pour vs syphon

i'm getting tired of waiting for my beer to take 10-15 minutes to syphon whenever i transfer. its especially annoying because seldom does the syphon ever take out all of the beer on its own without having to tip the primary. you have to either start the syphon again, which is difficult with so little beer and so much sediment or toss it all.

its annoying cleaning out the syphon hose since its so awkward.

i think im going to try pouring it slowly from the primary to a secondary in my bathtub with a large funnel + plastic tube, maybe 1 inch in diameter. this should speed things up dramatically.

pros:

- quicker
- less difficult to clean/sanitize
- never worry about losing beer at the bottom of primary

cons:

- possibly more exposure to air, but this can be mitigated to be insignificant (using a smaller funnel and pouring more slowly could help)
- possibly overpour beer due to heavy weight etc (having help, or leading against the tub wall could help this easily
- possible contamination of primary sidewall (a quick sanitizing white should avert this, but if there's contamination in the primary already, this is the least of your worries)

thoughts?

Syphon.

Use the carboy cap method.

You don't want to agitate it that much. Imho, use two carboy caps, two racking canes and suck start the siphon.

I use buckets with a spigot. I rack directly to kegs after the bucket sits a few days at 39 degrees. Takes no time at all.

You could also get a bigger siphon hose. Go for the larger Autosiphon. It uses 1/2 inch I.D. hose.

Pouring fermented beer = oxidation.

I know some people don't care for it, but I love my autosiphon.

10 minutes doesn't seem that long to me. I tilt the fermentor a couple of days before the transfer and all the trub slides to one end and the siphon grabs is from the opposite end.

Nothing that I have read from more experienced brewers indicates that pouring is a good idea.

I vote for auto-siphon as well.

Grab the latest BYO and wait it out. Sorry, but if you don't have the patience to wait ten minutes for a carboy to siphon, you don't have the patience to make the best beer you can.

EAC rant over.

Get a large autosiphon. They have 1/2" racking canes. Then you get your 1/2" ID tubing. You can siphon 5 gallons in about 2 minutes. Pouring out of primary is going to oxydize the hell out of the beer. Not only that but as soon as you tilt the fermenter, your trub is going to unsettle and start remixing back into solution.

Now, you have to clean out the primary anyway right? Ok, so once you get the bulk of trub out, fill with some hot water and start pumping that water through the autosiphon and tubing. Yeah, you can circulate water through your tubing from the bucket, back into the bucket using an autosiphon. That's how I clean mine. You do the same to sanitize it before racking.

10 minutes is not a long enough time to worry about and end up oxidizing your beer, especially considering all the other time and effort you've put into it. if you're so concerned about it, don't use a secondary. Now you've not only NOT ruined your beer, but you've saved yourself about an hour, not just 10 minutes.

cleaning out the tubes is also easy. just twist it up in your sink and run water through the hose. once you get it shooting good out the other end, turn it around and do the same from that end. boom, done. as long as you clean your tubes right after you use them, nothing will stick inside and they'll always be clean.

that goes for all your equipment. clean up right after use and it's no big whoop.

All I do to clean my autosiphon and hoses is after I am done with them, I fill a bucket with about two gallons of warm water and siphon the water through it. Then when the bucket is empty, I fill it with about a gallon of sanitizer solution and run that through it. Takes not even 10 minutes and the hose and siphon are clean and sanitized.

Blender said:

I tilt the fermentor a couple of days before the transfer and all the trub slides to one end and the siphon grabs is from the opposite end.

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You get a dancin banana for that one, I will be tilting my next brew

I guess technically you can leave it tilted for the whole fermentation, especially if it's a bucket with the airlock off center. Poor man's conical...er sort of.

I picked up some cheap plastic wedges from somewhere. I put the fermentor on them (2 keeps it stable, it won't stay with one) before I start sanitizing.

You don't want to get every last drop of beer out of the fermentor anyway. You really don't want to transfer the floculated yeast and trub, kind of defeats the purpose of transfering to a secondary. You are trying to seperate it from all that dieing yeast and trub that leads to off flavors.
Similar to why you don't want to get every last drop when transfering to your botteling bucket or keg. The point of the secondary is to clear the beer and get more of the yeast to drop out (the aging part can take place just fine in the bottle). You really don't want to go sucking up that yeast and protiens and put them right back, do you?


If racking to secondary really bother's you, there are plenty of styles that do just fine with only 10 days (or less) before they go into the final vessel.

McKBrew said:

Blender said:

10 minutes doesn't seem that long to me. I tilt the fermentor a couple of days before the transfer and all the trub slides to one end and the siphon grabs is from the opposite end.

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Pure genius. Or more accurately a really simple solution that I didn't figure out on my own. Really, why didn't I think of this?

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srsly, so simple but genius. i'm gonna try this!