Broken my autosiphon, now what?

[Gravity]

So I had plans today of kegging and was sorting out all my equipment when I noticed the tip of my autosiphon is broken

Wondering if anybody has transferred beer from carboy/bucket to keg using other methods

I reckon I could use the cane from the autosiphon and attached a hose to it to transfer

I also have one of those orange caps that goes over the carboy that I've never used, might be a good time to experiment

 

[Kent88]

Fill most of the tubing with sanitizer (keeping your thumb over the end) and that part will go into the vessel you're transferring into, stick the other (empty) end into the beer (or the cane that is in the beer), and start by siphoning into a big glass or small bucket of sanitizer before switching over the the keg.

 

[Pkrd]

Here's what I do.

Fill the keg with sanitizer.
Attach a length of tubing to a liquid disconnect, soak it in sanitizer. Hook up the CO2 and the sanitised let it push all the sanitiser out through the line.

Disconnect the liquid and gas lines. Run the keg under hot water and pull on the pressure release valve. Run the keg under cold water, do not pull the pressure release valve. Your keg now is under vacuum.

Stick the end of the tube in your fermenter. As soon as you attach the liquid disconnect to the keg it will start to siphon, once its going open the pressure release valve.

I weight the keg to see when its full.

 

[Gravity]

Fill most of the tubing with sanitizer (keeping your thumb over the end) and that part will go into the vessel you're transferring into, stick the other (empty) end into the beer (or the cane that is in the beer), and start by siphoning into a big glass or small bucket of sanitizer before switching over the the keg.

Cool, this is what I was leaning toward....how do you filter trub..etc...?

 

[Kent88]

Umm.... very carefully

 

[z-bob]

I have an auto-siphon, but I don't use it because the seal leaks and bubbles air into the beer. Great concept but totally worthless.

Instead I just use a racking cane; I rinse my mouth out first with whiskey, then suck-start the siphon hose. Works every time. (No, of course I don't spit out the whiskey)

 

[Kent88]

@z-bob I think my brother-in-law tried that and got bottle bombs.

 

[Gravity]

@z-bob I think my brother-in-law tried that and got bottle bombs.

Yea...this method is a mixed bag....friends have done and it goes either way ....the forums seem split also

I'm doing the hose and cane, and starting it with star San

 

[ba-brewer]

I have an auto-siphon, but I don't use it because the seal leaks and bubbles air into the beer. Great concept but totally worthless.

Instead I just use a racking cane; I rinse my mouth out first with whiskey, then suck-start the siphon hose. Works every time. (No, of course I don't spit out the whiskey)

I quite using my auto-siphon for the same reason. I tried dumping beer into the tube above the seal and it did not work either, still bubbles.

I just use the racking cane portion and mouth start the siphon too, but I use a sanitized pipette crammed into the tubing so my mouth does not touch the tubing. Once beer is heading down the tube I remove the pipette.

I still get bubbles sometime which I think is just co2 coming out of solution. Don't plan to use it again but it does makes me wonder if the auto-siphon was actually leaking.

 

[Gravity]

Just tried the hose and cane...it worked ok....lost about 2 gallons of beer as I didn't want to mouth start the siphon. I also stopped after 10 gallons, with another 5 to go . It was a bit messy too
This was my first time without my autosiphon, so it was a steep learning curve.
I probably wouldn't do it again, I'm replacing my autosiohon

 

[artichoke]

For the bubble/seal problem, a solution is to get one of those metal screw clamps and tighten up the seal where the siphon hose and the autosiphon meets. That fixed the problem for me.

- Artichoke.

 

[Brownalemikie]

That happened to me once and I used the orange cap. 2 hoses....blow on the top one with the other hose in keg. Works pretty good actually.

 

[Gravity]

That happened to me once and I used the orange cap. 2 hoses....blow on the top one with the other hose in keg. Works pretty good actually.

This is good to know as i still have 5 g left in a carboy that i want to keg asap

you use co2 to push ?

 

[yowzers]

This won't help you today but I did quite a bit of looking for alternatives when I broke my junk auto siphon for the second time. I like the Sterile Siphon, but I do have buckets so it won't work with those. I ended up making a DIY version of the Ballandkeg siphon. I probably only saved a couple bucks, but I like to make things. It actually works well. Zero leaks and very simple to start. With a stainless cane I can get almost all the beer into my keg. I also believe I was oxidizing some of my beers with the auto siphon.

 

[NZhomebrew]

Here's what I do.

Fill the keg with sanitizer.
Attach a length of tubing to a liquid disconnect, soak it in sanitizer. Hook up the CO2 and the sanitised let it push all the sanitiser out through the line.

Disconnect the liquid and gas lines. Run the keg under hot water and pull on the pressure release valve. Run the keg under cold water, do not pull the pressure release valve. Your keg now is under vacuum.

Stick the end of the tube in your fermenter. As soon as you attach the liquid disconnect to the keg it will start to siphon, once its going open the pressure release valve.

I weight the keg to see when its full.

Ill have to try this. How long do you run it under hot water for?

 

[Pkrd]

Ill have to try this. How long do you run it under hot water for?

Not long. Just make sure the whole keg is warmed up then pop the release, you'll get a good burst out.