked it 3 times ..."

The beer in question is either oxidised to buggery or infected beyong belief.

In my opinion, for the NEW brewer, the benefits of racking are outweighed by the risks. Just be mindful when suggesting techniques to also point out the downfalls and how to avoid them

Cheers

Shawn Miles
The Country Brewer
 
racking is fine, its racking more than once thats unnecessary.

I've noted some people advocate adding a tsp of dex at rack to produce a small amount of CO2. I never have. And never had an infected beer.
 
I have held off racking for conditioning at this stage, but I do bulk prime which requires me to transfer between fermenters/kegs. I haven't had a problem yet, and have adopted the method of transfering with the lid on the second fermenter and the tubing submerged in the fermenter passed through the upper hole where the gromet and airlock normally sit.

By doing this I'm avoiding a large opening to which the air is contact with, but instead the tubing acts like an air lock (as it hooks up the to the other tap) so I have zero air contact except for the open end prior to begining the transfer.

I can see where you are coming from, but I consider it like any brewing, new or old. If things aren't cleaned properly in the first place it doesn't matter how easy or difficult your methodology is - you're going to run into problems.

Edit: Excessive racking, well I can't comment on that as I don't even rack once for conditioning as I've never had a real need or desire too.
 
I agree with you- when brewing, new procedures should be added one at a time- I certainly did something new each batch when I was learning (racking, bulk priming etc), but it was still only one new thing- partly so I could learn each process properly, and so I could see the difference it made. Each time a new brewer on this forum has asked about racking at least one person has told them that they need to be careful to not splash the beer, as does the wiki article.
 
I personally don't see the benefit of racking my ales. I just leave them between 2 to 3 weeks in primary, and then bottle. I even dry hop into the primary, if the recipe calls for it. No problems with clarity at all once the bottles have conditioned.
I will rack a pilsener, so that I can lager it in the brew fridge.
 
I don't know if that statement is necessary here Shawn, you sound like you are cautioning a bunch of irresponsible rogue troublemakers....

The importance of hygiene first has always been stressed on this site, and I have never seen anyone on this forum (or any other for that matter) recommend or suggest racking any more than once, especially to new brewers.

What strange practices novice homebrewers adopt in their efforts to make a better better better beer is in my experience can be more attributed to some of the cock and bull stories and procedures recommended by some hbs's (and I don't mean you) in an effort to sound knowledgeable, and get a bigger sale. Some of the complete BS I have been told personally in the past comes to mind........
Sometimes people have a habit of picking up a small amount of information and running with it - (well if racking once is good, then racking 3 times........that sort of stuff...)

I would imagine that anyone coming on here suggesting racking 3 times to newbies would get shot to pieces in quick order......
 
Why not teach brewers the importance of sanitising properly and make sure they know how to rack? The problem is not the practice but the techniques employed by the new brewer.

When you sell them a racking tube, Shawn, make sure it's long enough and demonstrate how to rack with two empty fermenters.
 
Why not teach brewers the importance of sanitising properly and make sure they know how to rack? The problem is not the practice but the techniques employed by the new brewer.

When you sell them a racking tube, Shawn, make sure it's long enough and demonstrate how to rack with two empty fermenters.

Yep ... I was pretty sure this was going to be turned into my problem.

Already stated there was no problem with the practice.

Already stated it was the techniques of the new brewer.

If people do not want to hear about the problems that are happening, well don't read it. I did though think that making people aware that it IS happening may be of some assistance.
 
Yes siphoning is a tricky *******, still trying to master that one.

I hadn't been brewing for too long and i got an infection myself. I stopped racking to secondary (still don't), even though I thought the results (of the non-infected) were pretty good. I then still got an infection without racking.

The infection turned out to be (AFAIK) coming from repeated hydrometer reading (including lifting the pail) sucking back in the airlock water. Because of no secondary i was leaving in primary longer (2 to 3 weeks) and was perhaps too keen on sampling my beer :chug: It wasn't until I searched on here that i learned this little potential downfall and ways around it. No HB shop ever told me to watch out for it and I've been to many.

A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. If someone is willing to read this forum and use ideas then they should, if it goes awry, come back posting questions for troubleshooting and all these guys (who know more about brewing than i ever will) help out. That's how the forum works. Also, I haven't seen anyone get away lightly with misinformation on this site. The current thread on low efficiency is absolute gold for me ATM as i dip my toe in AG waters.

Making mistakes is also how people learn. If people are surfing AHB then they are after improvements to their beer, racking being one of them. God knows I have learnt many lessons in my brewing (at least one every batch) about sanitation and process - sometimes the hard way :icon_vomit:
 
Yep ... I was pretty sure this was going to be turned into my problem.

Already stated there was no problem with the practice.

Already stated it was the techniques of the new brewer.

If people do not want to hear about the problems that are happening, well don't read it. I did though think that making people aware that it IS happening may be of some assistance.


If his problem is in the sanitation like it clearly is, its going to manifest itself somewhere ... the racking has really just brought it too attention.

Mistakes are more likely to happen with the more variables that are included (like racking) no matter what stage of brewing a person is at.
I say say so long has he learns from it and doesn't expect to get everything perfect all the time there's no problem. I'm with Nietzsche on this one. This forum would be pretty bland if it was just everyone getting all things right all the time. I guess part of the retail gig Armstrong is that you've got to answer these questions, but it's how progress is made ehh?
 
Yep ... I was pretty sure this was going to be turned into my problem.

If they came on here with a post saying they'd racked a beer three times and it tasted a bit odd, they'd be told where the problem is. Of course it's your problem if 50 customers a year walk in to your shop with oxidisation problems due to bad techniques.

If one brewer talks to a new brewing mate and tells him racking is the golden bullet for bad beer and to do it every time he brews and several times per brew, I don't see how that's AHB's issue. AFAIK, there is no-one on here who would recommend racking more than twice - once off the primary yeast cake, then once into the bottling bucket or keg. As to when to rack, the at FG and at 2/3 of OG debate will rage long and hard, but no-one here is giving your customers bad advice. We aren't the ones selling them their kits, and I doubt the checkout chick at Franklins recommends racking three times into unsanitised fermenters. Yes, this problem lies with the retailers. Tell them not to rack or teach them how to rack, the power is yours.
 
Yep ... I was pretty sure this was going to be turned into my problem.

Already stated there was no problem with the practice.

Already stated it was the techniques of the new brewer.

If people do not want to hear about the problems that are happening, well don't read it. I did though think that making people aware that it IS happening may be of some assistance.

I don't think anyone was making it your problem Shawn, but the tone of your original post certainly gave me the impression that you might believe that the information / mis-information that has lead to these new brewers making these mistakes has come from this discussion board, and that you were suggesting that we all be a 'bit more careful about the way we hand out advice'.......
I was merely echoing that I think this board is where the mis-information gets corrected rather than disseminated......we know these problems are happening. We hear about them every day too, and they get discussed to absolute death at times..... <_<

Did your new brewer tell you his 'technique' came from here? Or were you generalising?

Is it possible that people here aren't going to be happy to sit back and be told that they've contributed to a new brewer stuffing their brews up because they've somehow mis-advised them?

Or is it just possible that the new brewer was a bit keen on this racking lark, and got a bit carried away - and when you asked him who told him to do it, the response was "mumble mumble on a forum....mumble...somewhere, I forget exactly where....."

No matter. We've all been set straight. No more mis-advising newbies and arming them with partial information for me...... :huh:
 
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