Siphoning sucks?

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McLovinBeast57

McLovinBeast57

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Hey guys, wondering what techniques you use to siphon or if there are any alternatives?

I'm using an auto-siphon but every time I do, it stops with like 5 inches of wort left and I can't pump it without mixing up all of the trub at the bottom...
I'm not sure what to do because I keep having to leave more and more wort in the fermenter each time I siphon and it's really a shame to dump all that out.

Is there something I'm missing, or any tools I can buy to improve my siphoning process?
 
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/siphoning-carboy-cap-2910/

This. Siphoning does suck. If you're siphoning from carboy to keg, you can use your co2 to pressurize the carboy (very low pressure) and push the beer out the siphon. After it's started, you're golden.

If siphoning from bucket to carboy or vice versa- do the above or follow that link.

If you're having too much trouble with your trub getting sucked up, cold crash the beer and then siphon while it's still cold- it will compact the sediment and trub at the bottom and you won't suck up near as much.

I hate siphoning.
 
I honestly don't understand the technical difficulty w / using an auto-siphon. I've used one for years and rarely leave more than a small "puddle" if beer in my carboy & secondary & keg condition all my beers. Each step requiring siphoning.
You should consider the clip Auto-siphon sells that helps hold your siphon tip on the edge of your carboy.
Obviously, it does require your attention & you may need to slowly tip your carboy as the fluid level gets lower.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
As govner1 says tip it slowly as the level gets close to the bottom. This is what I do and I can get pretty much all of it.
 
govner1 said:
I honestly don't understand the technical difficulty w / using an auto-siphon. I've used one for years and rarely leave more than a small "puddle" if beer in my carboy & secondary & keg condition all my beers. Each step requiring siphoning.
You should consider the clip Auto-siphon sells that helps hold your siphon tip on the edge of your carboy.
Obviously, it does require your attention & you may need to slowly tip your carboy as the fluid level gets lower.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
Click to expand...


I've done that as well... I wonder if there's an issue with getting a good suction or if I have a defective siphon... Do you find that the stream will stop multiple times throughout the process?
 
Always hated screwing around siphoning too..... I switched to fermenting in bottling buckets, and recently added a couple Stainless Steel Brew Buckets. Having the spigot for transferring is great. Also makes it easy to harvest yeast. Gotta pay a bit more attention to detail as far as cleaning and sanitizing - but, I have not siphoned anything in the last couple hundred batches and would never go back. I primary in the bottling bucket, put a hose on the spigot and drain into a keg, carbonate..... and that is it.
 
McLovinBeast57 said:
I've done that as well... I wonder if there's an issue with getting a good suction or if I have a defective siphon... Do you find that the stream will stop multiple times throughout the process?
Click to expand...

I would make sure your hose is secure to the auto siphon, any air leaks would result in loss of siphon. Also a good siphon relies on gravity, the higher the liquid and longer hose results in a faster siphon. I remember fighting the auto siphon drove me nuts, after fixing the air leak where the hose attaches it fixed my problems.
 
I also don't understand the problems with an autosiphon. The way to get the most out of the vessel is to tip it so than the wort is deeper. I usually have to stop the siphon to keep from transferring trub. I might lose 1/2 a bottle at most.
 
Two things will mess with the autosiphon's ability to work. The first is if the tubing is not tight on the cane.. If you use 3/8" ID tubing, that's usually the culprit. It's better to use 5/16" ID tubing that fits TIGHT! If that's not the source of the air leak, sometimes the seal at the bottom of the cane will get too compressed and leak there. It's best to hit it with some hot water, fan the seal out a bit and store it OUTSIDE of the larger tube. If you store it put together, it will mess up the seal over time.
 
McLovinBeast57 said:
I've done that as well... I wonder if there's an issue with getting a good suction or if I have a defective siphon... Do you find that the stream will stop multiple times throughout the process?
Click to expand...


I've never had any problems w/ a consistent flow. Have you checked for leaks in your tubing or within the siphon tube? Also how high is your carboy above the container you're siphoning into?
I use a household folding step stool for one w/ the receiving container on the floor.
I even use a cut off clamp to facilitate getting gravity samples and the flow restarts w/o issues.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
I agree with govner, if you're careful and paying attention the auto-siphon is fine. Nearing the bottom, tilt the carboy/bucket slowly so all the liquid gathers in one spot, then put the siphon there. You do have to pay attention, once the siphon breaks, as you've noticed you really can't get it going again without causing trub to fly. I personally use a standard racking cane and gravity siphon using the carboy cap trick to get it started. It doesn't have the holes on the side that the auto-siphon has making it easier to keep the siphon going, but a little easier to pick up trub as well.
 
