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no racking? well here's a tale, I used to keg and to get my beers nice and clear left probably about 4 brews in the fermenter for at least two weeks. little buggers cleared right off and looked tops! problem was they tasted like bandaids!!!! who'd visit me then?

now I brew for a week or so...then rack...for a week or so, maybe two. guess what? no bandaids! I put the problem down to the beer sitting on the trub, even the hbs guy reckoned that might be it after killing me with a thousand questions! is racking bad? hell no! especially not in winter time when the little buggers will be in the shed for weeks freezing their nuts off in secondary...mmmm...clear beers!!!!

Krusty wrote:I haven't done this yet. I'm about to do my first bulk prime and bottle in the next couple of days, but I think 180g for about 23L is the right amount.
500g in 23L will give you 22g/L, almost 4 times what is recommended for lagers (ales are supposed to have less). I'll have to check my sources, but I think if you go ahead as you have said, you'll be making grenades...

Yeah i spose that wouldnt be a good idea. I will look into aswell. I have never racked neither have i bulk primed but all this talk has got me thinking. I gota get a new seal for a old fermenter i got of my older bro and i mite give it a go

Talking about making grenades check out how mentos and diet coke react

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw-eEWtP ... rch=mentos

Maybe we need to use mentos to prime the bottles???

500g of dextrose!!! That would be lethal.

180g or less for a 23L brew.

As for racking, day 4 is ok, but I'd leave it a little longer. Especially in these colder temps, where the fermentation rate has slowed down.

I'd just use your hydro to work out when you would normally bottle (for those who don't rack) and rack then. Using all-malt, this would be something like 1008-1014.

Another system (probably even better) is the 7,7,14 method.

7 days in primary
7 days in secondary
14 days cold conditioning (if you have the gear.)

So i should rack when the fermantation is finished then it will start again? And at the the end of the fermentation i should desolve 180grms of dextrose in hot water and stir it throughly in the brew and bottle. Is it ok to bulk prime when bottling?? Also when racking when i have the hose coming down into the second fermentor should i put some glad wrap on the top to seal it of while its racking so stop its chances of get infected? then rip it of and chuck the lid on?

shane_vor wrote:no racking? well here's a tale, I used to keg and to get my beers nice and clear left probably about 4 brews in the fermenter for at least two weeks. little buggers cleared right off and looked tops! problem was they tasted like bandaids!!!! who'd visit me then?

well, I can understand that.

but my brews sit in the fermenter for 6-7 days max.

is that long enough to pick up these off flavours?


And, do these off flavours come from brews sitting on a large amount of sediment for long periods of time in the bottles?

If so, I can see how racking is needed when trying to age beers.

Timmsy wrote:So i should rack when the fermantation is finished then it will start again? And at the the end of the fermentation i should desolve 180grms of dextrose in hot water and stir it throughly in the brew and bottle. Is it ok to bulk prime when bottling?? Also when racking when i have the hose coming down into the second fermentor should i put some glad wrap on the top to seal it of while its racking so stop its chances of get infected? then rip it of and chuck the lid on?

Chances of getting an infection is very slim, don't worry about the glad wrap.

You should rack when the fermantation is finished then it will start again?

- correct

And at the the end of the (second) fermentation i should desolve 180grms of dextrose in hot water and stir it throughly in the brew and bottle.

- No, at the end of the second fermentation, you should mix 160-180g of dextrose in hot water and put this in another fermenter, then rack the finished beer into this fermenter. Gently stir the sugar through.
Proceed to bottle from this last fermenter.

Is it ok to bulk prime when bottling??

- this is the only time to bulk prime as far as I know.

Also when racking when i have the hose coming down into the second fermentor should i put some glad wrap on the top to seal it of while its racking so stop its chances of get infected? then rip it of and chuck the lid on?

- the beer at this stage is fairly safe from infection (not impossible, but its not as likely as when it is still wort). So just make sure you and your work area are clean and you'll be right. I just covered as much of the opening as I could sitting the lid on there.
Hope this sets you straight.
- Krusty

Cheers guys i went a brought the hose last night and was speaking to the bloke at the HBS and he was saying that i should when racking put a teaspoon level with suger or dextrose so that the yeast has something to grab onto while racking. Any of you guys heard of this??

I put down my spakling last night and it is slow to take off but when its done im going to rack it and give that a shot. Cheers for the help guys

My homebrew guy suggested a cople of teaspoons of sugars also. But havent read anything on here to back it up. In theory it sounds like it may help, but i was wondering the same thing.

john