The day the auto siphon got turned out to pasture

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jppostKW

jppostKW

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My auto spihon was starting to turn milky so I decided to start pushing everything with CO2 made a carboy to carboy/corny system with two caps two canes 3 ft of gas line with flare fittings for multi purpose use. Using siphon hose with flare fittings for the abiltiy to go between racking cane and corny liquid ball lock. I did atest run today worked amazingly 3 carboy tranfers of beer. And sanitizer than one to a corny.

Quick question though I know the star san foam is good for yeast per five star but will having foam when I go to secondondar y affect anything?
 
jppostKW said:
My auto spihon was starting to turn milky so I decided to start pushing everything with CO2 made a carboy to carboy/corny system...
Click to expand...

Dude. I've really been meaning to do this as well. Any way you can share some pics of your setup and the individual pieces?
 
jppostKW said:
with two caps two canes 3 ft of gas line with flare fittings for multi purpose use. Using siphon hose with flare fittings for the abiltiy to go between racking cane and corny liquid ball lock.
Click to expand...

can you post a pic of this? cant visualize it.
 
K haven't figured out my new phone (I'm a mobile hbt er) but here is the link
http://m.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=4047837701&

From left to right co2 tank and manifold with female flair fittings that attach to the male flair with a barb clamped to the side port of a carboy cap. It has a racking cane down the center. From the bend is a piece of siphon tubing with a male flair. In the picture its set up to move car boy to carboy so the tube goes to another racking can in another carboy cap. If I want to rack to a corny I remove the siphon tube that goes to the second carboy cap and replace it with the hose that has a female flair and a liquid ball lock.

Any questions parts list etc or if thelink doesn't work let me know
 
dkershner said:
My carboy caps fit loosely, not a good seal. It looks as if yours don't.
Click to expand...

I'm using the normal orange caps they do fit better on the better bottles I use for primary. On way to go about it would be to use a hose clamp for a better seal. For safety I would ake sure your regulator is all the way down than slowly turn it up to about 3 psi. Don't want a carboy cap to come off it is scary
 
olllllo said:
Detailed here by Walker-san many moons ago

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/siphoning-carboy-cap-2910/
Click to expand...
.

Haha I wasn't even eighteen and still thought key light was good beer when that thread was active. I'm sure that it has been done before in many differnet forms. I like not having to pick up full carboys to move beer and I like having all the flair fittings to be able to use my co2 for its intended purpose, and being able to take the second carboy cap and cane off assembled and threading on liquid line for carboy to corny tranfers with the liquid ball lock.
 
I'd seen "Walker-san"s writeup on siphoning, but never delved deep enough to see the stuff about using CO2. OP, I like your design.....now I just need a CO2 tank in my basement!
 
Neat! I've done the Walker-San siponing trick when I couldn't find my autosiphon. Works great. Now that I have a CO2 tank, I think I'll incorporate it the way OP did here and let the CO2, rather than gravity, do the pushing...
 
2x racking cane
2x carboy cap
4x female flair fittings with barbs
2x male flair fittings with barbs
1x liquid ball lock
2ft 3/8 tube
2 ft beer line
3 ft co2 line
Co2 line goes from manifold to first cap with male barb in small port on cap.
Co2 is applied and liquid goes up racking cane with male barb on end to 3/8 hose.
Liquid moves thru 3/8 hose to other racking cane in cap to second carboy.
For carboy to corny tranfer remove 3/8 line at flair connection install beer line with liquid ball lock on end and attach to corny.
 
Be *VERY* careful when pressurizing a glass carboy with CO2. They can probably take a few PSI (5 is probably safe), but make double damn sure your regulator is set properly before beginning.

You might think, " But, a glass bottle is fine with up to 4vol of carbonation, why would a carboy be any different?". The answer is that the total surface area is *much* larger in the case of a carboy versus a bottle without having a commensurate increase in wall thickness (carboy walls are thicker, but not to scale) and they were never meant to be pressurized. Because the internal surface area is higher, the amount of force on the inside of that carboy is huge, even with only 5 PSI.

Rough calcs:

Beer bottle: 6" tall x 2-1/2" Wide ~ 100 sq in X 15PSI (2.5 vol CO2 normal beer) = 1500lb of force on the inside of the bottle
5 gal Carboy: 16" tall x 10" wide ~ 1000 sq in X 5PSI = 5000lb of force on inside of the carboy

This is why pneumatics/hydraulics work.
 
GNBrews said:
Be *VERY* careful when pressurizing a glass carboy with CO2. They can probably take a few PSI (5 is probably safe), but make double damn sure your regulator is set properly before beginning.

You might think, " But, a glass bottle is fine with up to 4vol of carbonation, why would a carboy be any different?". The answer is that the total surface area is *much* larger in the case of a carboy versus a bottle without having a commensurate increase in wall thickness (carboy walls are thicker, but not to scale) and they were never meant to be pressurized. Because the internal surface area is higher, the amount of force on the inside of that carboy is huge, even with only 5 PSI.

Rough calcs:

Beer bottle: 6" tall x 2-1/2" Wide ~ 100 sq in X 15PSI (2.5 vol CO2 normal beer) = 1500lb of force on the inside of the bottle
5 gal Carboy: 16" tall x 10" wide ~ 1000 sq in X 5PSI = 5000lb of force on inside of the carboy

This is why pneumatics/hydraulics work.
Click to expand...

Agree entirely. I'd say even, keep the pressure lower, (a few psi), and DON'T seal the carboy cap on your "from" carboy. Turn on the CO2, then push down on the cap to form a seal...(I don't know how this will work - I don't have the carboy caps)...this way you don't risk overpressurization.
 
Yep before I tried this ichecked the regulators accurcy with a digital gauge I use from work and never get it above 3 psi. Also my carboy caps are tight enough not to need any sort of clamping device. Thanks for the word of warning though.
 
I put a quick disconnect on the short "vent" of a carboy cap so I can easily hook up my CO2 tank to push the beer over and also keep a blanket of CO2 over the donor carboy as it drains. Of course I purge the receiver carboy, or keg, with CO2 before starting.

The only time I use my autosiphon anymore is when I do 10 gal batches in my large plastic "bucket" which doesn't have a sealing lid.
 
I wonder if you dialed back your CO2 reg to 'just' 0 psig, then if you could use vacuum to pull. As soon as the donor/send keg gets below 0 psig the reg flows and backfills with CO2.

So you'd hook the vacuum to the receive keg with a carboy cap...jumper tube to the send keg with carboy cap...connect CO2 reg to send keg.
 
olllllo said:
BTW: I posted Chad Walker's post, not to diminish this one, but to pay tribute to an old timer.
Click to expand...

Who you calling old, punk!?

BTW: I no longer use lung power to do my siphons. I have a small medical air pump that I turn on for all of 3 seconds with the output line pressed gently against the skinny tube on the carboy cap. Flow gets going immediately, and I use minimal pressure to do it (excess pressure leaks back out around my half-ass "seal" between the cap and airline.

I'm scared to death of hooking my CO2 to it, because I generally have a few beers in me when I do anything in my brewery and have visions of cutting myself to shreds with an exploding carboy.
 

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