Racking

[Stuster]

After coming under intense criticism of my last racking poll from Braufrau in this thread I thought I'd try to redeem myself by starting a new one.

So what do you do? Do you rack on every beer, only for particular beers (which ones?), or do you never bother with racking? Why do you do what you do? What benefits do you find from doing it your way?

Edit: Just to define racking. Racking is transferring the beer from a primary container to a secondary container (or from a secondary to a tertiary etc etc). It's done with a hose to avoid splashing leading to oxidation of the beer. The intention is to remove the beer from the yeast to avoid off tastes (from autolysis) and to allow the beer to clear. There are many (including me) who question this. (Autolysis is very uncommon in homebrewing it appears. And the beer will clear in a primary just as quickly in a secondary.)

 

[razz]

Put me down for racking 100% of the time. Reverse racking that is, taking the yeast out of the bottom of the conical after primary.

 

[microbe]

Never have in my on again - off again brewing career. Often thought about it to stop wasting that last bit in the bottle but the taste doesn't bother me so I generally conclude that for asthetics it's not worth the extra work, infection risk or oxidation.

 

[Kingy]

never racked for my first 30 brews or so but since ive startin racking will never look back,its definately a clearer,cleaner and smoother beer

 

[brettprevans]

Is it wierd if I admit that in some brews I occationaly dont mind a bit of sediment sometimes? :unsure:

it gives it a particular taste that is not all that unpleasent. only on occation though and only after a few.

please forgive me!

 

[andreic]

Hi,

I've change my mind a few times. I used to rack to secondary. Then I stopped because in one of the racking threads on this site the majority view was don't bother. But after a few more brews I went back to racking. Got sick of having a thick deposit of yeast in every bottle when doing secondary cuts it down to a fine coat of yeast paint.

Well now I have a fermenting fridge, so I've decided to drop racking again - I will drop the yeast out by chilling the fermenting fridge to 1c for a couple of days before bottling. I will always rack for lagers though so I can do my secondary in the lager fridge for 1-3 months.

cheers,

Andrei

 

[chris.taylor.98]

I used to always rack all of my beers until recently, and I must say am still not convinced that:

i) Not racking always produces a better beer as some of the "experts" would have us believe.

ii) The extra risk of exposing the beer to more oxygen, bacteria etc is really that much of a problem.

Although I will say that my last beer I just bottled ( a Munich Helles ) was the clearest one yet, and it was not racked at all. Just left it on the yeast for an extra week and then lagered for another week before bottling it, and fined with two lots of gelatin at the different temperatures.

Has anyone done a side by side to try and determine the merits or otherwise of racking?

 

[Tyred]

Most of the time I rack. Sometimes I forget, or just couldn't be bothered. That said, I'll be racking the two-can I'm currently brewing.

 

[braufrau]

Is it wierd if I admit that in some brews I occationaly dont mind a bit of sediment sometimes? :unsure:

it gives it a particular taste that is not all that unpleasent. only on occation though and only after a few.

please forgive me!

That's not weird. Some people like the yeast in their sparkling ale and some people
leave it in the bottom. Its a feature of the style, not a bug.

In belgium they sometimes serve De Konnicks with a shot glass of yeast sludge on the side.

 

[tangent]

3068 yeast mmmm

 

[matti]

I rack every time.
Reason is to clear my beer.
I add finings and Cold condition every brew.
1 week as general for ale @2-4 degrees.
4 weeks minimum for lagers.

 

[NRB]

I rack if I'm planning on doing 2 concurrent tasks - dry hop a batch and use the current yeast slurry in the next batch immediately. Failing this I don't rack.

I should add that I've never brewed a lager and would probably rack prior to lagering, even though it was recently pointed out that lagering would seem to be an unnecessary step h34r:

 

[leeboy]

I'm a big fan of racking. Mainly for APA's etc. for a few reasons
1) Get the beer of the yeast/troob after 4 days once mass fermentation begins to slow
2) Recipes are more reproducible due to no "funky" flavours from the yeast
3) Clearer beer - got a lot of recent convert mates to please with clear tasty beer
4) Like to harvest my own yeast and reuse. So get it while its still active helps next batch
5) Can then chill the ale for a couple of days to age it quicker while it isn't on the primary yeast.

That said I love beers that aren't racked also. Belgian wits, etc are excellent

 

[FazerPete]

Is it wierd if I admit that in some brews I occationaly dont mind a bit of sediment sometimes? :unsure:

it gives it a particular taste that is not all that unpleasent. only on occation though and only after a few.

please forgive me!

I'm with you citymorgue. I don't see what the obsession is with having a sparkling clear beer and I quite like the taste of a little yeast in it. It seems a little bit of a contradiction when people recommend using a high quality yeast because of the flavour it imparts and then strive to get rid of every trace of it. :blink:

That's just my opinion anyway.

 

[leeboy]

Fair call pete but most of the flavour a yeast imparts on a beer isn't actually the yeast being physically in it. Most of the yeast effected flavours in a beer are actually the results of the fermentation products hence why you have high quality microbrewed beers with such amazing flavours even after they have got rid of the yeast within 3 days of brew day.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I voted sometimes. I pretty much dont rack but,

I might rack if I screw up trying to leave trub etc out of the fermentor, but I'm getting better at that so dont have to very often these days.

Probably would rack if otherwise I would be leaving the beer in primary for much more than 4 or 5 weeks, but haven't had occasion to do that more than once.

If I was fermenting outside the ferm fridge and I thought the weather might take a turn towards the hot side... yep. Thats the only thing that has ever given me bad yeast flavours

I suppose it counts that I racked my old ale into an oak barrel, but that was after 3 weeks in the primary.

Apart from that, I just wait or cold crash, till the beer clears properly in the primary, then keg (or sometimes bottle)

Still, only one lager under my belt and I haven't tried using finings... might try it out for those, but only if a cant get away with not doing it.

 

[Jye]

I don't wear pants when I rack

Stuster, I dont think this technique has made it to Australia yet... but if I ever rack Im gonna do it like this

 

[Stuster]

Well, the beers I don't rack come out pretty clear. I usually leave beers for 2 weeks in the primary. I use an auto-syphon to rack my beers to the bottling bucket where I bulk prime so I don't get too much trub in the bottle. I do rack some beers. For the first time in a long time I racked the Xmas case beer, a Biere de Garde - partly to see if it made any difference, partly as I wanted the primary space. I also racked a cider which is going to sit in secondary for several months. Anyway, I certainly don't think that racking is a problem if you want to do it, and do it carefully. I guess I'm just lazy.

Jye, I guess I should have known you'd pick up the reference. :lol:

 

[RobboMC]

I brewed for 2 years without racking, now I've started and will never make another batch without racking.

Apart from the possible improvements to the beer, proper racking means that the brew can sit safely for some weeks until I have some convenient time for bottling. For a man with a wife and 4 kids this is important.

Racking looked hard to me, but now I have my technique perfected it's quite quick, easy and painless. Worth the effort IMHO, even for ales.

 

[OLD DOG]

I rack all my beers,

I first started racking wanting a clearer beer. But I know do so because I love to dry hop more than out of necessity.

Minimum is a week and up to a month if not drinking too much. :unsure:

Also have to agree with RobboMC about time management.

regards old dog