When in doubt, don't spit into the beer.

Ok, I know this sounds like obvious advice, but I learned something tonight.

Don't spit into your beer.

I'm a sanitation freak. I must use 50 gallons of water, and a half gallon of bleach, along with a healthy dose of no-rinse stuff, before I'm ready to bottle.

Tonight was no exception. My bottles came out of the dishwasher, got a dipping in no-rinse for good measure, and were standing by. After washing my hands with an anti-bacterial soap, I was ready to siphon my Sierra Nevada Clone from the secondary, to the dispensing bucket with the tap on the bottom.

Priming sugar already in place, I washed my lips with some Isopropyl Alchohol to kill any lip borne germs that might infect my siphon hose, (note to self- I'm out of Scotch again).

I'll admit that I'm new to home brewing, and that most of my siphoning experience involves gasoline. Suffice to say, that when I siphon something, my gut reaction is to spit it out as soon as possible.

So I did. Right into my bottling bucket.

"Whew", I thought at first. That was close, I almost spit it all on the floor.

Then it dawned on me.

Back to square one...

Hoppy

HoppyHoppyJoyJoy said:

I'm a sanitation freak.

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I beg to differ. If you suck on the end of your siphoning hose, you aren't a sanitation freak. Get some carboy caps or an autosiphon and you can avoid that entirely.

Fingers said:

I beg to differ. If you suck on the end of your siphoning hose, you aren't a sanitation freak. Get some carboy caps or an autosiphon and you can avoid that entirely.

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You have a point there.

If I were a true sanitation freak, I would have had my sister suck on the siphon hose, (she's rather homely, and rarely kisses boys).

I do have a vacuum pump that I use to change the brake fluid on my bikes, but I'm afraid that a contamination of DOT 5 may cause my beer to taste funny, or develop a head shake when entering corners at speed.

Hoppy

I usually fill up my siphon hose with sanitizer by sucking on the end. Leaving about 1" of an air bubble (so I don't have to spit), cover it with my thumb, then dip the end back in the sanitizer. Then I put the wand in the wort and drain into a spare container until the wort comes out, then put it into the fermentor.

dude, that's hillarious. sounds like something i would do.

so do you guys immediately cap the bottles? or do they get exposed to the atmosphere for any duration? what about the bottling bucket? does that get sealed up too, or is it exposed to the atmosphere for the duration of the bottlign session?

I cap mine 12 or so at a time, while i'm bottling. I also put the clean lid from my fermentor on my bottle bucket loosely. Probably not necessary but makes me feel better. Especially if you have pets. I would hate to serve oen of my beauties to a friend, and a dog hair roll out into their glass!

Fingers said:

I beg to differ. If you suck on the end of your siphoning hose, you aren't a sanitation freak. Get some carboy caps or an autosiphon and you can avoid that entirely.

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How do carboy caps help to start a Siphon?

They have two holes on top. You put your racking can through one and you blow into the other. The positive pressure in the vessel forces the wort out through the racking cane.

It's easy to start a siphon without any sucking or blowing - both of which are unsanitary. Using a long sanitized hose, sanitize your hands, push the hose down into the beer, use a thumb to plug the end, pull it out (full of beer) and down below the top level of the container. When you release your thumb, the siphon will start.

I usually use an autosiphon (worth every penny), but occasionally use the above technique to take a quick gravity reading or something.

Oh, and that's a funny freakin' story. Sounds exactly like something I would do!

HoppyHoppyJoyJoy said:

Back to square one...

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I hope to GAWD this doesn't mean you threw it out, i will kick your ass if you did...

Be careful how much bleach you're using, too. Use too much, and you've got to rinse forever to get the residue off, and since you'll likely be rinsing with regular ol' tap water... personally, I've been using Iodophor since my second or third batch, and I haven't found the need to use bleach for anything other that cleaning my fermentation bucket after racking to secondary.

DeadYetiBrew said:

I hope to GAWD this doesn't mean you threw it out, i will kick your ass if you did...

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Throw it out? Are you crazy?

No, once I realized that I had just spit a couple of million germs into the bucket, my first thought was, "Maybe it'll be ok".

My second thought was,"Don't be an idiot", so I stopped the siphon, resanitized the bucket and lips, and made up a new batch of sugar water.

Ended up bottling 50 instead of 51, so no huge loss.

Picking up an autosiphon today...

Hoppy

HoppyHoppyJoyJoy said:

Throw it out? Are you crazy?

No, once I realized that I had just spit a couple of million germs into the bucket, my first thought was, "Maybe it'll be ok".

My second thought was,"Don't be an idiot", so I stopped the siphon, resanitized the bucket and lips, and made up a new batch of sugar water.

Ended up bottling 50 instead of 51, so no huge loss.

Picking up an autosiphon today...

Hoppy

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OK, i read that funny for a minute then realized what you meant... yeah even if you hadn't re-sanitized the bucket you would have been fine... i mean honestly beer is very VERY forgiving... I've stuck my arm into my keggle after cooling the wort (manifold was clogged somehow), i've started siphons with unclean mouth, blown into tubing with an unclean mouth, and i think i might have even sneezed in one once, I've never had a single contaminated batch. But by all means keep with your ways, there's no harm in being careful.

uglygoat said:

so do you guys immediately cap the bottles? or do they get exposed to the atmosphere for any duration? what about the bottling bucket? does that get sealed up too, or is it exposed to the atmosphere for the duration of the bottlign session?

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I leave the bottles open for a bit hoping that it starts releasing some CO2 to push out the oxygen before capping.

Last bottling time i filled 18 bottles, waited about 3 minutes, then capped them starting with the ones that were filled first.

HoppyHoppyJoyJoy said:

I'm afraid that a contamination of DOT 5 may cause my beer to taste funny, or develop a head shake when entering corners at speed.

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Look on the bright side. The good part about getting brake fluid in the beer is that you'll never become an alcoholic. You can stop at any time!


When I bottle I put caps on the bottles immediately, then use the cap crimper on all them in 18 bottle batches or more.

eviltwinofjoni said:

Look on the bright side. The good part about getting brake fluid in the beer is that you'll never become an alcoholic. You can stop at any time!

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If we were in a locker room right now I'd snap you with a wet towel!
Wait if we were in a locker room right now that would just be weird.

As for sanitation I like clean too but you really don't have to go too nuts. Look at some people on youtube.com one guys idea of sterile was rinsing things under hot tap water. It blew my mind but he claims to have never had a bad batch in 20 years of brewing.
Plus I heard that bleach is most effective if mixed properly with water. More bleach is not better.

bigben said:

I leave the bottles open for a bit hoping that it starts releasing some CO2 to push out the oxygen before capping.

Last bottling time i filled 18 bottles, waited about 3 minutes, then capped them starting with the ones that were filled first.

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If you just put the un-crimped caps on top of your filled bottles for maybe 5-10 minutes it does the same thing without leaving the beer open to the air.

Just a little trick I learned from my buddy. I'm sure it isn't necessary, but why take the risk of leaving your bottles open to the gross air nasties when you don't have to.