has anyone committed this siphon cardinal sin

[BrewBrain]

There is no need to suck your hose.

Step 1: Dip your hands in Starsan
Step 2: Make a loose fist around your hose, with the end of the hose at about your second finger inside your fist.
Step 3: Suck your fist hole
Step 4: Stick hose in target vessel before beer gets to the end.

No equipment required. No mouth on hose action.

Cost: $0
Hastle: none
Additional unnecessary parts: none
Level of Difficulty: 0/10
Failure rate: never

 

[Pete08]

I must be an idiot because I couldn't get mine to work..

Let's review.

one tube goes into the beer, one tube goes into the empty bucket and one tube goes into my mouth. I had a very hard time blocking the tube that was going into the empty bucket so that beer would flow out of the full bucket.

Maybe a hose clamp would help?

Yes it would. I made some from aluminum/brass/stainless. One holds the racking cane out of the yeast in the carboy/bucket, one clamps off the discharge hose, one is ready to clamp off the suction hose. The latter two clamps are one handed affairs. They were polished to facilitate sanitizing. I only have the pics of the cane clamp and the discharge clamp. The suction clamp looks like a pliers/nutcracker. I clamp the discharge, then suck on the suction, once the beer gets to the discharge clamp, I attach the plier-type clamp to the suction (it stays in place until I'm finished siphoning), then unscrew the discharge clamp.

 

[SkiGladys]

I'm sure that would make sense if I was there to watch it in action, but that seems way too complicated for me.

 

[thelorax121]

invest in an autosiphon, you wont regret it

 

[kevmoron]

Here is my problem with autosiphons...

We all make such a huge deal about sanitation, to the point that we are paranoid about any tiny little scratch that shows up in a plastic fermenter or anything else that touches the beer, as it could harbor bacteria.

The autosiphon I bought cannot be completely and totally dismantled, so there are cracks and crevices (around the gaskets and tips) that I can not get to in order to sanitize thoroughly. For me, the risk of bacteria getting in there is too great.

Or maybe I just have a weird autosiphon. I bought it from Morebeer though...

 

[N1CKOLAS]

i second the filling of the siphon tube with sanitizing solution and putting one end of the tube into the beer. Make sure the hands are clean. Easy cheezy powerful gravity.

 

[TechyDork]

There is no need to suck your hose.

Step 1: Dip your hands in Starsan
Step 2: Make a loose fist around your hose, with the end of the hose at about your second finger inside your fist.
Step 3: Suck your fist hole
Step 4: Stick hose in target vessel before beer gets to the end.

No equipment required. No mouth on hose action.

#3 just sounds dirty

 

[kappclark]

Used the "suck your fist hole" method to rack. First to a keg from secondary, then once again to go from Better Bottle to glass caroboy secondary.

Good technique ... siphon sucking w/o guilt.

I also liked the fact that I could see the end of the racking cane, and feel like I got a cleaner transfer from the primary.

Suck ur fist hole

 

[Dwain]

Do not fear the FIST-HOLE! - Dwain

 

[blindtiger]

I've never used anything other than my mouth or filling the tube with water. No sanitation issues yet.

 

[bendavanza]

I prefer Glenmorangie, but the auto-siphon is way handier. Not to mention the autosiphon tube is also a wine thief for getting your hydro samples out.

 

[Teacher]

I admit it: I'm lazy. I'm extremely picky about sanitation, but then I suck-start my siphon every time. I haven't had any problems. I know it makes no sense, but there you go.

 

[gonzo brewer]

I use a HEPA filter in the 2nd carboy cap hole. After I rack the beer, I want can harvest the yeast. I add 1 liter of boiled (cooled) water by turning the filter the other direction, place racking cane in the boiled water and suck the HEPA filter.

Swish the water/yeast, turn the HEPA back around and blow the yeast/water solution back into my 2 liter beaker. Of course I starsan sray the ends of the filter each time.

For buckets and cornys, I use an autosiphon.