Auto Siphon not working

[Verio]

In the middle of moving my beer to my bottling bucket, and the auto siphon is not functioning. I pump it, and it moves some beer into the bucket, but will not continue siphoning. It was working properly when I tested it to sanitize the rest of my equipment.

Any tips/tricks I'm missing here? I've tried moving it to a higher position, I've tried pumping repeatedly, I've tried pumping one hard pump... just not understanding the issue here.

 

[D0ug]

Please bear with me I'm not trying to be a snarky jerk, it's just hard to visualize what the problem might be with out pics.

The Auto siphon should have 3-4 feet of tubing attached to the end of the central cane to provide a path for the beer, is it attached firmly so there are no air leaks? ie shovd on ~ 1/2"?

The bottom of the supply bucket should be at or above the top of the recieving bucket. The hose from the siphon should rest in the bottom of the recieving bucket, the black foot of the auto siphon should rest on the bottom of the supply bucket

The butterfly valve at the bottom of the central cane should move freely.

Some times I need to pump two or three times to establish a good flow, once established flow, I push the central cane all the way back down into the siphon body and just let everything sit in place.


It sounds like maybe a leak or the valve might have gotten jammed up if you used it once successfully.

I know when it has good flow and it is not full of bubbles it can appear to be stopped because there is nothing for your eye to follow..

Dunno if any of that is helpful, check for leaks, and good luck.
It's a bummer when equipment doesn't work the way you expect it to and decides to fail when you go to use it. My sympathies.

 

[daugenet]

Is it possible your siphon tip got clogged? My friend had this happen to him before. I have had things get stuck in the end of the siphon but not enough to clog it. It will depend on how much of a "screening" effect the end of your cane has.

 

[bennyd]

.....and if you are clogged up, then a couple of things after you get it cleaned out. Make sure not to push your auto-siphon into the trub and I've also read that people have attached a muslin bag to the end of their siphon to stop things from getting clogged.

 

[johnmcc]

I use a sanitized muslin bag at the end of my siphon

 

[Verio]

Disaster averted.

After cussing, throwing things, spilling beer on the floor, spilling 2 gallons of water on the floor, destroying all my 6 pack holders, and using every last towel in the house, I figured out the autosiphon issue.

Apparently the tubing that was connected to the siphon was not pushed far enough on. It was 2 inches on, but was still leaking air. Another inch solved the issue.

This however did not fix my pride at all

Wife is not so freaking pleased with the state of the house the day before Thanksgiving.... on the high side, I do now have 43 bottles of beer filled.

To top it off, I forgot to add my conditioning sugar until almost the end of siphoning.

Im hoping 2 cups of water + 3/4c of regular cane sugar was enough. If not, at this point, I don't care.

Edit - I would have had more beer, except the siphon stopped about 1/2 inch from the bottom of the carboy siphoning anymore... and then in the bottom of my bottling bucket, it seems I sucked up a bunch of trub which had thankfully settled in the bottom. It was black and nasty looking.

..

 

[D0ug]

Sweet, glad to ear you got your siphon going.

If your "Boss" is anything like mine, clean up the kitchen, do some of the cooking for her and she'll do WONDERS for your pride!

Happy Thanksgiving

 

[Hang Glider]

Apparently the tubing that was connected to the siphon was not pushed far enough on. It was 2 inches on, but was still leaking air. Another inch solved the issue.

..

Yeah, the tubing should be a snug fit - my guess is that if you can get it onto that cane that far, its too big. Smaller tubing, so it fits on snug immediately when attaching should cure your ills.

other than that, Doug gave good details.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[D0ug]

Veio, did you see revvy's post on bottling? https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

sounds like you might have had some sediment in you bottling bucket, but for future brews you might want to try out the dip tube. Made one out of a small drilled stopper and a short section of steam heated and bent racking cane and used it last night and it worked like a charm! No tipping the bucket for those last few brews!

(gotta stop posting now, that Double Dog is really starting to kick in!)

