Syphoning on the level or even uphill

[jpoc]

I spent some time over Christmas looking at my leg, the stitches came out a few weeks back. I really did not want to have to lift another full carboy off the floor. You can picture the scene, slip, drop, smash, glass flies everywhere, look down at leg - Oooh, I can see the bone at the bottom of that laceration - and then off to the emergency room.

So, I had an idea.

I managed to work out a way to syphon the contents of a primary (barrel, bucket or carboy) into a carboy without having to lift a full carboy up off the floor.

You need two carboys plus the vessel that has the results of your primary fermentation. Then you need a couple of carboy caps and some flexy tubing of appropriate dimension.

Have a look at the photo attached.

The carboy on the right is full of water but this would normally be full of the result of your primary fermentation. It can be a bucket, barrel or carboy, you just need to be able to drop a length of tube into it.

The carboy in the middle is empty, this will be your secondary fermentation vessel.

The carboy on the left is full of water. This really will be water when you do this for real.

The thick tubing that you can see connects the two carboys together. This tubing does not go down into the carboy it just serves to connect the airspace at the top of the two carboys,

The thin tubing that connects the right hand carboy to the middle one goes all the way down to the bottom of the right hand carboy but it does not go down beyond the level of the carboy cap in the middle carboy.

The thin tube that goes into the left hand carboy goes all the way down to the bottom of the carboy and the other end goes down to floor level where it terminates in a bucket.

So, how does it work?

Pick up the end of the tube that is in the bucket and suck until you get water - it is OK to suck this as it really is always just water. then put the end of the tube in the bucket and let the contents of the left hand carboy syphon down into the bucket.

As the left hand carboy empties, suction is created in that carboy. Because the thick tube is connected to the empty middle carboy, suction develops there too.

The suction in the middle carboy will draw the fluid from the right hand carboy into the middle carboy.

It works.

Depending on your carboys and tubing, you may need to use clips or rubber bands to ensure that you have an airtight seal throughout the equipment. The time taken will be a function of the tube sizes.

You can probably speed things up by using a normal syphon to transfer the first half of the liquid as at that stage the motion will be downhill and then you only need to be able to transfer the last half by this method.

You still need to lift the bucket of water off the floor but I use two buckets and swap between them as they fill so I am just lifting half full buckets to the sink to pour away.

If somebody else had this idea before then all credit to them too but I could not find a description of this anywhere so I thought that it might help if I posted.

 

[Spring_Chicken]

Are you saying that you put your MOUTH on the tube?

All I do is put my racking cane and tube in the full carboy,
Use a sanitized turkey baster to pull beer through the entire line,
Pinch it in the middle, and
Quickly and smoothly put the discharge end in the empty carboy then release.

It will make both carboys level. It's really handy if you want to make two equal volumes.

-Paul

 

[Dert]

Wow, if I had a hospital visit due to glass carboys, I'd give up on glass.

I did have a 6.5 gal carboy break on me- in a bathtub. Not a huge loss, just a batch of beer. The entire bottom fell out, in one piece, wort everywhere in the tub- no injuries.

I now only ferment in stainless. I do 12 gallon batches and ferment in converted sankes. I pull the diptube out and sanitize with heat. Couple gallons boiling and steaming for 15 minutes with foil is all it takes.

My brother recently got into wine and wanted my old glass carboys. I have cleaned and sanitized two after switching to stainless over 10 years ago. Wow, that was scary cleaning and sanitizing those in my brewhouse. Being so careful not to knock them on the SS sink or concrete floor...I don't know how or why anyone takes the risk.

I'd advise not using pressure or suction on glass. Tiny micro-fractures will cause these to break with the addition of heat/ cold and pressure/ suction. Get some sankes!

Best of luck.

Dert

 

[jpoc]

Are you saying that you put your MOUTH on the tube?

Yeah, but the tube that I suck on is only ever carrying water from the carboy that is generating the suction, it is never in contact with the brew.

 

[jpoc]

I'd advise not using pressure or suction on glass. Tiny micro-fractures will cause these to break with the addition of heat/ cold and pressure/ suction.

The level of suction in the carboy is equivalent to the force on it created by filling it with liquid - in the other direction. If a carboy was liable to fracture under those circumstances then it would also be likely to shatter when you filled it up.

Besides, others have used a similar technique with a vacuum pump rather than use a secondary syphon to create suction and there have never been reports of that causing problems.

 

[Dert]

True, but after what happened to me (and you) I am leery of glass. Just handling those two carboys this last week, made me think of all that can go wrong.

Kegs of cheep beer are cheep...lacerations aren't.

I am a huge fan of SS. Got all of my kegs from parties over the years, repurposed them for kettles and fermentors. Will last me forever and no risk of breakage. And, the best part, I can still get my deposit back!

 

[TomSD]

I just push mine out with CO2... problem solved and much less equipment.

 

[jpoc]

I just push mine out with CO2... problem solved and much less equipment.

But how would you push out of a fermentation bucket or barrel?

 

[Dert]

I push mine with CO2 as well from the SS "carboys" into corines or another sanke. I now use a 2" tri-clover setup, but used to use a #10.5 drilled stopper with a 1/2" CU dip tube/ racking cane.

I once had the stopper blow out the top with perhaps 5 psi in the tank. Damn near blew my eardrums out form the sudden release of pressure. I know that if it were glass, and it failed, shrapnel may have been embedded in the walls and me.

I absolutely disagree with pressurizing (or suctioning) with glass. Those things are best for long term storage of product protected by a milk create or some other device and never exposed or any shock- pressure, temp, or physical... and never lifted from the neck when full.

Once again, best of luck.

 

[TomSD]

But how would you push out of a fermentation bucket or barrel?

If your ferm chamber seals you can push it out with CO2. A bucket you could do a second hole or fashion something to go through a single bung. A keg would be even easier.

As to the glass carboy issue. I barely use enough to register on the gauge and I watch it the whole time. I can't imagine it being enough to blow the carboy. If anything the hose would pop off first since I just push it on the end of the cap.

 

[Werbi]

The photo doesn't look like a "level" siphon as you are running off into a sink at a lower level. If this were set up truly level, draining into a bucket, I think it would be very hard to get the last several inches out (though you could suck and spit). -Draining to the floor would get closer but would be rather messy. If you drained into a bucket, you'd have to keep dumping it because as soon as the fluid level reached equilibrium the siphon would stop. I'd also suggest using a larger vessel for your "pull" water; as it would have some extra fluid as a cushion (not that you couldn't keep refilling it and siphon in stages). I agree pushing with CO2 seems much easier, I still rack from primary using gravity but after that, CO2 moves my beer.

 

[olsond]

Couldn't you just use a vacuum? Just figure a way to hook the tube that you were hooking to the 3rd carboy up to a vacuum hose. You can even poke holes in the tube so you can keep a more "gentle" siphon.