Dawgbrew

Recipes 

My kit didn't come with an Auto-siphon and it suggested that I put water in the tube to get it going. I don't mind doing this from the boiling pot to the Ferm bucket b/c I have to add 2.5 gal anyways, but my questions is will the little amount of water that I use to siphon screw up the beer once it's fermented and is being transferred from the ferm bucket to the bottling bucket?

ps today is my first HomeBrew!!!

Dawgbrew

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I know about auto siphons! I'm just trying to use what I have at this point!

Dahoov

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A little extra water shouldn't hurt anything. You can also start the siphon with a turkey baster. I did this before I got an auto siphon.

smurfjuice

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Its a great investment.. Well worth the $12.00, $ 15.00 bucks.

kable

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I let this extra water (starsan in my case) and the first few ounces of beer run into another container and then I pinch off the tube and finish the siphon in my destination vessel.

Dawgbrew

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thanks for the info! First Brew going well! Just added the Bitter hops for 40 mins

KYB

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All you need to siphon is a tube. Stick one end in the beer, suck on the other end, and it starts flowing. Not difficult. I've been doing this for 2 years, not a single issue. Works every time. I've yet to see how spending $12 on something when it takes me 1 second to start it. I could make 5 gallons of beer instead. To each his own though.

Conan

Recipes 

TTYTT (to tell you the truth....) I've used an Autosiphon my entire brew career, illustrious as it's been, and am sub-pleased with it. Sure, it gets the beer a'flowin quickly and easily with no mouth contamination. Sure, it's easy to direct the 'in' end of the tube near trub-level at the end of the transfer. But here's what they don't tell you: the little bugger doesn't like to hang where I put it in carboys, so I always end up suckin some trub. The pumping required to get the flow going can, if I'm not careful, aerate the crap out of the beer. I'm only really concerned with this when I'm going to secondary or keg. Come to think of it that's the only time I use the thing anymore....and come to think of it a little more, I only use it to transfer to secondary. Anyway, I always end up with a little train of foamy bubbles running up the hose to the bend in the racking cane, getting stuck there and stopping flow. I have no idea how it happens, but I feel it's something to do with me not watching where the beer level is in regards to the business end of the siphon. Ah well, it's handy to have around and works pretty good for directing where exactly you're siphoning from.

So, how'd your brewday go, and what'd ya make? Kyle

Yooper

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It's super easy to siphon without an auto siphon and without mouth contaminuation! Practice first, with some water, but it's super easy. Put water in the tubing/racking cane. Put your finger over the end. Release to start the flow. That's it! It takes practice, but I'm an old winemaker and perfected it with a few tries.

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Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

sweet_corn

Recipes 

I agree with Yooper. I have never used an autosiphon. I do the old water in siphon, finger over hose, let it go trick. I also drain the water into a separate container. Most of the time I use my tank sprayer to fill with starsan solution to sanitize. Easy as pie....