No fancy siphoning here!

That's right! I don't want to spend the extra money for a bottling bucket and all the siphoning gear (im a college student). Instead I am just going to transfer my fermented wort back into my sanitized kettle, then siphon into my bottles from there with only the tube and my mouth. I know a lot of people say don't do it with my mouth but I've seen people do this and their beer had no contamination. But before I do, I just wanted to get others opinions on my current idea. Thanks.

a safer alternative to sucking: fill your siphon hose completely with clean (ideally boiled) water, you may need 3 hands to pour it in while holding up the ends, then the siphon will start as soon as you put one end in the carboy and lower the other. start the siphon into a glass held over your bucket until the beer has replaced all of the water, then get the beer into the bucket(/kettle)

You could just as easily create a clean slobber free siphon by boiling some water (for sanitary reasons) or at least some water you havent spit in, fill up your tube with the water (put your thumb on one end of the tube like getting water in a straw), then quickly put one end in your beer and the other end below the kettle. The water draining out of the tube will pull the beer along with it and start your siphon. From there you just have to deal with the fun part of pinching the hose with one hand, keeping the other end of the tube in the beer with your other hand, grabbing bottles with your right foot and capping with your left foot. Don't forget to sanitize your feet. I don't recommend boiling.

You have several options here:

-Save up your roommate's BMC cans for a while and sell 'em at the recycling center
-Sell some plasma
-Skip going to the bar one night
-Switch to all grain a batch or two earlier than you planned
-Make an IPA instead of that batch of DIPA you were planning
-etc. etc.

Choose one, then go drop the $9 for an auto-siphon. Comes in handy for flushing lines and cleaning/sanitize tubing too.

dinnerstick said:

a safer alternative to sucking: Fill your siphon hose completely with clean (ideally boiled) water, you may need 3 hands to pour it in while holding up the ends, then the siphon will start as soon as you put one end in the carboy and lower the other. Start the siphon into a glass held over your bucket until the beer has replaced all of the water, then get the beer into the bucket(/kettle)

Click to expand...

+1

You could also wrap the end of the hose you suck on with tin foil before the beer hits the end of th hose pull the foil off.Thats how I did it before I got an auto siphon.An auto siphon is only 10-12 bucks.

Yeah, even at my poorest of poor days in college, I could scrounge up $10. Not worth ruining a batch by contamination for 10 bucks.

This is a great setup and should only cost $20 - $25



Grabbed the pic from another thread.

You can do this sitting comfortably in a chair. Fill the bottles over the dishwasher door and put on a table for capping. It just takes a small chunk of tubing to connect the wand to the spigot.

I have a bottling bucket and bottling wand which made it sooo much easier to bottle, however, to this day I am still using the sucking siphon method. Never an infected batch from it, and over 100 batches.

To start my siphons, I put all but the very end of the hose in the liquid, cover the end with my thumb. The liquid stays in the hose until I take my thumb off.

No sucking, no worries about sanitized water (the hose, and the hand that's holding it, have just come out of the sanitizing bucket, so there's little/no worries there). The biggest drawback I've noticed is that your tubing is a bit messier than it would be with alternative methods.

All good suggestions here. If you absolutely must use your mouth, USE SOME MOUTH WASH! You can also use a syringe to start a syphon, a turkey baster, and any number of things you might have sitting around. You can also use a nylon T barb and a clamp, you suck on the T part, then clamp it when it starts, so it flows out of the other end of T (not the sucked on end)

I could go ahead and buy a bottle fille, but have heard they can get irritating if they get clogged. Anyone had problems

Gargle with some star san and you'll be fine

I started homebrewing as a college student on an extreme budget. I haven't bought much that I don't need. I did a few siphons with water and tubing but honestly I have never regretted my decision to buy an autosiphon. I'd maybe reevaluate whether you do actually have enough money to scrounge together.

