DIY airlock for small bottles and small auto siphon ideas?

[oscillate_wildly]

Hi everyone

I hope this is the right place to ask. I am making 6 gals of hard cider using 3 types of yeast, so I have 2 gals of each type. I'm using 1 gal bottles, so two bottles for each type. This is my first time brewing.

I'm due to rack into secondary and did the first last two bottles last night and I ran into two problems:
- To avoid headspace, I'm racking into a 1 gal and then a smaller bottle, and whatever is left I'll just mix together. I'm using whisky / vodka bottles for the smaller bottles. My problem is that I don't have a bung that fits the smaller bottles! Can I fashion my own out of e.g. foil wrapped over the opening and sealed, with an airlock fitted into the foil? I've added a pic of what I fashioned last night.

- Second, my auto siphon does not fit into the gallon bottles. Primary has finished so I think I need to rack before I can get my hands on a small one. Any advice for priming a tube and not making a giant mess? I thought about getting a siphon from the pet store (they're used for fish tanks). Has anyone used these or do I just have to suck on the tube. I'd like to avoid that since surely it risks contamination!

Thanks!

 

[hotbeer]

Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more
brew·ing
/ˈbro͞oiNG/
noun
the activity or business of producing beer.

brewing meaning - Google Search

 

[oscillate_wildly]

brewing meaning - Google Search

Right... I posted in here because it seemed the most generic for general advice about equipment and methods common to most brewing and more people brew beer than cider. Does the beverage really matter?

 

[Broken Crow]

What kind of caps do your smaller neck bottles take? Do you have spares you can drill a hole in to ram an airlock into?
As to siphoning: Use a spare bottle and practice; you can just fill a hose with sanitizer and keep your (sanitized) thumb pressed over one end while you drop the other into the bottle, then release your thumb over the recieving container.

 

[hotbeer]

Though I might be a little passive aggressive suggesting that this isn't the cider forum, I was more concerned about the misuse of the term brewing.

This is my first time brewing.

Making cider isn't brewing.

 

[oscillate_wildly]

Though I might be a little passive aggressive suggesting that this isn't the cider forum, I was more concerned about the misuse of the term brewing.



Making cider isn't brewing.

Does it really matter in the context of my question. First time fermenting then. Way to make a newbie feel welcome!

 

[oscillate_wildly]

What kind of caps do your smaller neck bottles take? Do you have spares you can drill a hole in to ram an airlock into?
As to siphoning: Use a spare bottle and practice; you can just fill a hose with sanitizer and keep your (sanitized) thumb pressed over one end while you drop the other into the bottle, then release your thumb over the recieving container.

Thank you. Is that generally better than sucking on the end, putting my thumb over and putting the end back in sanitizer? I only ask because I would worry about getting sanitizer in my cider. I know it's non toxic so maybe that doesn't matter.

I thought I had kept it but I guess not! But they are pretty generic threaded bottles so I am sure I could find something. Thanks, that sounds like it would work well

 

[Broken Crow]

Does it really matter in the context of my question. First time fermenting then. Way to make a newbie feel welcome!

Don't take it personally... @hotbeer is probably just fed up with the level of imprecise to outright annoyingly downright wrong terminology we see a lot of on here. My own big bugaboo is when posters keep saying "air" and "air-tanks" when referring to CO2 or Beer Gas. I actually started a "saying it in your outside voice" thread some time ago over my frustrations on here.
So: How about those caps? Do you have spares you can drill?

 

[mac_1103]

I doubt that you'll get a seal worth a damn with aluminum foil. I second Broken Crow's suggestion. If you can drill a 1/2" hole in the bottle cap you can stick a standard air lock grommet into it.

 

[Broken Crow]

Thank you. Is that generally better than sucking on the end, putting my thumb over and putting the end back in sanitizer? I only ask because I would worry about getting sanitizer in my cider. I know it's non toxic so maybe that doesn't matter.

I thought I had kept it but I guess not! But they are pretty generic threaded bottles so I am sure I could find something. Thanks, that sounds like it would work well

Never put your mouth to the hose! ..but yeah; you can immerse the whole hose till it's filled and if your sanitizer is Star San, even a little amount getting in will NOT hurt your cider...it'll break down immediately to a small amount of yeast-food and do nothing at all to the taste.

 

[oscillate_wildly]

Never put your mouth to the hose! ..but yeah; you can immerse the whole hose till it's filled and if your sanitizer is Star San, even a little amount getting in will NOT hurt your cider...it'll break down immediately to a small amount of yeast-food and do nothing at all to the taste.

Ok thanks. Bleh I already did 4 that way. Oh well, fingers crossed dipping it make it less bad! I'll do the sanitizer for the rest. Thanks.

 

[mac_1103]

You can dump the starsan that's in the hose before you collect the beer cider into the jugs. There won't be much mixing of the two liquids in the tubing and you can see the color difference. It helps if you have an easy way to stop the flow, like a bottling wand.

 

[yowzers]

Here is a racking cane type siphon that allows you to not suck on the end or add solution to the hose, etc. It has the added benefit of allowing you to aerate your solution (not really useful with cider), but it's there if you need it. It can also just be used as a racking cane and hose if you like that better. Silicone hose is definitely the way to go. If you are using a bottling wand like I do, you can start the siphon with the wand in the end of the silicone hose so it is pretty handy. It doesn't come with any sort of clamp to hold the racking cane in the fermenter to keep it off the bottom, so I use a couple clothes pins, which works just fine. https://ballandkeg.com/products/dual-purpose-siphon

 

[oscillate_wildly]

Here is a racking cane type siphon that allows you to not suck on the end or add solution to the hose, etc. It has the added benefit of allowing you to aerate your solution (not really useful with cider), but it's there if you need it. It can also just be used as a racking cane and hose if you like that better. Silicone hose is definitely the way to go. If you are using a bottling wand like I do, you can start the siphon with the wand in the end of the silicone hose so it is pretty handy. It doesn't come with any sort of clamp to hold the racking cane in the fermenter to keep it off the bottom, so I use a couple clothes pins, which works just fine. https://ballandkeg.com/products/dual-purpose-siphon

Awesome thanks, something to invest in

 

[oscillate_wildly]

Don't take it personally... @hotbeer is probably just fed up with the level of imprecise to outright annoyingly downright wrong terminology we see a lot of on here. My own big bugaboo is when posters keep saying "air" and "air-tanks" when referring to CO2 or Beer Gas. I actually started a "saying it in your outside voice" thread some time ago over my frustrations on here.
So: How about those caps? Do you have spares you can drill?

Yeah I get it. But they made the decision to try to make someone feel small and stupid instead of just helping or correcting nicely. I'll never understand that mentality, seems a shitty way to want to be. Kinda pointless and stupid.

 

[hotbeer]

Way to make a newbie feel welcome!

Yeah, that is bad of me for doing that. I do apologize for that aspect of my replies.

 

[oscillate_wildly]

Yeah, that is bad of me for doing that. I do apologize for that aspect of my replies.

No worries. I didn't mean to react badly. I was in the middle of racking and I was messing it up and getting all stressed out.

 

[RM-MN]

It's not often that a solution to a problem can be quick, easy, and cheap but the solution to fermenting it bottles is to stretch a balloon over the neck. This allows the excess CO2 to escape slowly while limiting the amount of air. As CO2 is produced the balloon inflates. When CO2 is no more being produced the excess will leak through the balloon. When the balloon is deflated again the fermentation is over.