Use siphon or spigot to transfer to bottling bucket

[Lunkerking]

Hello. I have a spigot on my big mouth bubbler and when it comes time to transfer to my bottling bucket I was considering transferring via that and a hose rather than siphoning . any reason not to do this? I will be careful not to splash but I was wondering if I might end up getting more yeast in the bottling bucket?

Thanks for any advice !

 

[ursa_minor]

I'd imagine that using the spigot will result in dramatically more sediment in the bottling bucket. One of the advantages of siphoning is that you can be reasonably precise about avoiding all of the settled stuff at the bottom of the fermentor - siphoning clarifies. I'd worry that using the spigot would stir everything up.

 

[55x11]

Hello. I have a spigot on my big mouth bubbler and when it comes time to transfer to my bottling bucket I was considering transferring via that and a hose rather than siphoning . any reason not to do this? I will be careful not to splash but I was wondering if I might end up getting more yeast in the bottling bucket?

Thanks for any advice !

do you have a spigot that can control the level above which you drain the beer? If so, I would use the spigot, provided you choose the level above the trub. If you don't have such spigot, but the spigot is draining well above the trub, I would also use spigot.
The reason for that is that most siphons allow a precise choice of level of beer to drain from, but also disturb the trub layer quite a bit (less so with stainless steel sterile siphon starter which has no moving parts, but still).

However, if you cannot control the level at which you drain from, and/or your spigot is too close or below trub line, I would definitely use the siphon

 

[flars]

The spigot transfer can work well if you have the fermentor tilted so the excess yeast and hop particles drop away from the spigot without covering it as the fermentation finishes. As you rack, the fermentor can be tilted back to maximize the beer transferred without the trub flowing into the spigot. Might still get some trub settling into the spigot, but may be minimal.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

If you have a dip tube you could adjust it to pull from above the trub.

But, to be honest when I autosiphon I always push it down the edge of the bucket to the bottom. As long as it stays in one place, it pulls the trub from that spot and, once its cleared it really doesn't matter.

 

[derekp83]

The spigot transfer can work well if you have the fermentor tilted so the excess yeast and hop particles drop away from the spigot without covering it as the fermentation finishes. As you rack, the fermentor can be tilted back to maximize the beer transferred without the trub flowing into the spigot. Might still get some trub settling into the spigot, but may be minimal.

Any chance you can explain why I couldn't get my beer to flow properly through the tubing from the spigot today when I transferred to the bottling bucket? I kept getting bubbles and it drained very slowly when I picked the plastic fermenting bucket up off the counter. I even cut a foot off my hose to see if that resolved a gravity issue, but it didn't appear to fix anything as my bottling bucket was already on the floor, at least 3 feet below the fermenter.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

I had this happen to me a while ago. The foot valve on my autosiphon was stuck. Soaking it in starsan solved the issue. Are you using an autosiphon or a straight siphon tube?

 

[Jayjay1976]

You absolutely can use the spigot, the first few ounces will be cloudy so I just take just take a final gravity sample then attach the tubing for transfer. All my fermenters have spigots, I don't even own a racking cane, and my beers are as clear as yours.

 

[shoengine]

Any chance you can explain why I couldn't get my beer to flow properly through the tubing from the spigot today when I transferred to the bottling bucket? I kept getting bubbles and it drained very slowly when I picked the plastic fermenting bucket up off the counter. I even cut a foot off my hose to see if that resolved a gravity issue, but it didn't appear to fix anything as my bottling bucket was already on the floor, at least 3 feet below the fermenter.

Is your spigot clogged? Trub will clog a spigot right quick.

 

[derekp83]

I had this happen to me a while ago. The foot valve on my autosiphon was stuck. Soaking it in starsan solved the issue. Are you using an autosiphon or a straight siphon tube?

Just the siphon tube since I'm attaching it to the spigot.

 

[derekp83]

Is your spigot clogged? Trub will clog a spigot right quick.

I wondered if that was the cause...no signs of it after bottling, but maybe trub was blocking it when the beer and trub were still in the bucket.

 

[Hopsimus]

You absolutely can use the spigot, the first few ounces will be cloudy so I just take just take a final gravity sample then attach the tubing for transfer. All my fermenters have spigots, I don't even own a racking cane, and my beers are as clear as yours.

This is what I do too. Works great. Hardly any trub in the bottling bucket. Plus, less to sanitize and clean!