Do you need a siphon if...

You have bottling spigots attached to your bottling buckets/fermenter?
I was just wondering, since I'm about to buy the equipment for my first brew and I want to know what's best. I'm looking to go as cheap as possible while not skipping out on the necessities.
So far I'm looking to buy 2 propylene buckets, a capper, a hydrometer, and ingredients for my first brew (AHS Bavarian Hefeweizen). I have a big enough pot (it could hold 2 gallons), I'm sure and I also have tubings for siphoning.
Any information or advice is highly appreciated.

There's a concern with using a spigot on your primary fermenter because even if you sanitize it well, it's not used until fermentation is complete. If you get it sanitized, put a sandwich baggie over it and hold it on with a rubberband. You can also play it safe by squirting sanitizer up into the spigot just before you put your hose on.

I would get the siphon...you'll use it.

just plastic food grade tubing is cheap. You need to siphon so that you do not oxygen in your beer after it has begun fermenting. VERY IMPORTANT!
You can: dump your boiled wort into the primary
You must not: dump your primary into your secondary or dump into your bottling buckets. Oxygenation after fermentation is well under way will introduce BAD flavors.
You can, if you are careful, bottle from a spigot. You have to tilt the bottle and allow no splashing or bubbles.

Siphoning is cheap and easy. Do you need to know how to do it?

I've had an aquarium for many years, so I know how to siphon, haha. I think I'll get the siphon.

Would a 2 gallon pot be enough for brewing with mini-mash?

cge0 said:

Would a 2 gallon pot be enough for brewing with mini-mash?

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I suppose anything is possible, but I wouldn't recommend it. Providing some space for hot break and all, you're probably not going to get more than a gallon and a half in there safely, and that's a very concentrated partial boil. I started with a 12qt enamel stock pot and moved to a 16-qt stainless pot after just a couple of batches, before I finally gave in and got a turkey fryer to do full boils.

A basic auto-siphon cost me $9 at my LHBS. It's perhaps the single best piece of equipment I have.

It's signifigantly different that siphoning a fish tank, much easier, much quicker.

So would you have any suggestions on how to go about the brewing with a smaller pot, other than you have given.

Bobby_M said:

There's a concern with using a spigot on your primary fermenter because even if you sanitize it well, it's not used until fermentation is complete. If you get it sanitized, put a sandwich baggie over it and hold it on with a rubberband. You can also play it safe by squirting sanitizer up into the spigot just before you put your hose on.

Click to expand...

All my beers are fermented in buckets with spigots. I take them apart from the bucket for a very thorough soaking in Oxiclean and hot high pressure rinses before a soaking in Starsan before reassembly to the bucket. Like Bobby, I wrap mine with Saran wrap. On racking day, I spray starsan in and on the spigot a few times over a 10 minute period before I push on my racking hose.

This method produces great beers without any infections or hassels of siphoning.

I use water baths to keep my fermentor cool so after a couple of batches I moved away from buckets and spigots. They are convienient but I prefer to ferment in the 60's. I would recommend a Better Bottle or carboy for primary fermentors.

You'd really be better off getting a bigger pot. Even if you were to invest in a cheap aluminum stockpot. A two gallon pot, with room left for boiling will really only hold about 1.5 gallons. Your malts and ingredients will take up a good portion of this, leaving very little room for water addition.

I would reccomend at a minimum a 3-4gal pot, so that you could safely boil about 2.5 gallons at a time.

Alright, that sounds cool.
What beer should I try to brew for my first time? Also, how much more complex is brewing mini mash? I hear that all I need is to boil a bit more, but then I hear things about a lauter tun. Any information on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

You can brew any type of beer you want (except a lager) for the first time. If you like a brown ale, for example, go ahead and look in the database for a recipe and you can do it. We can help you with the specifics if you post the recipe and mention your equipment.

PM brewing is pretty simple and straight forward. I started with extract and steeping grains and then went to PM. I didn't find it more difficult- it just took me a little longer. I used my bottling bucket and a huge grain bag as my first PM system. Still, I would recommend extract with steeping grains for everyone's first try, just to get the process down.

good morning, First I would invest in a larger pot the bigger the better. I use the spigot on my fermentor. What I do is take off the bottler attachment and place my tubing over the hard plastic part, This way I can let the beer slowly fill from the bottom in my secondary and I can control the speed with the value.

I like to siphon so that I can see how much yeast and trub there is, and so that I can get every last drop possible. No disrespect Ed, but a static spigot will either be so high that you miss some, or low enough to suck in more trub than I want. It is undoubtably easier, but for now I am a 1 batch at a time brewer so I want to squeeze every drop! The same goes for racking to secondary.

With my very first brew only 3 days into bottle I'm no expert, but having bought a bucket with spigot I ended up using a siphon because a) the siphon gives greater control and a smoother flow (less chance of oxygenation I suspect) and b) there was quite a build up of sediment in the barrel of the spigot that I didn't want to have going into the bottles. Mind you, I bottled straight from my primary fermentation bucket - don't even really know what a "secondary" is!