Funnels?

[Wiesty]

Hey everyone!
Question here....
I need to buy a big funnel for transferring my wort to the fermenter. Unfortunately I cannot find a large enough funnel ANYWHERE. I was thinking of using an automotive funnel, but am unsure if these are food safe or not? None of the ones I saw stated what type of plastic they were. Only ONE funnel I saw said what plastic it was. It was HDPE, which IS food safe, but then it had a warning that it could cause cancer by the state of California, so I didn't buy it.

Does anyone else use automotive funnels for brewing? Are they safe? Are there any other makeshift funnels people have used?

 

[CJ1]

Not all HDPE is food safe.

Several of the forum sponsors sell big funnels: http://shop.greatfermentations.com/product/10in-antisplash-funnel-w-strainer/s

 

[Wiesty]

Unfortunately I am brewing this week. And I find it so exhausting to order 4 dollar items off the net when I know shipping will be 4x as expensive as the item. I live in Canada eh?

 

[giraffe]

Your local restaurant supply store is also a good source of things like this. And everything is very likely to be food safe.

 

[feinbera]

Do you have a local homebrew shop? Get an auto-siphon instead of a funnel – hoisting and pouring gallons and gallons of wort is a pain, and the funnel won't help you at all going into your bottling bucket, when you'll have to worry about not transferring the yeast cake and keeping the beer from getting aerated.

 

[Wiesty]

I checked our local restaurant supplier. NOTHING. This is ridiculous. I think I'll just use a 2L PET bottle cut in half until I order another box of supplies online.

 

[brew_ny]

but then it had a warning that it could cause cancer by the state of California,

isn't everything sold in California marked with that ?

S_M

 

[bbycrts]

Everything in California has a warning that it may cause cancer. I gleefully ignore that little warning label.

I actually used a little kitchen funnel that my wife had when I realized at the last minute I didn't have one. I had to pour slowly (and fortunately I only do 2.5 gallon batches), but it did a GREAT job aerating as the wort flowed through it...

 

[bbycrts]

I really like the idea of cutting off the bottom of a PET soda bottle, though...I think I'll do that next time!

 

[podz]

Don't ferment beer in carboys and you won't need a funnel.

That said, I ferment cider in my carboys and have a plastic food funnel. It's impossible to clean properly and permanently stained from cider making, not white anymore. I've been looking for a 1-piece SS injection molded big mouth funnel but they do not exist. All of them are two-piece knurled steel.

 

[CBXBob]

I would not sweat the California warning, if your not funneling super hot liquid it should not be a big deal. I'm pretty sure anything in some outrageous contact or ingestion will possibly cause cancer including beer.

 

[SquidPope]

A fellow Canuck, hooray! I'm planning to drop in to Canadian Tire and see if they have anything useful with the canning supplies, I'll let you know if I find anything. I know they have a variety of funnels on their website, but whether it'll be in-store is anyone's guess.

 

[podz]

I would not sweat the California warning, if your not funneling super hot liquid it should not be a big deal. I'm pretty sure anything in some outrageous contact or ingestion will possibly cause cancer including beer.

Everyone that does not die of another cause first will die of cancer. Given enough time, out of control cell mutation is an inevitability.

 

[Wiesty]

A fellow Canuck, hooray! I'm planning to drop in to Canadian Tire and see if they have anything useful with the canning supplies, I'll let you know if I find anything. I know they have a variety of funnels on their website, but whether it'll be in-store is anyone's guess.

Been there! Only tiny-assed kitchen funnels. They had lots of good automotive funnels with built in filters though. No idea what sort of plastics they were made of however...

 

[j1n]

Almost every homebrew shop sells funnels.

i use this one and its pretty big.