 

[japhroaig]

man, wait till you get to high-temp pumps and hose barbs, they never are air tight

when in doubt, and i mean 0.01% doubt, use a hose clamp And happy thanksgiving!!

 

[logan3825]

sounds like you might have had some sediment in you bottling bucket, but for future brews you might want to try out the dip tube. Made one out of a small drilled stopper and a short section of steam heated and bent racking cane and used it last night and it worked like a charm! No tipping the bucket for those last few brews!

I bought and use a 3/4" 90º pvc elbow. Screws right on the threads of the bottling bucket spigot.

 

[Verio]

Yeah, thanks for the link on Revvy's bottling thread. I ended up attaching my bottling cane directly to my bucket (Thanks Revvy!) which made bottling so much easier.

I have two boxes filled with beer bottles sitting on my Thanksgiving dinner table... Mmmm I'll try and let them condition for 2 weeks

 

[remilard]

You should probably use some kind of clamp on the auto-siphon, this is a common problem.

 

[Verio]

You should probably use some kind of clamp on the auto-siphon, this is a common problem.

It was my first brew. I felt like a complete jerk. It didn't help at all, that I was drinking a mint julep on an empty stomach

 

[DarkLoki357]

I am having this same problem but it seems like I have a leak in the main unit at the top or somewhere is starts then it sounds like it is sucking air somewhere.

 

[DVCNick]

I haven't had your problem exactly, but every time I used the siphon, it got somewhere between partially and totally clogged with hop debris; it is a pain to clean, sanitize, and hold in place while siphoning...
What I did was go to ported fermenters with spigots. Since I don't have to stick a siphon in there, they stay settled out during draining much better anyway, they are much easier to drain right down to the trub line, and I drain through my hop spider in the bottom of the bottling bucket to catch any hop debris that does make it through the spigot.
In my opinion so far, it beats dealing with a siphon, big time. Easier, faster drain by far, less trub in the bottling bucket, less stuff to clean and sanitize. Win/win/win.

 

[ncbrewer]

I am having this same problem but it seems like I have a leak in the main unit at the top or somewhere is starts then it sounds like it is sucking air somewhere.

I haven't had this problem but have read about it. The seat at the bottom of the inner, moveable tube (with the curved section) can be deformed and not seal against the outer tube. It lets air in, breaking the siphon. You can gently pour some beer down inside of the outer tube to stop air from leaking by.

 

[DarkLoki357]

I like the spigot idea I use those for my 5 and 6 gallon batctches, but is there a tool to let me add them to my 2 gallon buckets?

 

[DarkLoki357]

I haven't had your problem exactly, but every time I used the siphon, it got somewhere between partially and totally clogged with hop debris; it is a pain to clean, sanitize, and hold in place while siphoning...
What I did was go to ported fermenters with spigots. Since I don't have to stick a siphon in there, they stay settled out during draining much better anyway, they are much easier to drain right down to the trub line, and I drain through my hop spider in the bottom of the bottling bucket to catch any hop debris that does make it through the spigot.
In my opinion so far, it beats dealing with a siphon, big time. Easier, faster drain by far, less trub in the bottling bucket, less stuff to clean and sanitize. Win/win/win.

I like the spigot idea but all my spigots are on 5 asnd 6 gallon buckets is there a tool to add them to my 2 gallon buckets for when I am making smaller batches?

 

[DVCNick]

I've never done it, but I'm sure a hole saw of appropriate diameter would add the port with no problem.

 

[r4dyce]

I like the spigot idea but all my spigots are on 5 asnd 6 gallon buckets is there a tool to add them to my 2 gallon buckets for when I am making smaller batches?

Yes definitely. I actually made my own brew buckets just buying food safe buckets and cutting a hole. I think a 1inch hole is typical, but check the instructions for whatever spigot you end up buying. You can buy a hole saw or probably even a spade bit would work fine on a plastic bucket.

