Copper/Stainless Auto Siphon.

I recently purchased a 22 gallon stainless steel pot, and just finished converting a 55 gallon HDPE barrel into a mash tun with a giant 10 ft Stainless braid/copper manifold filtration system hooked up to a 1/2" ball valve. However, my brewpot does not have a ball valve and I do not intend on putting one on. So I welded together a copper racking cane for transferring mash/sparge water from my brew pot to my mash tun but now I need a way to siphon the hot water out. Im thinking something along the lines of an auto-siphon made of either copper or stainless steel.

My question: Is there anything like this already being manufactured and sold somewhere and if so where do I get it, if not how should I go about making one.

If anyone has any other ideas let me know, not a march pump I am a thrifty guy. I thought about possibly getting an airtight lid on my pot having the copper cane welded through the lid and then welding a quick connect for a air pressurizer that would pump air into the interior head space of the pot and thus forcing the liquid into the copper pipe and out to my mash tun.

Unfortunately, even a march pump doesn't work for this.

I'm working on solutions for getting rid of all the plastic in my brewery and replacing with stainless, and all I've really got left is the bottling wand and autosiphon. I've got some ideas for the former, but I'm having issues with the autosiphon.

I know people have sought to bring such a product to the market several times on this site, but it obviously hasn't panned out so far.

yeah, that is exactly what I have done, I stepped up from 5 gallon batches in a 52 quart cooler with a SS braid filter and a 40 quart aluminum pot with a brass ball valve to the latter. Aside from the HDPE mash tun everything is either stainless or copper, however considering the temp will never breach 170, its food safe, and it can handle constant temperatures up to 230 degrees i feel alright with it.

Now its just a matter of relieving myself of the pain that is gravity fed siphoning mechanism for wort transfers, to either pumps or autosiphons that are made of copper or stainless steel.

chaitobar said:

yeah, that is exactly what I have done, I stepped up from 5 gallon batches in a 52 quart cooler with a SS braid filter and a 40 quart aluminum pot with a brass ball valve to the latter. Aside from the HDPE mash tun everything is either stainless or copper, however considering the temp will never breach 170, its food safe, and it can handle constant temperatures up to 230 degrees i feel alright with it.

Now its just a matter of relieving myself of the pain that is gravity fed siphoning mechanism for wort transfers, to either pumps or autosiphons that are made of copper or stainless steel.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I use a cooler right now, but since it's on the hot side, it's not as much of a priority to me.

I actually even made a thread in the DIY section about ditching the bottling buckets by setting up your kettle to do it instead.

Why not just make life easier and instal a weldless ball valve?

Peristaltic pump coupled with that racking cane you made, once the siphon is started you are good to go! Or, you could weld the cane to your lid, make an airtight seal and then create a vacuum on your fermenter. A shop-vac works great for creating a sealed vacuum and starting that siphon.

FSR402 said:

Why not just make life easier and instal a weldless ball valve?

Click to expand...

On a glass carboy? Okay...

emjay said:

On a glass carboy? Okay...

Click to expand...

No, on the brew kettle. I can't imagine the difficulty draining a 22 gallon brew kettle with siphoning. What a pain that would be.

emjay said:

On a glass carboy? Okay...

Click to expand...

Did you read the original post? No glass carboys mentioned.

This idea of SS racking canes has came up several times, yet nobody has yet to make one. Why are you against a ball valve? It would make life a lot easier. There is a reason why 99% of people with a kettle over 5G has one installed.

Oh, true. I guess we have different reasons then. I used an autosiphon like 2 whole times before deciding that it was an awful, clog-prone way of doing things.

Here's one of the occasional discussions about trying to build an ss autosiphon.

Swagman has made one, but he's no longer on these boards. FWIW, I've not had any issues with my plastic one but it's only 2 years old at current.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/does-anyone-else-hate-their-auto-siphon-127275/index3.html

There are SS racking canes http://www.homebrewing.org/Stainless-Steel-Racking-Cane-30_p_904.html .. not sure if that helps. Although if you are looking for SS auto siphon ... that is yet to be seen.

slykwilli said:

There are SS racking canes http://www.homebrewing.org/Stainless-Steel-Racking-Cane-30_p_904.html .. not sure if that helps. Although if you are looking for SS auto siphon ... that is yet to be seen.

Click to expand...

Autosiphon is exactly what I'm looking for. Would pay good money, too. But the patent holders have no interest in making an SS version for some reason...

emjay said:

But the patent holders have no interest in making an SS version for some reason...

Click to expand...

Because with plastic, you buy a new one every year or so. A SS would last practically forever.

IrregularPulse said:

Because with plastic, you buy a new one every year or so. A SS would last practically forever.

Click to expand...

I guess... but I would pay a serious premium to eliminate the weak link in my cold-side process.

emjay said:

I guess... but I would pay a serious premium to eliminate the weak link in my cold-side process.

Click to expand...

Cough, Peristaltic Pump... ...Cough...

Using silicone tubing you could boil it to ensure sanitation if needed.

wyzazz said:

Cough, Peristaltic Pump... ...Cough...

Using silicone tubing you could boil it to ensure sanitation if needed.

Click to expand...

I'll look into it

IrregularPulse said:

Did you read the original post? No glass carboys mentioned.

This idea of SS racking canes has came up several times, yet nobody has yet to make one. Why are you against a ball valve? It would make life a lot easier. There is a reason why 99% of people with a kettle over 5G has one installed.

Click to expand...

You mean SS auto siphons? There are lots of SS racking canes out there.

Im weary of weldless ball valves if I were to put on a ball valve I would want it to be welded

chaitobar said:

Im weary of weldless ball valves if I were to put on a ball valve I would want it to be welded

Click to expand...

How about soldering it?

Hey, two quick ideas here for your siphon.

Idea #1. Just prefill a large dia. racking cane, like a piece of SS tube, with a long piece of the right sized tubing attached with boiled water. Hold the open of the racking cane up and fill from the tubing end. Use a tubing clamp to pinch off the open end of the tubing, put it into the receiving container while the open end of the racking cane is still pointed up. Then immerse the racking cane into the source container and open the tubing clamp. Viola, a running siphon, that is assuming you've got the heights right. If you really are doing a batch that large a little water in the tube won't really dilute anything, but if you're really anal you could always figure the small volume as makeup water.

Idea #2. Get the biggest jiggler siphon you can find and shake away! Check one out here http://www.superjiggler.com/ (no affiliation). I've got a small one and use it or my autosiphon interchangably to suit my mood.

so i have decided to just weld a ball valve on after all.