Auto Siphon Nightmare

[BrewNoob]

I had my first nightmare last night with an auto siphon. My tube fits very snug, so much it is sometimes difficult to get on the siphon. I was racking my Arrogant Bastard clone off to the bottling bucket and I had dry hopped it with pellets instead of whole hops. I wrapped some clean cheesecloth around the bottom of the siphon and wrapped a rubber band around it, all sanitized of course. When I got down to the last gallon or so it started clogging bad. I had to pull out the siphon and take off the cheesecloth and try to carefully siphon the rest, which in the end pulled up a bunch of minute hop pieces that were suspended in the wort. The first case I bottled seemed to be pretty clear, but near the end of the second case the fine particles that got into the bottling bucket ended up clogging my auto bottle filter. I decided the last 2- 22oz. bottles i just poured the stuff in hop pieces and all and will drink those first after pouring through some strainer. Anyone run into this prob before?

Gerard

[bub]

don't strain it decant it... let the bottle sit upright for awhile and carefully pour off the good stuff... wine snobs do it all the time.
BUB

[Who is John Malt?]

I always dry hop in bags and remove prior to racking. I've used my Auto Syphon for 5+ years without any problems.

[Thirsty Boy]

My last batch I was getting all sorts of hop bits and pieces coming out into the bottles (wasn't using a bottling bucket) So I did the best I could and most of them were OK, but I ended up decanting the last couple of litres into a plastic pitcher, covered with a clean cloth and let it settle for a while, then poured into the bottle from there. Marked the bottles to drink first 'cause they would have gotten a bit of oxygen and more risk of infection. They were fine and probably had less shit in them than the rest of the batch.

[boise_brewer]

I used to have that problem a lot. I just started using whole hops for the dry hop, and pellets for the boil. The whole hops are easier to remove while bottling.

[BrewNoob]

I prefer whole hops but my LHBS lacks variety in the whole hop dept. they usually only have cascade in whole. I wanted amarillo in this dry hop. I hate living in the country

Gerard

[Chaos-in-mt]

I love living in the mountains. But I also have problems getting any local brewing supplys. Hell an OZ of hops cost 3 bucks in town you cant even buy bace grain. So I have to mail order everything But I do grow most of my own hops so I always have hole hops 12 kindes as of this year.

[Bugeater]

One trick I use that may help you is to use a stainless steel scrubbie stuck over the end of your autosiphon instead of the cheesecloth. This gives you a much bigger surface area to filter through and lessen the chances of clogging.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company