carboy hood question

did my 1st batches and all went smooth ,although i notice when there was a quater of beer left in the fermenter. my siphon would stopp on both my batches . Then i had to blow till i almost passed out several times to get the siphon going again. I really was av pain in the a$$. Did anyone else ever have this problem am i using it wrong or should i just buy a pump one. The one i had came w/ my kit

Well the Autosiphon is a nifty gadget, very convenient. But please don't worry about a quarter of a beer - no siphon is going to save that for you. You don't want that gunk at the bottom anyway.

A quarter of A beer or a quarter of THE beer?

When siphoning you have to be careful to stop just before you get to the bottom of the container, the stuff on the bottom does not go well with the finished product!
I keep my siphon just below the surface and keep moving it down as the beer/wort level lowers. Near the end I tilt the container slowly until I get all but about 3 or 4 ounces. Takes some practice.

no i could see the bottom of the siphon tube it was about 3 or 4 inches above the bottom of the carboy. and there was a good gallon of beer left. it was no where close to the bottom. and i did leave beer in the bottom i could see if it started to suck up the turb so i kept it a couple inches above it

KevinW said:

...I keep my siphon just below the surface and keep moving it down as the beer/wort level lowers. Near the end I tilt the container slowly until I get all but about 3 or 4 ounces. Takes some practice.

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All my carboys are in milk crates.

The day before, or the morning of, bottling/kegging I tilt the crate forward and place a 4x4 under the back end. This allows the yeast to gently slide to the deep end of the pool so to speak.

Then I place the autosyphon at the low end of the pool. Keeps your brew more clear and cleaner tasting.

I know there's a loss of beer. That's why I always top off to 5.25 gals. You could slide the autosyphon to the deeper end of the pool to get more brew, but you need to be careful not to rouse the yeast off the bottom.

If the gravity is still too high I will add another 1/2 gal of water and take another reading. This has always allowed me to bottle/keg at least 5 gals.

KevinW said:

Takes some practice.

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+1

When you've bottled this batch, and before you start the next one, practice with water. It's worth the effort.

The siphon stopping has nothing to do with the carboy hood.