I personally feel like auto siphon's are a pain in the ass. Just fill a tube with sanitized water or sanitizing solution and use that to start your siphon. Once you get the hang of it, I guarantee you'll find it easier than an auto-siphon. You do need a racking cane, don't use straight tubing, that's crazy!

ajwillys said:

Just fill a tube with sanitized water or sanitizing solution and use that to start your siphon. Once you get the hang of it, I guarantee you'll find it easier than an auto-siphon.

Click to expand...

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have never believed someone would hold this preference.

The only difference between a racking cane and tubing and an auto-siphon is the outter tubing surrounding the racking cane. It's 2 pumps for a siphon and call it done. Racking cane....$5-6, auto siphon....$10. The few dollars is worth every penny. Most people will agree. To each their own I guess.....

Brewnoob1 said:

Yeah, even at my poorest of poor days in college, I could scrounge up $10. Not worth ruining a batch by contamination for 10 bucks.

Click to expand...

Yep, Sell a text book or something buy a autosiphon

carrotmalt said:

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have never believed someone would hold this preference.

Click to expand...

Me either. Hey, if you can start a water siphon more quickly and easily than using an autosiphon, keep on keeping on. For me, it took much more time and frustration. And if you lose suction, you don't get to just pump once or twice, you have to try again from the beginning.

So majority seems I should get a racking cane, auto siphon, and a bottle filler, for simplicity reasons and sanitation

Auto-siphon generally comes with the racking cane portion. You'd just need the tubing to connect to the auto-siphon and the bottle filler.

So if I have 3/8" tubing I need a 3/8" auto siphon. Correct?

yep, all you need is the standard auto siphon


http://www.amazon.com/Learn-To-Brew-Auto-Siphon-3/dp/B000E60JF6

I've used a turkey baster in the past but a auto siphon is worth the extra quid!!

Perfect, that's the same one I was looking at on amazon. And I don't see any specific sizes for the spring loaded bottle fillers on there so I'm assuming it's a universal fit or something. Correct?

Thank you everyone for giving me feedback

SenorPepe said:

I started homebrewing as a college student on an extreme budget. I haven't bought much that I don't need. I did a few siphons with water and tubing but honestly I have never regretted my decision to buy an autosiphon. I'd maybe reevaluate whether you do actually have enough money to scrounge together.

Click to expand...

i started homebrewing as a college student on an extreme budget. since then i have bought lots of crap that i haven't needed. however, the 6 euros i ponied up for my autosiphon, only, finally, about 6 months ago, have been among the best 6 euros spent in my 20+ year love hate relationship with homebrewing.
make one batch a gruit. skip the pricey simcoe and dry hop with backyard heather, boom there's your autosiphon

boxofjibboo said:

Perfect, that's the same one I was looking at on amazon. And I don't see any specific sizes for the spring loaded bottle fillers on there so I'm assuming it's a universal fit or something. Correct?

Thank you everyone for giving me feedback

Click to expand...

Yep, it will all fit a 3/8 hose, I just grabbed that link for a picture, so I don't know if that is a good price or not. just saying you might want to shop around a bit.

I have beer!! Woohoo! So happy my first batch turned out so well, thank HBT members for all the help!

Nice job! Now get to brewin' that next batch.

If you're using a carboy, setting up a carboy cap and racking cane like this:


You can just blow into the other port on the cap to create pressure that will start the siphon.

dinnerstick said:

a safer alternative to sucking: fill your siphon hose completely with clean (ideally boiled) water, you may need 3 hands to pour it in while holding up the ends, then the siphon will start as soon as you put one end in the carboy and lower the other. start the siphon into a glass held over your bucket until the beer has replaced all of the water, then get the beer into the bucket(/kettle)

Click to expand...

that's the ticket, man- you can even fill it w star san. i siphon clean, but i make out with the bottles, so they are sufficiently slobbered

snail said:

If you're using a carboy, setting up a carboy cap and racking cane like this:

You can just blow into the other port on the cap to create pressure that will start the siphon.

Click to expand...

you could do this - put a balloon on your cap when you are fermenting, capture a balloon worth of co2, and then when it's time to bottle reattach the balloon and squeeze the gas in, instead of blowing... that's what all the college kids around here do....