I too have had problems with the auto siphon. I spent a day with a carboy filled with water using it to get it to work, and I thought I had it down, then when I went to transfer my beer to the bottling bucket I couldn't get it started. So what I do now and have been doing for the last 5 or so batches is just using the racking cane with the tubing attached, then I cut a 3 inch piece of tubing to use as my siphon starter and hold it to the tubing and suck to fill the tubing coming off the racking cane. This way my mouth doesn't come in contact with the actual tubing that sits on the bottom of the bottling bucket and I get a good flow going til it's empty. My auto siphon is probably in need of replacement, but what I'm doing now is working for me.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Falcon3 said:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/siphoning-carboy-cap-2910/

This. Siphoning does suck. If you're siphoning from carboy to keg, you can use your co2 to pressurize the carboy (very low pressure) and push the beer out the siphon. After it's started, you're golden.

If siphoning from bucket to carboy or vice versa- do the above or follow that link.

If you're having too much trouble with your trub getting sucked up, cold crash the beer and then siphon while it's still cold- it will compact the sediment and trub at the bottom and you won't suck up near as much.

I hate siphoning.
Click to expand...

I tried this technique for the first time last weekend and I'm never going back to the olde ways. It was so, so, so simple and so effective. Plus, I kept a little trickle of CO2 flowing into the fermenter as it drained, which should reduce the chances of oxidation.
 
McLovinBeast57 said:
I've done that as well... I wonder if there's an issue with getting a good suction or if I have a defective siphon... Do you find that the stream will stop multiple times throughout the process?
Click to expand...

You have a problem with your auto-siphon setup. You shouldn't be leaving a few inches of liquid behind and the flow should not stop in the middle of the process.
 
I'll add to this "old" thread as I had some issues today with the auto-siphon but worked out a solution that worked well in the end...
(My first mistake was not testing everything with water first, obviously that should have been a no brainer...)

I began with the auto-siphon, but as I don't have clips (due to lack of availbility where I am) it wasn't holding steady enough to keep the flow going smoothly, and eventually slipped into the trub.

Thankfully, I realised I had a second bit of tubing available that was sligthly wider than the tubing attached to the racking cane, so I removed the cane from the auto-siphon enclosure/pump part, and put the end of that in the beer and taped it at top of fermenter as best I could (but due to not pumping it held well), then I placed sanatised wider tubing over end of the tubing attached to the cane, and then sucked on that until the beer almost reached the end of the racking cane tubing, then seperated the tubing and placed it into the bottling bucket.

This worked really well and was very easy. And I believe with star sanning the second bit of tubing avoided any chance of infection.
 
I’ve just adjusted my grain bill and started brewing 6 gal batches in my 6.5 gal carboys . Very little headspace but with the cold temps I haven’t had a blow out . That way I can leave some behind and get 5 gallons of perfectly crystal clear lager beer !
 
McLovinBeast57 said:
Hey guys, wondering what techniques you use to siphon or if there are any alternatives?

I'm using an auto-siphon but every time I do, it stops with like 5 inches of wort left and I can't pump it without mixing up all of the trub at the bottom...
I'm not sure what to do because I keep having to leave more and more wort in the fermenter each time I siphon and it's really a shame to dump all that out.

Is there something I'm missing, or any tools I can buy to improve my siphoning process?
Click to expand...
i use a racking cane, once you pump a couple times to get the siphon going it'll suck anything up if you shove it down far enough.
 
are you siphoning far enough below the level of the vessel youre siphoning from? might be why youre leaving 5 inches.
 
kh54s10 said:
I also don't understand the problems with an autosiphon. The way to get the most out of the vessel is to tip it so than the wort is deeper. I usually have to stop the siphon to keep from transferring trub. I might lose 1/2 a bottle at most.
Click to expand...
me too
 
Another +1 for tipping, and I wait until it's half empty or less before tipping for 2 reasons: 1) it's lighter at that point so easier to tip and 2) the siphon kind of finds its own place in the carboy, so you don't necessarily know which direction to tip at first. I stick a 2x4 under there.
 
I try to pre-gauge where the bottom of the cane is in relation to the trub, I have an o-ring on the body of the cane I slide up or down so I know where to hold it in case I cant see it through the beer.
 
Home_alone1 said:
I’ve just adjusted my grain bill and started brewing 6 gal batches in my 6.5 gal carboys . Very little headspace but with the cold temps I haven’t had a blow out . That way I can leave some behind and get 5 gallons of perfectly crystal clear lager beer !
Click to expand...

Bag your hops and tip the carboy, you should be getting at least 5 1/2 gallons....

jack13 said:
Another +1 for tipping, and I wait until it's half empty or less before tipping for 2 reasons: 1) it's lighter at that point so easier to tip and 2) the siphon kind of finds its own place in the carboy, so you don't necessarily know which direction to tip at first. I stick a 2x4 under there.
Click to expand...

I too wait until it is getting empty. (lighter) Tip away from the edge of the counter, then if it falls for any reason it is not crashing to the floor. I use a stopper to hold the tilt.
 
Falcon3 said:
This. Siphoning does suck. If you're siphoning from carboy to keg, you can use your co2 to pressurize the carboy (very low pressure) and push the beer out the siphon. After it's started, you're golden.
Click to expand...

