eatpuppies

Recipes 

First of all, I have well water, and for my first batch I boiled 3 gallons early in the day and then cooled and poured it into the primary for later (when I added 2 more gallons of extract/water) was boiling it necessary?

Also I don't have an auto siphon and the instructions say to fill my tubing with water and let it drain into the bottling bucket to start the siphon, do I need to boil that water also or should I not worry about it since it's such a small amount? Or perhaps just spend the money on an auto siphon or make the t-siphon shown in another post?

c.n.budz

Recipes 

Typically, if the water is good for drinking it's good for brewing. Boiling definitely doesn't hurt, but it's not completely necessary.

As for the siphon, before I got an autosiphon I would swish a shot of vodka around my mouth, then just suck start the siphon.

Welcome to the forum.

__________________
Knucklehead Brewery, Est. 2007

Always do sober what you do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. -Ernest Hemingway

eatpuppies

Recipes 

Another quick question I thought of was this, if I transfer to the secondary (after about 4-5 days and almost no signs of fermentations) will it reduce the time necessary in the bottle for conditioning, or is it still 2-3 weeks in the bottle either way?

c.n.budz

Recipes 

Still a minimum of three weeks no matter what. Bottle conditioning is for carbonating the beer as well as aging for improved flavor. The secondary is more for letting the beer clear.

__________________
Knucklehead Brewery, Est. 2007

Always do sober what you do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. -Ernest Hemingway