harbor freight siphon pump

Any one every use this for transfer or bottling?

I'M having a hard time keeping a siphon going when I bottle, so I'm looking for some thing to make my life easer.

 

I have tried to use a similar siphon (mine was for an aquarium) and all it did was make a mess stir up everything in my fermenter resulting in the most cloudy beer I had ever bottled (it wasn't all that tasty either). Maybe if you are using a secondary it would be better? I would also be worried about the materials used giving 'off' flavors and potentially not being food safe. IMO you'd be better served spending the money upfront getting a proper bottling bucket ($15 + $4 for the spigot at most HBS) than trying to save money on cheaper kludges that may only half work

 

Maintaining sanitation with something like that would worry me. I would suggest getting a bottling bucket with a spigot which is what I use. The bottling bucket and a bench capper makes bottling easy IMO.

 

when using a bottling bucket do you sill you a bottling cane or do you just hold the bottle up to the spigot?

I ask because the LHBS told me you would get to much oxygen in the bottles with just a spigot.

 

No, no, no! You attach a bottling wand to the spigot. The wands cost about $3 or so at your LHBS (you probably already have one). Attach it to the spigot with a short piece of tubing. Turn on the spigot and the valve in the bottom of the filler wand will start the flow when it is pushed against the bottom of the bottle. When bottle just overflows, move the bottle down to stop the flow. Withdraw the wand and it will leave the perfect amount of head space automatically. This is important. Don't jerk the bottle downward to stop the fill. You only need to drop it a fraction of an inch to stop the flow. Do it gently and you will spill very, very little beer even though you are filling the bottles right to the top+. Test it out with some water and you will soon get the hang of it. I am surprised that your LHBS guy did not suggest this method. You will be filling the bottles from the bottom up, not directly from the spigot, so no worries about oxidation. The remaining yeast will gobble up any O2 laying around in no time at all once you cap those bottles.

You can also use the bottling wand with a racking cane or autosiphon, but I find that it requires fewer hands using the bottling bucket with a spigot.

 

I hate bottling, almost never do it but the method Catt uses is easiest I think. Best to do it on kitchen counter over open dishwasher to catch the drips as well as having a place for the bottles if you've heat sanitized them in the dishwasher.

 

sorry if I was not clear. I have a racking cane and a bottling wand. I stopped using the bottling wand because I kept loosing my siphon. LHBS said not to put the cane on the spigot. Any ways I can use the cane pretty well I just don't want to have to get a siphon back every 10 min. I think I'll have to get a designated bottling bucket.

I'm just cheap

 

Make sure your tubing doesn't leak and get the spring loaded bottling wand. You're losing your siphon because air is getting in the line, so seal it up.

 

I sort of figured you had a bottling wand. What I don't like about using the racking cane with the bottling wand is that it's not fixed in place. The bucket and spigot method holds the bottle filling wand so you don't have to do anything but put a bottle up under it. You could still use your cane and tubing. The trick is to get the right size tubing so that you get a good seal where it attaches to the cane. You also want a good six inch drop below the bottiom of the fermenter and that usually means elevating the bucket somehow. I use the edge of my washing machine to hold the bucket and the capper is mounted on a board that spans my wash tub.

Your problem is an air leak where the tubing attaches to the racking cane. You can use a nylon cable tie to cinch it down which I sometimes do. I've noticed that some tubing doesn't fit very tightly and requires the cable tie fix. Other tubing works fine without a hitch.

 

here's what my process looks like.

I realize the air is getting in the line, part of the reason I stopped shopping at the LHBS is his answer, " Well there is a lot of co2 in the bottom, raise your cane up towards the top." I'm thinking 'I see the air sucking in at the cane and the bottling wand,' so I found cheaper prices on-line and have not needed to go back. I may need some equip soon (ie bottling bucket) and he's not that bad on equipment prices, though.

Anyways @catt22, I tried using hose clamps on the thing and it still wouldn't seal up. It was making me crazy. I actually learned how to bottle with no check valve on the cane. I wasted a bit of beer but I got dang good at it. I would just like to bottle my beer without head aches. Sounds like the hose I had sucked, literally. I think the bottling bucket is what I need to do. My wife is not going to like me getting more equip though.

 

It's somewhat tricky using a hose clamp on small tubing like that, especially if the clamp is not sized properly. You also risk cracking or crushing the cane. They are brittle and easy to break if handled roughly.

IMO, your source at the LHBS doesn't know his stuff. IMO he should be trying to sell you a bottling bucket and possibly some other associated gear. I'm wondering if he has ever bottled a batch of beer. Seems he would be familiar with all of these issues. Nearly everyone else has been through this at one time or another and typically sooner rather than later.

Tell your wife that this is one of the cheapest hobbies a guy can have and it keeps us off the streets and out of the bars. Tell her to be happy that you are at at home with her and not out somewhere with the boys. Tell her hobbies like this are good for the soul. Build her an outdoor wood fired pizza oven so she can have an obsession of her own.

 

Man, you need to get up off the floor. It's much easier to see what you are doing if you get the bottles up higher. You do need some drop to get a decent flow rate, and that's why I place my bucket on my washing machine. I have a bench I can sit on while filling and that puts the bottles just below eye level. It's nice to be able to see the fill rate and watch at it approached the top.

I have found that it is much easier to bring the bottle up under the wand than it is to bring the wand to the bottles individually. I like to fill and cap two bottles at a time.

Oh yeah, a bottle tree makes the process much easier. Well worth the money IMO.

 

Thanks for the good advice. I love HBT!

 

Good stuff. I use the bucket method, but I have my bottles upside down on the top shelf of my dishwasher, so I can't use it for catching beer. Good idea though!

Also, FYI - You'll want to make sure that you don't let air in as the beer is flowing through the bottling hoses. It's a good way to introduce O2 to your beer and make it taste bad.

 

I think I might go to a SS racking cane. We'll see.

 

FYI, I made a racking cane out of 3/8" soft copper tubing. Works like a charm at a cost of about $5 IIRC.

 

Surely you have read this thread. My knees wouldn't last long using your process.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

 

Awesome link, which I have not read yet thanks!