If siphoning sucks, then this method blows. :D:cool:;):ban::drunk:

Honestly, I wish I was there watching the OP operate to see how he's leaving 5" of beer behind.
I have an autosiphon and I get virtually every drop of beer out - I may catch a little more trub than I really want but I hate losing beer.
I move my fermenter up to my workbench as early on bottle / keg day as I can, to let anything that gets stirred up settle back down. The bottling bucket / keg I set on a milk crate underneath. I'll start the siphon halfway up the fermenter, then lower it down until I start getting trub. I'll then bring it back up slightly. Once the level inside gets close, I'll tip the fermenter slightly - I have a scrap 1x2 I set under the back edge. I'll then just let it get what it gets. Rarely is anything left over to mention.
Edit: I just noticed that the OP is 5 years ago - I hope he has figured out his methods by now....
 
jrgtr42 said:
If siphoning sucks, then this method blows. :D:cool:;):ban::drunk:

Honestly, I wish I was there watching the OP operate to see how he's leaving 5" of beer behind.
I have an autosiphon and I get virtually every drop of beer out - I may catch a little more trub than I really want but I hate losing beer.
I move my fermenter up to my workbench as early on bottle / keg day as I can, to let anything that gets stirred up settle back down. The bottling bucket / keg I set on a milk crate underneath. I'll start the siphon halfway up the fermenter, then lower it down until I start getting trub. I'll then bring it back up slightly. Once the level inside gets close, I'll tip the fermenter slightly - I have a scrap 1x2 I set under the back edge. I'll then just let it get what it gets. Rarely is anything left over to mention.
Edit: I just noticed that the OP is 5 years ago - I hope he has figured out his methods by now....
Click to expand...
we share the same technique for getting that last drop of beer out of the fermenter...I use a 2x4 under the carboy to tip it. Id rather have a tiny bit of trub in the bottling bucket than leave a drop of beer in the fermenter.
 
Tip the fermenter, bag hops so there isn't as much trub. My trub layer is usually less than the height of the cap on the end of the autosiphon. Watch for the trub to start coming up the cane, then break the siphon by lifting it out of the liquid, which should be almost all trub by that time.
 
I bought a new autosiphon and did not work properly. He could not make enough pressure to pull beer (leak). From it I made a tube holder and pulled my beer with my mouth. It works without problems over 30 batches.
 
I absolutely despise the pump auto-siphon. Once I ditched it and used CO2 to push the beer out of the carboy my life got infinitely better
 
After going through three plastic autosiphons over the past 7 1/2 years, I finally bit the bullet and bought a stainless steel one from Brewsssential at Homebrewcon. This baby is great and I'm sure will be the last autosiphon I'll ever need to buy. The plastic ones would break and leak, or I'd lose essential parts, or I'd get a nagging suspicion of contamination despite rigorous cleaning and sanitizing. The SS ones are pricey, but at least for me, it's worth it.
 
tip the carboy when it's getting low, and I usually don't fear getting in too much trub, i put a rubber band around a mesh cloth at the bottom so it doesn't clog my siphon.

but with that said, I don't like siphoning and might get a SS brew bucket. I just love the convenience of opening the spigot not having to clean / sanitize and fiddle with the auto siphon. Realized how great having a spigot was after upgrading my brew kettle, and was like damn this is what I've been missing huh :)

I did think about fermenting in my bottling bucket, so I can skip the siphoning step from my carboys to bucket, but I just have a fear about fermenting in a plastic vessel.
 
Last edited:
I still don't trust plastic spigots. 1) to not get broken off by accident 2) to not have crud grow inside during fermentation 3) to possibly leak. They are after all $4 pieces of plastic. Stainless steel on a quality fermenter maybe.
 
kh54s10 said:
I still don't trust plastic spigots. 1) to not get broken off by accident 2) to not have crud grow inside during fermentation 3) to possibly leak. They are after all $4 pieces of plastic. Stainless steel on a quality fermenter maybe.
Click to expand...

Yeah true. and the stainless buckets are like $200. I'm probably never giving up my glass haha.
 
I was never a fan of autosiphons. I called them "auto-aerators," as they would invariably draw air bubbles into the line.

I bought one of these for carboys. Blow into the inlet, the filter keeps out germs.

7389.jpg


Now I have Brew Buckets, so no more siphoning. But If you're using carboys, the "Sterile Siphon Starter" may do the trick.
 
I use a transfer pump (best piece of extra equipment I've bought) so I can't comment on the auto-siphoning but a couple tricks I've learned that help minimize trub are:

  1. I put a wedge of wood (almost like a big doorstop) under the fermenter so that the yeast will collect mostly on one side
  2. When its time to transfer I keep it tilted the same way so I can get my racking cane down almost to the bottom and still not pick up any crap.
  3. Sometimes due to space limitations I need to move the fermenter before transferring...in those cases I very gingerly move it to the desired location, set it up on the same tilt and then let it sit for 20-30 mins so anything I stirred up will fall back out
 

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