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racking - how to

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calicojack

calicojack

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 29, 2010
273
1
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Montgomery, AL
The last time i was at ALABREW i picked up an auto siphon. The process itself is pretty straight forward. however I have a question:

When i created my batch (JAO) i left a little head space as to not clog the airlock. I've read that head space in the secondary fermentor is a bad thing. so do i use water or honey to fill up the head space in the secondary?
 
How much headspace are we talking about? Adding honey and water is one way to go, but is going to mess with the recipe. Personally I use sanitized glass beads (the kind for fish tanks, those won't leach anything into the mead).
 
Medsen has been trying sanitized corks to fill the headspace. My latest toy is a CO2 tank, so I'm just filling up the space with that.
 
akueck said:
Medsen has been trying sanitized corks to fill the headspace. My latest toy is a CO2 tank, so I'm just filling up the space with that.
Click to expand...

I've wondered how people use the CO2 tanks to fill up the voids left in carboys when aging... Are there other threads with more details (for the novice mead maker)?? At what point should I be concerned when aging my mead batches??
 
I just aim the nozzle, pull the trigger, and spray. Ideally you'd have a two-inlet system where you could fill from the bottom of the headspace and have an outlet at the top for the escaping gas. But even with just the one big hole it seems to be working fine. The goal is to add at least 3 times the volume of air to make sure you've got it all out of there.

I purge the carboy before racking into it, and then hit the headspace again once I'm done and anytime I open it. Can't say if it has made a difference yet, I've only had the setup for a few months. Fair warning, the setup cost is not cheap; a tank and regulator will run you at least $100. Alternately you can get the paintball cartridges which are much cheaper, but require more frequent replacement; you can buy a little hand-held gun that takes them.
 
akueck said:
I just aim the nozzle, pull the trigger, and spray. Ideally you'd have a two-inlet system where you could fill from the bottom of the headspace and have an outlet at the top for the escaping gas. But even with just the one big hole it seems to be working fine. The goal is to add at least 3 times the volume of air to make sure you've got it all out of there.

I purge the carboy before racking into it, and then hit the headspace again once I'm done and anytime I open it. Can't say if it has made a difference yet, I've only had the setup for a few months. Fair warning, the setup cost is not cheap; a tank and regulator will run you at least $100. Alternately you can get the paintball cartridges which are much cheaper, but require more frequent replacement; you can buy a little hand-held gun that takes them.
Click to expand...

Do you think something like this would work??
http://www.amazon.com/CleanDr-30103...KW/ref=sr_1_32?ie=UTF8&qid=1291046537&sr=8-32

I think I still have one of these, actually... Need to check my pile of less used tech gear... If not, cheap enough to get now and use later... Or bookmark for use later... Could get plenty of cartridges and use them to other spray applications too...
 
Nice... So when I start aging my mead, I'll be sure to have one of the guns, and several cartridges on hand to use... I think I tossed the one I had since I wasn't using it (sucks for blowing out electronics since each cartridge doesn't last very long)... I'm probably going to be placing an order on Amazon this week, so I can add one of those to that order, to make it easier... Unless I can find it cheaper through one of my other sources...
 
I use that same device. It last me for 3 or 4 carboys. Purging the whole thing and topping off. Just be careful on the trigger. It comes out faster than you can imagine. Also I suggest you do not use paintball cartriges. Food grade cartriges are just as cheep in the beer supplies.

Paul
 
I'm planning on getting some more of the cartridges from my LHBS either this week or next... I have two that came with their mini-keg party pack (four 5L mini-kegs plus the tap device that uses the CO2 cartridges instead of letting air in)...

The gun will be here within a week (or so)... I'll see what size tubing I should get so that I can use that to feed through the airlock hole in the bung...
 
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