Extra pieces????

[PLAY_DEAD]

Soooo.....I just finished up bottling an American wheat ale and when I got to the bottom of the bottling bucket I found this piece in the bottom of my bucket. I'm guessing its a piece of my auto-siphon, but I'm not sure where it goes!!!! Now, I have had this happy. A ton while working on my Jeep, but never when brewing!!! FYI...I sed my bottling bucket to sanitize everything I , so it could be from any of my components. PLEASE HELP!!!

Thanks!

 

[LordUlrich]

It is part of the check valve for your auto-siphon. It goes in the bottom of the auto-siphon.

 

[Setesh]

:smack: I hate when I have extra pieces left over after a project! As above, it is part of the valve for your auto siphon.

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

So it just goes prongs upward into the bottom of the siphon before I put the cap on?

 

[Setesh]

I think so. I would check for you but unfortunately mine is in the attic and my daughter is asleep so I can't go up there without being beaten by my wife.....damn, I'm depressed now....

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

Well if you get the chance to check in the near future, let me know. Thanks brother.

 

[thadius856]

You expect this man to go dig thru his attic to see if it looks like his autosiphon, which may not even be the same brand/manufacturer you have?

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

What's the hurt in asking. Especially when he already said he would. Sounds like you have nothing better to do than stir **** up on a forum...good for you.

 

[thadius856]

You're completely right. I shouldn't waste me time here, let alone walk in the other room and look at mine since you asked so nicely.

Peace, thread.

<unsub>

 

[jpalarchio]

This thread might help: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/autosiphon-check-valve-fell-out-35105/

 

[Setesh]

Dude must have been having a bad day I guess.

Anyway, here is a shot of the plastic bit for you. Sorry the picture sucks, but it's damn dark up there!



That piece goes in from the top (inside the tube) on mine, so you might have a different model. If you look at the flat part on top of this piece (tines facing away from you) there is a plus shape on the one I have. That doesn't prove they are the same though.

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

I'm not sure what his deal was...not like I asked HIM to go into HIS attic. lol. Thanks for digging that out for me to see. I really appreciate the help.

While you're up there, you might as well go ahead and bring that stuff down and get to brewing!!!! (If that's ok with you, of course).

Thanks!

 

[Setesh]

That thread linked above my post is what you want though, especially post #9. A dowel with some fishing line/thread to hold the piece to the end would work great.

 

[Setesh]

While you're up there, you might as well go ahead and bring that stuff down and get to brewing!!!! (If that's ok with you, of course).

Thanks!

Nah, I brewed two batches yesterday, I just don't use auto-siphons anymore. I could never get a perfect seal around the little gasket and would always have tiny bubbles making their way into the stream during the racking. I am the only beer drinker in my house, and my beer tends to be around a long time (3-6 months on average) so I cut oxidation every chance I get. Those bubbles made my auto-siphons scrap as soon as I learned about oxygen and staling. They've been in the attic for several years now, they should probably just be thrown away, I bet the gaskets are rock hard by now.

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

Cool. I haven't had a problem with auto siphon...yet. What do you use instead of the auto siphon?

What did ya brew yesterday?

 

[Setesh]

Cool. I haven't had a problem with auto siphon...yet. What do you use instead of the auto siphon?

What did ya brew yesterday?

*Edited first paragraph, corrected process*

I just fill a length of tubing with starsan. Stick one end into the fermentor that I have placed on the cabinet, the other into a catch pan on the floor, and gravity does the rest! Once beer starts flowing out into the catch pan I cap the tubing with my thumb and move it to the keg. It's actually pretty simple once you get the hang of it.

Yesterday I brewed my first two batches on my new EHERMS system. The first one wasn't quite a train wreck, but I made my fair share of mistakes. For instance, I completely forgot to include the length of five 1/2" hoses and a 50ft long 1/2 HERMS coil in my strike water calculations. This exposed more than half of my HERMS coil so mash out went very slow. Then when I disconnected my first hose I realized I put the pumps directly below my kettles. So I put a cardboard roof and a towel over each of my pumps for the rest of the first brew, then moved them to the uprights between the kettles for the second brew. I measured the gravity of my runnings after mixing well and got a 1.032 on the refractometer instead of the 1.045 I expected. I measured 20 minutes before EOB and got 1.038, so I added DME. After chilling I took a sample and used a hydrometer on it...1.064 when I wanted a 1.056! Dammit! After further testing I discovered my refractometer no longer functions properly. So I ignored it for the second brew which went very smoothly and improved my mood quite a lot. The only thing that went bad with the second was when I added 1 lb of powdered Caraffa II on top of my grain bed it took my recirc to a trickle. It was time to sparge anyway so that wasn't a huge deal. Wow, sorry about that, apparently I needed to vent! All you asked me was what I brewed....

First brew was a hopbursted almost SMASH (magnum at 60 minutes) Cascade pale ale with 5 ounces of Cascade and .5 oz of Magnum for bittering. All Pale base malt.
Second brew was a hopbursted Cascadian Dark Ale with 1.25oz Magnum for bittering, and 6 ounces of Cascade and 1 ounce of Willamette.
I had a little over two pounds of cascade I needed to use, so that's why I went with the hopbursting approach.
Both were my first attempts at hopbursting. If they end up being way too hoppy I will brew another batch of base beer and blend them. For the dark ale I can just steep some Caraffa II or III cold, boil that and add it to keep the dark color.

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

Haha. Sounds like it was a rough, but educational day. So when siphoning so, when siphoning with tubing, have you ever back-fed sanitizer into your beer? Did you ever tell me what kind of beer you brewed???

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

Haha. Sounds like it was a rough, but educational day. So when siphoning so, when siphoning with tubing, have you ever back-fed sanitizer into your beer? Did you ever tell me what kind of beer you brewed???

Just read it again, you DID tell me what kind. My bad!

 

[Setesh]

Haha. Sounds like it was a rough, but educational day. So when siphoning so, when siphoning with tubing, have you ever back-fed sanitizer into your beer?

Yeah, but first brews on a new stand and system are bound to have problems, I'm happy I only had a few.

Yes, I did have that happen the first time I did this method, now I let enough of the sanitizer out of the tubing to where I have empty tubing going into the fermentor. If done properly the sanitizer level is just below where the tubing bends down and heads towards the floor. The tubing is long enough that the air pocket won't hurt anything, the inertia of the liquid carries on the siphon long enough to overcome the air pocket. Do this with a short piece of tubing and this will break your siphon. With a long piece it works fine though. A lot of people will just use tap water for this step and not worry about it. I suppose you could also just boil water and do it that way. I have a keg with starsan in it all the time, I just coil my tubing inside the keg, plug the ends with my thumbs and let it out enough so I can put empty tubing into the fermentor.

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

I shall try this next time for sure! Hopefully I'll get to brew NB's caribou slobber this week. I've had it on hand, just got to find time now....too bad my lbhs doesn't sell that!

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

Lhbs*

 

[Setesh]

Doesn't sell what? StarSan? That's amazing if they don't. FiveStar makes a few products they might be able to turn for profit, like 5.2, IOStar, Saniclean, and especially PBW and StarSani. http://www.fivestarchemicals.com/ is the website. If I were you I would suggest to them that they should carry FiveStar. You can always buy it online of course, but I like to support the LHBS whenever I can, even though it's more expensive. I really like having them there when I need something last minute so I want to make sure she can keep the doors open!

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

Nah, I was talking about selling spare time! Haha. They have most everything else.