Racking?

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jpog

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 20, 2012
71
3
0
I noticed that many of the racking canes have a black tip that is suppose to help prevent the lee's from being racked up. My friends that brew beer suggested wrapping the tip in cheesecloth..is that what everyone does here or do you tilt the bottle and just rack from the top? Just curious..what methods people use here?
 
In a traditional I just rack from above the lees. More crap will fall in secondary so I'm not too worried about a little getting carried over. If I have a melomel or methligin I'll sometimes use the cheesecloth to prevent stuff like seeds from the fruit or spices from getting carried over or clogging up the racking cane.
 
Ive never used cheese cloth. Just placed the cane at the height to which I was willing to deal with lees carry over. So when Im bottling I keep the cane high and then towards the end when i need to lower the cane into the questionable area I still bottle and but place them somewhere else knowing that I may have some sediment. I just don't give those bottles out as gifts. But the way I do things I usually end up with a few rackings.
 
You can buy what are basically panty hose for toes only. I guess they are meant to be worn with toeless shoes. They have a clear band used to stretch behind the heel to hold them on. This works nicely to affix the "filter" to the racking cane over the black piece.
I've used this mostly in the beer process, but a mead with heavy sed's would benefit.
I chose this in place of cheese cloth because it is not cotton, thus it is easier to sanitize.
With a trad. mead your not likely to need this.
 
I wrap a little piece of cheesecloth around the black tip when I'm racking settled JAO's or anything with grape seeds or apple seeds, jsut to keep the big floaty stuff out.
 
Yeh..just went to Walmart to try to buy them..man..did I get a dirty look by the lady I asked...haha..it was funny...since I am a guy and I was looking very intensely in the ladies section:o
 
haha Jpog, i used the link to look first before i would have to deal with that. I usually just grab condoms when I have to pick the lady up stuff she needs or just to make a weird checkout worse.
BTW are they cheaper at wal-mart? 30 bucks for 3 online.
 
3 for $30??

Wow...

Pick up some cheap panty hose for $5 or less and a large bundle of zip ties for a few more dollars.

You should be able to cut between 10-30 pieces out of a hefty woman sized panyhose and ziptie it onto the cane. I'd probably skip the gusset crotch though. LOL :D

Happy Fermenting! :D
 
At xmas time, walmart had generic knee highs for real cheap, maybe a quarter.

3 for $30??

Wow...

Pick up some cheap panty hose for $5 or less and a large bundle of zip ties for a few more dollars.

You should be able to cut between 10-30 pieces out of a hefty woman sized panyhose and ziptie it onto the cane. I'd probably skip the gusset crotch though. LOL :D

Happy Fermenting! :D
 
I usually tilt and rack to just over the lees.... Depending on what is left I either pour the remainder into a smaller bottle and let it settle further or dump it.... Some of my batches have so much lees that I just can't bare to throw it all out.... This is particularly the case for some of my melomels......