What is "Racking"?

[Tony_D]

Could someone please explain what racking is or point me in the direction of a thread that explains it? I've looked, but haven't found an explanation...only people talking about doing it or not doing it.

[ga flatwoods]

Racking is taking the clear beer once fermented and putting into a clean fermenter to allow it to clear even more. Rack it from one jar to another.
Ga Flatwoods

[rager]

for what its worth I don't rack, I strain well and filter and run milky as all hell.


cheers

[T-Pee]

Usually involves a siphon from one container to another.

tp

[Diesel410]

for what its worth I don't rack, I strain well and filter and run milky as all hell.


cheers

What do you filter with? I assume you strain with 75-100 micron?

[rad14701]

I have never used a filter when racking (siphoning)... Clearing and then racking down as close to the trub layer works for me...

[Kegg_jam]

I have never used a filter when racking (siphoning)... Clearing and then racking down as close to the trub layer works for me...

Yep, that's what I try to do. I stop When I see a little gunk heading up the hose.

[Teddysad]

Racking means siphoning off the liquid but keeping the inlet a little above the settled material so it is left in the original container and not transferred to the new container.

[InglisHill]

Never been to a pub with a pool table then?

[OBX Phantom]

Teddysad said it best. It os siphoning off the cleared liquid and leaving the "trub" that has settled to the bottom behind.

[Danespirit]

I only do syponing of (racking/soutirage), when i have done a mash with solids in.
Made a little experiment with old bread, that does just excellent.
for 15 L : Half a loaf of rye bread, 2 KG white sugar,1 B-vitamin pill, a squezze of lemon juice, 25 G bakers yeast.
2 or 3 days to ferment (depends on temperature), alcohol yield around 8-9 %
Only minus is i have to siphon it to another jug before distilling.
Made myself a siphon decice with some siliconetubing and rubber bungs.
Like the lower jar shown on the illustration.

Click on image to see the action

[Brutal]

Just kidding. It's careful siphoning of the liquid off the sediment.

[Danespirit]

LMAO... QUCH..!

[S-Cackalacky]

I don't siphon or rack anymore since I put a fill port in my boiler. I use a one quart sauce pan to dip the wash out of the fermenter and pour it into a ss funnel to fill the boiler. The dipping action can mix up the trub a little, but I can leave most of it at the bottom of the ferment bucket. I would probably need to go with a small electric pump to actually rack it to the boiler - can't get the ferment bucket to a high enough elevation to actually siphon it into the boiler.

[srs787]

When one does rack some trub is lost from the in the movement from jug to jug, hence causing the volume to drop. I always try to top up the new jug, with boiled and cooled water or distilled water to help prevent contamination of this air space in the new jug.

[Tony_D]

Thanx for the help gang!

[rager]

When one does rack some trub is lost from the in the movement from jug to jug, hence causing the volume to drop. I always try to top up the new jug, with boiled and cooled water or distilled water to help prevent contamination of this air space in the new jug.

I don't know about most of you, I can see the reason for racking in some instances but it seems like racking is more for the delicate ferments like wine and fruit ( beer for drinking) ect.

for whiskey I don't see the need for it unless your main concern is preventing a scorch which I understand. other than that, run milky! strip that alcohol out how ever you can. you worked hard to get it . don't leave alcohol in the trub! there is a good amount of alcohol in there that's gonna go down the drain. so find a way to recover it.

think about the guys using steam to recover alcohol from their grains. I bet they recover over 95% from their mash where most who squeeze the grain and run only the "clear" liquid would be down at 60-70 % recovery from mashing , if that.

im honestly pulling almot 20% more low wines per volume running "milky"

don't get me wrong. I filter ever solid I can . at that point its just liquid "mash" going into the boiler.

I heat up slowly and stir until I cant keep my hand on the side of the boiler.

then I cap on and seal it up , install the liebig and im off.

just sayin

cheers

rr

[Tony_D]

I just ran my first successful alcohol and it came out with a sour, almost rotten, smell and taste. I was wondering if maybe I should have racked it before running it or if that has nothing to do with it.

[rager]

I just ran my first successful alcohol and it came out with a sour, almost rotten, smell and taste. I was wondering if maybe I should have racked it before running it or if that has nothing to do with it.

congrats at your first drops from the copper pipe!

you've fallin over the event horizon, you are now falling down the black hole


as far as your problem,

can almost promise you it nothing to do with "racking"

there is more variables outside of just saying "racking" was the cause to your problem.

way more info will be needed

all the info is here


cheers

[Tokoroa_Shiner]

I just ran my first successful alcohol and it came out with a sour, almost rotten, smell and taste. I was wondering if maybe I should have racked it before running it or if that has nothing to do with it.

It's not the racking. As said in your topic on the subject, it's due to not having done any cleaning or sacrificial runs.

[MidnightBrewer]

how long do you rack? I'm testing a lengthy one, an so far it has a fourth clearing layer started. If they end up bad, then they become sacrificial material. just experimenting with different methods and techniques to see what the differences do.

In one that is part juice and part water, I added pectic enzyme, as that is supposed to be a clearing agent, but the full juice batch cleared faster. what are some ways of clearing it faster?

these are 8 day ferment, 10 day settle. it's a turbo yeast, but after reading up here, I'll be trying other ways.

[fizzix]

I was the King Of Turbo Yeast Land until I abdicated the crown, but don't know much about fruit musts or pectic enzyme.
My turbo washes were always cloudy and I used Sparkolloid to clear them. Worked great and dropped the particulates straight to the bottom for re-racking (the act itself of syphoning).
It's a wine clearing agent but worked wonders on my turbo washes.

Suggestion only: Read up on Pectic Enzyme.

I wish you the best!

[MidnightBrewer]

racking eliminated the yeasty flavour in my distillate. I also used turbo yeasts, but now have moved on. Yeast with nutrient keeps up, and stays clearer.

It definately affected my flavour... spectrum(?)

[Fruit Squeezer]

Racking 101:
Racking is simply syphoning the liquid above settled solids, to a new container. Thus, avoiding straining out solids.
If there is no defined visible seperation between solids and liquid, racking is useless.

Fineing, is the process of droping sediment to the bottom in a definitve separation, for racking.

Most ferments will "fine" or settle after they have slowed to the point that the thinner alcoholic wine no longer supports suspended solids, and gravity pulls it to the bottom.

If you have reached full alcohol potential, Co2 production has ceased, and a reasonable time of inactivity has passed, some times organic matter still clouds/suspends for a while.


Time is best. Let the process finish naturally.
Try warming it a few degrees to see if it restarts, or becomes more active.
Next, is chilling, or "cold crashing".
You can always warm it back up.

You can force fineing by chilling the mix, to change it's density and make yeast dormant. Also, it can be done with additaves (fineing agents). Old timers used egg whites or geletan, even skimmed milk.
But, use temperature first. Once you add something, it's in there forever.

Those are WINE techniques.
Take a gravity or potential ABV reading.
If the ferment is done, run it.
You aren't bottling the cloudy mash anyway.