Bottling and straining problems

[Karvis]

Hi,

I am having "some" problems with the following items, can anyone there help?

1) Bottling, I am using standard bottle filler when bottling from the cask. However, this method always produces extensive foaming and to get the bottles to fill up I have to let the foam to pour out of the bottles. Is this normal or is there a way to reduce foaming?

2) When transferring liquid from boiler to fermentation bin I use this hop strainer from Hop & Grape. But for some reason the rate of flow is usually very very slow. It would take me hours to transfer liquid by using this device. Often I have to rack the boiler when this happens, but that's not a good solution. Is there anyone else using Hop & Grape's hop strainer succesfully? What could be wrong? Of course the hops are flowing freely in my boiler.

[OldSpeckledBadger]

Hi,

I am having "some" problems with the following items, can anyone there help?

1) Bottling, I am using standard bottle filler when bottling from the cask. However, this method always produces extensive foaming and to get the bottles to fill up I have to let the foam to pour out of the bottles. Is this normal or is there a way to reduce foaming?

Are you conditioning in a cask and then bottling? If so I think all you can do is ensure everything is as cold as possible to minimise CO2 release and hence minimise foaming.

2) When transferring liquid from boiler to fermentation bin I use this hop strainer from Hop & Grape. But for some reason the rate of flow is usually very very slow. It would take me hours to transfer liquid by using this device. Often I have to rack the boiler when this happens, but that's not a good solution. Is there anyone else using Hop & Grape's hop strainer succesfully? What could be wrong? Of course the hops are flowing freely in my boiler.

I believe drilling some additional 3mm holes helps. There's been discussion about this before. Use the Search function.

[crookedeyeboy]

You cant go wrong with bottling using this little fella!

http://www.homebrewcentregy.com/Beer_Syphon.html Bottom of the page...

I dont bother with Kegs as I just dont get the carbonation as good as in the bottle. This little gadget allows me to fill the bottle with no froth.

Job done

[Karvis]

Thanks for the help guys. I am maturing the beer in cask and there is of course a lot of gas in beer when I should bottle it.

I also seem to lose a lot of pressure during bottling phase, because the beer poured from bottles is quite flat. Anyway, I guess I should try to chill the cask a bit before bottling. Also, maybe releasing some pressure a few days beforehand from the cask is a good idea. I can't change the tap in my casks, because they are budget barrels.

Br, Petteri

[farmhousekeg]

2) When transferring liquid from boiler to fermentation bin I use this hop strainer from Hop & Grape. But for some reason the rate of flow is usually very very slow. It would take me hours to transfer liquid by using this device. Often I have to rack the boiler when this happens, but that's not a good solution. Is there anyone else using Hop & Grape's hop strainer succesfully? What could be wrong? Of course the hops are flowing freely in my boiler.

The H&G strainer - as I have said on here many times - is a b***ch!! Take a look at this thread which shows how I modified mine. 22 brews in, it works a treat every time. I can empty my boiler in minutes.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=19921
Read the whole thread to see the final version.

[farmhousekeg]

Thanks for the help guys. I am maturing the beer in cask and there is of course a lot of gas in beer when I should bottle it.

I also seem to lose a lot of pressure during bottling phase, because the beer poured from bottles is quite flat. Anyway, I guess I should try to chill the cask a bit before bottling. Also, maybe releasing some pressure a few days beforehand from the cask is a good idea. I can't change the tap in my casks, because they are budget barrels.

Br, Petteri

Sounds to me as if you should change the way you do things. If you are bottling from a pressurised keg you will always get CO2 released and your bottled beer will be flat. Why bottle beer that is already under pressure in a barrel????? I would suggest that you bottle from the secondary FV or even the FV if the beer is clear enough. Otherwise syphon it into a bottling bucket first. In any case, add some sugar to a little of the beer (250mls), warm it to dissolve the sugar, allow to cool, mix it back into very gently into the beer in the FV or bottling bucket and then bottle it. Then just allow it to condition in the bottle.I do 1 week in the warm (20C or room temperature) and then a few weeks in a cool place.

[Scooby]

I've been bottling conditioned beer from a cornie that I keep at 2-3c for three weeks. I carbonate for the last week by setting 7-10psi on the regulator. It's usually reached equilibrium by the end of a week, I then release the pressure, barely crack open the regulator and bottle with a stick as per c'boy with very little frothing.

[Karvis]

I have already modified my hop strainer by drilling extra holes to it as farmhousekeg suggested. Works great now!

What comes to about conditioning ale in a cask, I like to do it because you can still manipulate beer in a cask (secondary fermentation). I mean, you can do some things if beer does not start to clear up.
Also, I do not like too much carbonation in bottled beer, but flat beer is not nice. So, I have now changed my bottling tube from the cask to try to minimize the foaming and I am also trying to add some dissolved dried malt extract to the bottles (5ml/bottle).
I know bottling from cask (secondary) should work, because others are doing it, I just haven't yet been able to work out exactly how.

[farmhousekeg]

I have already modified my hop strainer by drilling extra holes to it as farmhousekeg suggested. Works great now!