I too used autosiphon for a few batches and then ditched it. Ive been through two of them and another smaller one for my one gallon batches and they're always giving me problems. I finally came to the conclusion it's so much easier to just do a traditional siphon with regular hose and priming it with sanitizer. Again nowadays 80% of my transfers are through spigots, but otherwise regular old siphoning works for me every time.

 

[ncbrewer]

I finally came to the conclusion it's so much easier to just do a traditional siphon with regular hose and priming it with sanitizer.

I transferred with a simple siphon for a long time, but I had two concerns with it:
1. With my thumb over the end, I lowered it into the bottom of the bucket. I often touched the inside of the bucket or the tube with my arm and had to do some quick sanitizing. I'm not confident it was sanitized properly.
2. Laying the tube in the bottom of the bucket, around the perimeter to create a swirl is a little messy this way. I can do this better with an empty tube, using an auto siphon.

 

[kh54s10]

I haven't had your problem exactly, but every time I used the siphon, it got somewhere between partially and totally clogged with hop debris; it is a pain to clean, sanitize, and hold in place while siphoning...
What I did was go to ported fermenters with spigots. Since I don't have to stick a siphon in there, they stay settled out during draining much better anyway, they are much easier to drain right down to the trub line, and I drain through my hop spider in the bottom of the bottling bucket to catch any hop debris that does make it through the spigot.
In my opinion so far, it beats dealing with a siphon, big time. Easier, faster drain by far, less trub in the bottling bucket, less stuff to clean and sanitize. Win/win/win.

I hope you are using some tubing on the spigot to the bottom of the bottling bucket with the hop spider on the bottom. Otherwise you are oxidizing your beer.

Auto siphons are cheap. Get a new one. Also I had one the developed cracks in the curved part of the cane. It started sucking through the cracks. I stopped the siphon, used tape to seal it to finish that batch then went and bought a new autosiphon.

I would never trust that crud did not grow in the spigot during the fermentation period. I know a lot of people use spigots, I just don't like the idea.

 

[r4dyce]

I transferred with a simple siphon for a long time, but I had two concerns with it:
1. With my thumb over the end, I lowered it into the bottom of the bucket. I often touched the inside of the bucket or the tube with my arm and had to do some quick sanitizing. I'm not confident it was sanitized properly.
2. Laying the tube in the bottom of the bucket, around the perimeter to create a swirl is a little messy this way. I can do this better with an empty tube, using an auto siphon.

1. Just for the sake of clarification, I always use tubing clamps and not my thumb for the same concerns about sanitation.
2. Absolutely if it works for you that's awesome. I was kind of forced back into regular siphoning because I was having so much trouble with the auto siphons just not having a good seal breaking, stopping starting etcetera after the third one I just gave up. They would work great for like one or two batches and then inevitably start failing. My fault? Probably LOL but for now regular siphoning is working great for me on the occasion that I'm not using a spigot

 

[ncbrewer]

I was kind of forced back into regular siphoning because I was having so much trouble with the auto siphons just not having a good seal breaking, stopping starting etcetera after the third one I just gave up. They would work great for like one or two batches and then inevitably start failing.

You probably already know this, but it's recommended to store the auto siphon disassembled (inner tube pulled out of the outer tube) so the seat doesn't take a set while it is compressed. But I agree with your approach - if I start having those problems, I'll go back to a standard siphon cane too.

 

[DVCNick]

I hope you are using some tubing on the spigot to the bottom of the bottling bucket with the hop spider on the bottom. Otherwise you are oxidizing your beer.

Definitely... carboy on counter, bottling bucket on the floor, hop spider placed in the bottom of the bucket, and a tube from the spigot dropped all the way into the bottom of the hop spider.

Every time after bottling, I completely remove the spigot and the o-rings, open the spigot, soak in PBW overnight with all the other gear. Rinse very throughly and air dry. Soak in StarSan and assemble wet right before the next batch goes in. Then at bottling time I spray the outside and inside of the spigot nipple with Starsan (and of course soak the entire plastic line as well.)

No infected batches yet. I've had a few bottles that I think individually probably had something get in there, but I have to chalk that up to an issue with that specific bottle.