I Risked My Beer to Rack to Secondary

Hey guys, I've just racked my wort into my secondary but I could not for the life of me figure out how to siphon without using my mouth. I have a carboytap or whatever but could not figure out how to make it work. Anyway, I ended up risking my beer by using my mouth. I swished with some mouth wash, sanitized some saran-wrap and wrapped it around the end of the tube. Then got the siphone going, pulled the wrap off, let about half a glass go into a cup and then into the secondary.

So, I really hope I didn't screw everything up for my first batch, but it tastes great. I can't wait.

Any of you guys have any suggestions or somewhere I can look to see how to use the siphon I have better. Perhaps a diagram?

I use a turkey baster. It fits the end of various sized syphon hoses. Sometimes it takes 2 sucks to get a flow.

But the usual way is to fill the hose with tap water at the sink, hold your thumb over the end while sticking the other end into the wort, lower thumbed end before releasing thumb. Catch first few ounces of water in a glass. Beer should flow freely.

Here you go:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=2910&highlight=walker+carboy+siphon

I wouldn't worry about it much. The alcohol produced in the primary should be sufficient to ward off any nasties from your mouth, especially after the procedure you followed to attempt to sanitize your mouth.

Just transefered to secondary last nite and here is how I do it. Fill carboy with idofor and insert racking cane and tip of the transfer tube. Take out and fill with tap water and close the end (you do have the piece that pinches the end right) put back into carboy and siphon some idofor out into the sink or a bucket. Put racking cane in primary and siphon out into a bucket until beer starts to run into bucket. Close off and transfer to secondary and go from there. I also use a bit of mesh that is sterilized on the tip of the cane to keep sediment in the primary and it allows me to get more out of the primary as well.

MP Wall

You'll find that a lot of us here mouth-siphon and have never ruined a batch as a result. You don't need to deep throat it, just a little pull on the end. Treat it like you're smoking something that you'll pass to your friends - don't get it all slobbery.

"One tiny sip puts the wind in your sails." er, gets the siphon running.

Becides, you need that 1/2 cup for FG and QA.

a very simple sanitary way is to have the vessel being siphoned into lower than the one your siphoning from, the just fill the hose with water, pinch off one end, put the other end in the top vessel, release the pinched end and presto! a siphom is started...

An auto-siphon is well worth it in my book.

If you don't want to do that, at least use some high quality 100 proof bourbon or something to sanitize your mouth (why mess with some foul tasting mouthwash? )

Any way you cut it, though, once your beer is fermented, if you are careful you are unlikely to contaminate it.

Auto Siphoning is the way to go!! I posted a similar question a little while back and I got auto siphon as the answer. I purchased one and never looked back. With a glass carboy it really is IMHO the best way to go!!