Oh my god, I hate the auto-siphon, any other suggestions??

[Walker]

I'll have to post a pic of me racking using the little orange carboy cap. Super easy/cheap. No moving parts. No pre-filled hoses. Many secondary functions.

-walker

 

[seansbrew]

To each his own, as long as you are employing a technique that gives you ease of use and good results, cheers.

 

[gibfried]

Have you actually done this yet?

The hose that fits around/in the siphon line has to have a pretty tight seal on it for the sucking to work, and then.... how do you EASILY get that piece of hose off of the siphon line with out touching a lot of the sipon line. I would think you might have to tug on it quite a bit, spilling some brew and getting your fingers all over it.

If you've done it and it works, nice job! Very cheap.

-walker

No, I haven't done this myself. It sounds like an easy method, but you've heard of Murphy's Law... Actually, as a NOOB I just did the old fashoned suck method for my first 5 batches until I discovered the autosiphon. I'll hold on to that one. Well I have a mash that's about ready to rinse...later brew dudes.

 

[Tony]

To each his own, as long as you are employing a technique that gives you ease of use and good results, cheers.

Well said man!

 

[toddsyn]

Thank you Walker......m :cross: y first post anywhere about home brewing....i have yet to brew my first batch...kinda analyzing alot things i read on different boards before i buy my equipment.....this is the first thing i have read about the carboy cap....i have purchased videos and read many things online about the brewing process......looks and sounds kinda easy as long as you have the sanitation down......i was really set on going plastic because it seems easier to transfer with a spigot...but i was always looking at the long haul.....i dont want to buy a plastic fermentor to only find that if i were to scratch it, it may not be usable again.......i like the idea of glass....i dont like the idea of siphoning.....but if what you said is correct, i love the idea of glass!! sorry if i am ranting, i am drinking a goose island honkers ale now, but this sheds a whole new light on my future brewing........once again thanks to you and to all on this web site....... :cross:

 

[1911Man]

Ok, I am sure that all of you are completely over this topic, but I have to add my $0.02. I am a new brewer and have been racking my brain trying to figure out why my auto siphon was not working. After much frustration I realized that I had the wrong sized tubing. Replaced it with the correct size and it worked like a champ!

So the lesson for all of you newbies, when your auto siphon doesn’t work worth a darn, double check the size of your tubing, even if it came with a brewing kit. Mine did and it was the source of much consternation.

 

[Orfy]

Does anyone have a picture of their autosiphon or a link.
Mine has a pump at the top.

 

[Mindflux]

Racking cane goes through the tube in the center of the cap. hose attaches and runs into the other vessel.

If the cap is on the source vessel, gently blow into the longer tube on the cap (increases pressure inside carboy and pushes beer through hose.)

If the cap is on the target vessel, gently SUCK through the longer tube on the cap (creates a vacuum inside the carboy and PULLS beer through hose.)

Very low risk of contamination, since you are not actually putting your mouth on anthing that touches the beer.

True, blowing into the carboy sounds risky, but you don't have to blow THAT hard, so you are not going to disrupt the CO2 blanket on top of the beer. I've done my siphons this way pretty much since I started brewing. Never had any issue with contamination yet (knock on head.)

-walker

I'm not going to preach about this as you've already covered it. But please remember folks that your mouth harbors one of the worst bacterias you can infect your brewery with. You can transfer it simply with your breathing. People have changed out entire peices of equipment (some expensive, some not so much) trying to get rid of lactobacillus.

 

[The Happy Mug]

For what it's worth, I've got an auto-siphon with 8 months on it (I brew a lot). I replaced it because it's full of small cracks. It's been this way for about four batches, but I finally remembered to buy a new one at the homebrew shop.

The only sealing problem I have found is within the tubing. I bought 20' of tubing at once, and cut it to length when I needed it. I've cut one piece from this tubing that did not seal - my siphon failed. I had to clamp it with a hose clamp. I retired this piece to blow-off duty, and cut a new one. It fit - it sealed without air coming in, from the same piece of tube as the first was cut.

Also, those pictures above scare the crud out of me.

 

[user 574]

Does anyone have a picture of their autosiphon or a link.
Mine has a pump at the top.

Probably the same. Think everyone in the US has this one:

 

[Walker]

Isn't that a Swedish Penis Pump?

 

[user 574]

Isn't that a Swedish Penis Pump?

A little retrofitting and there ya go

 

[Orfy]

I use something along the lines of this.

 

[homebrewer_99]

yeah, that can work, but I would actually just use boiled or distilled water to pre-fill my hose and not a sanitizer. Sanitizing solution doesn't taste good, and it's easy for a siphon to go a little wrong and suck that solution back into the beer.

I also suggest pre-assembling the hose and cane set-up and then filling it ALL with water. Then you can just put your thumbs over the two open ends of the siphon system and move it around. Take one thumb off, insert into source, lower other end to target, remove thumb.

the siphon will just start flowing. If you have a big bubble in the line someplace, pinch it for a second with your thumb and index finger. The bubble will exit the line and a solid stream of beer will take it's place.

I'm a big proponent of being frugal, but I think that SOME sort of siphoning tool is a really good idea (be it a carboy cap or autosiphon).

-walker

I use an autosyphon now, but before that I used to pre-fill my hose too.

I used another vessel to pour the initial water and eventually some of the beer into. Then stopped the flow of the hose into the first container then placed it into the secondary or bottling bucket.

I never poured the water into my bucket.

 

[The Happy Mug]

"That's not my brew, Baby!" (lousy Austin Powers impersonation)

The diameter is way too narrow for starters.

Shame on you, walker. As punishment, you must drink another homebrew.

It's hard to punish somebody for making me laugh.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I use something along the lines of this.

Don't you have to have a medical degree to use one of these?

(That's funny! )

 

[Orfy]

If you did use it "Medically" I don't think I'd use if for the homebrew afterwards.

 

[homebrewer_99]

If you did use it "Medically" I don't think I'd use if for the homebrew afterwards.

I agree!

 

[Walker]

What... you've never had my award winning Pubic Porter? How about my Wienerweizen?

-walker