What's going on here? And how can I do it?

I would love to be able to serve my meads and ciders in this fashion (see photo) - but I've not been able to find any kind of 'demijohn tap' made for doing this.

Is this just and adapted siphon? What happens to the exposed wine? Can you blanket it with C02 after an event?

Thanks for any thoughts.

Its a simple siphon. The tap outlet is lower tan the bottom of the container. Get the tube filled by whatever means you choose and let Newton take care of the rest.

Cheers. Easy enough I guess

william_shakes_beer said:

Its a simple siphon. The tap outlet is lower tan the bottom of the container. Get the tube filled by whatever means you choose and let Newton take care of the rest.

Click to expand...

Not quite. The space inside the vessel would have to be replaced by something for that to work. IOW, it can't be completely sealed. This looks like a closed system from what I can see, but obviously they have to be pumping in CO2 or some other gas to replace the beer.

Think about a filled straw that you're holding your finger on the top of - the liquid will not come out of the straw as long as your finger is preventing the inflow of air to replace the space that was occupied by the liquid. Otherwise it would create a vacuum, and siphons do not work under a vacuum like this.

So there is definitely more going on than you can see in this pic.

Edit: I just noticed this is wine, not beer, so they may just have a small hole in the bung that allows air in when the wine is flowing. Since most people like to aerate their wine (i.e. oxygenating it) prior to drinking, I suppose oxygen doesn't affect wine the same it does with beer, and thus they can get away with this.

Zoomed in tight enough to see a valve lever on those "faucets", so I agree the bungs are likely vented.
Either that, or the operator occasionally loosens the bungs to let some air in...

Cheers!

Ha good point!

That makes sense to me. I wonder how long mead could happily be exposed to air and like that? Maybe a long weekend and then bottle what's left over?

Ya know...the further a batch gets through the process, the more protective I get about it.
And I'd be strongly inclined not to chance a batch to oxidation at the dispensing phase...

Cheers!

Yeah - maybe just regular ole kegging is the way to go. I just love the old world romance of it all!

They could have kegs hidden inside each jug

problem solved