How to use a siphon?

[BlueSunshine]

So bottling day is fast approaching for my first batch of beer. However, the problem is that I don't know how to siphon. All of the places I've read have just kinda glazed over the siphoning process as if they expect you to know what you're doing. I've never siphoned anything before, and with sanitation being an issue I need to know what to do and what not to do.

Any suggestions?

 

[craven_morhead]

Spend $10 on an auto siphon. Read the instructions.

 

[Niederhofer]

The easiest way is to use an auto-siphon. If you're using just a racking cane and tubing with a clamp, fill the enire cane/tubing with water and close the clamp. Then put the cane into what you are going to siphon and keep the clamp side lower. Open the clamp, and the water will flow out pulling the liquid from the cane side with it. I would suggest practicing a few times before you try with beer.

Also, I would fill the sipon/cane with sanitized water, start siphon, let it run until it is full of beer, then clamp and attach bottling wand and begin to bottle. Be sure to keep the out side below the in side.

 

[coryforsenate]

Easiest way is with an auto-siphon. Problem is, they're usually made out of the cheapest, crappiest grade of plastic possible and break very, very easily.

btw, if anybody knows a website that sells QUALITY auto-siphons, please post it.

 

[BarleyWater]

Easiest way is with an auto-siphon. Problem is, they're usually made out of the cheapest, crappiest grade of plastic possible and break very, very easily.

btw, if anybody knows a website that sells QUALITY auto-siphons, please post it.

+1. Mine always end up with little cracks that run up and down the tube eventually leading to leaking. My favorite method is pushing with CO2, but that's obviously not for everyone.

 

[woodstone]

Brush your teeth...gargle with some vodka...and suck on the end of the transfer hose like only you know how!



Many, many years removed (and never had an issue with the above), I now use a carboy cap and CO2 to push the beer and start a siphon.

Good luck.

 

[RandomSF]

Using sanitary technique, fill the siphon hose with water, put one end in the full vessel, which is physically higher than the empty vessel. Put the other end in the empty vessel and release. The water in the hose will draw the fluid you wish to transfer into the empty vessel.

 

[remilard]

Siphon basics:

1. Keep the outlet lower than the inlet
2. Get and keep air out of the hose

Thats it, gravity does the rest.

Ways to get air out of the hose include:

Filling it with sanitizer or sanitary water, requiring you to run this off into a waste container and then divert flow when the beer starts coming out. Yuri has a video on this on here somewhere.

Using a sanitized turkey baster to remove air via suction on the outlet side of the hose.

Using pressure (via blowing) to force liquid through the tube until the air is removed. Look for the sterile siphon starter video on morebeer.com.

Using pressure via hand pumping to remove the air. This requires an auto-siphon which is a specialized piece of equipment with no other use.

 

[arturo7]

Affix the racking cane and submerge your tubing in a pot of Star San solution, make sure it is completely filled.

Close off the open end of the tubing with your thumb.

Hold the racking cane above your head then pull the tubing out of the pot, keeping your thumb on the end.

Place an empty pitcher on the floor next to your empty bottles. (you should probably do this first)

Place the racking can into your fermenter and the open end into the pitcher.

Release your thumb to start the siphon. When beer starts coming out you're ready to bottle.

 

[Chudz]

This video really helped me when I had the same question.




Edit to add: I then practiced a couple of times with water to get it down, and I didn't have any problems when it came to the real deal.

 

[CrazyJames]

I found that i was never able to fill my tubing with enough water so after doing some searching I found this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/flyguys-t-siphon-3-replacement-autosiphon-25774/

A 3$ DIY Auto siphon.

 

[jlanier01]

I siphoned off 5 gallons of water from one bucket to another for practice, before I even tried to siphon my beer. By the time I got around to siphoning to a bottling bucket I felt a lot more comfortable.

 

[craven_morhead]

Oh, also, I tried the DIY autosiphon, but didn't like the result. The empty bit of the T-junction kept adding bubbles, and I was nervous about oxidization, so I sprung for an autosiphon.

 

[Chombo]

i always sanitize the whole tube, then stick it in the beer and suck with my mouth until the beer is a few inches from my mouth, pinch it off, and dip the section that was in my mouth in a jar of starsan. seems to work great.

 

[atromic]

You don't need an auto-siphon. I tried to buy one and the woman at the LHBS told me I didn't need it and wouldn't sell it to me.

It only took a couple trys and I had my siphon off and running. Now I nail it every time, just follow the directions others have posted in this thread.

 

[sea2summit3]

Brush your teeth...gargle with some vodka...and suck on the end of the transfer hose like only you know how!

+1. after brewing for nearly two years, I've never had any beer infections by starting a siphon by mouth. Having only so much room for equipment, I've decided to pass on the auto siphon. Sounds like they don't last anyways!

Sanitize everything with Starsan or Idophor, including your hands (sanitizing with bleach? Use that auto siphon money to buy sanitizer!)- Racking cane attached to tubing, placed in wort, suck on other end of tube with sucking end below the level of the bucket you're siphoning from. Suck till until wort/beer has almost reached your lips, then either put your thumb over the end to stop flow or put tube in the bucket that should already be below your lips.

Then again, if you have a really dirty mouth or coordination problems, buying more equipment may be necessary.

 

[Niederhofer]

I believe there is no reason to risk infecting your beer over a $10 item. Get the auto-siphon or learn to use the regular type properly. Nothing worse than waiting a month or two and trying a beer only to find you ruined it because you were lazy/cheap.

 

[mordantly]

you've stollen gas from a buddies car before, yeah? same thing. just use bird lips.

I siphoned off 5 gallons of water from one bucket to another for practice, before I even tried to siphon my beer. By the time I got around to siphoning to a bottling bucket I felt a lot more comfortable.

perhaps that should be done behind closed doors?


autosiphons dont like boiling water. you have to use starsan or idophor.

 

[KYB]

I do the old fashioned way, I guess I've been pretty lucky, although I do sanitize the hoses well before I suck on them.

Place liquid vessel higher than the empty vessel, stick hose in the liquid, make sure the other end is lower than the end that is in the liquid, suck until you see liquid coming down the hose and quickly pull away from mouth and into the empty vessel. Pretty simple really.

 

[Want2Brew]

I have a old turkey baster that never work for it's intended purpose but just happened to be a perfect fit for my siphon tubing. So I took the bulb off and when I need to start a siphon I place the skinny end of the (sanitized) baster in the tubing place the other end in my mouth and start the siphon. simple as that.