Peristaltic pump: OK to use?

[PrinceOfThePoint]

Hello all!

I wanted to get your opinion on using a peristaltic pump to move beer around between vessels.

As I understand, it would be fine for moving the wort into the fermentation vessel. (I would keep the flowrate relatively high and allow the inflow to "splash" into the vessel to promote good aeration.)

My main question is: Can a peristaltic pump be used in place of a siphon, i.e. when moving the beer from the fermentation vessel to the bottling bucket (containing priming solution), and when moving the beer from the bottling bucket to the bottles?

Obviously during these processes I would keep the flowrate extremely low to prevent any sort of turbulent flow in the beer. I just don't understand if the action of the pump will somehow adversely affect the beer?

I appreciate your time...Cheers!

 

[BigFloyd]

I'm thinking that it would be OK for transferring kettle to fermenter so long as you have a way to clean/sanitize the internals of the pump to avoid contamination.

I'd suggest not using it to transfer already fermented beer to the bottling bucket or from bottling bucket to bottles. Doing so will increase the risk of oxidation/contamination and you really don't gain anything of significance. It's a simple matter to place the fermenter higher than the bottling bucket to siphon.

When bottling, it's hard to get more effective (and simple) than a spigot on the bottling bucket with a small piece of 3/8" tubing attached to a spring-loaded bottling wand. After all, you don't want a steady flow of beer like you'd get out of a pump. I like to do mine over an open dishwasher with the bottling bucket sitting up on the kitchen counter.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

I'm thinking that it would be OK for transferring kettle to fermenter so long as you have a way to clean/sanitize the internals of the pump to avoid contamination.

I'd suggest not using it to transfer already fermented beer to the bottling bucket or from bottling bucket to bottles. Doing so will increase the risk of oxidation/contamination and you really don't gain anything of significance. It's a simple matter to place the fermenter higher than the bottling bucket to siphon.

When bottling, it's hard to get more effective (and simple) than a spigot on the bottling bucket with a small piece of 3/8" tubing attached to a spring-loaded bottling wand. After all, you don't want a steady flow of beer like you'd get out of a pump. I like to do mine over an open dishwasher with the bottling bucket sitting up on the kitchen counter.

Yup +1 for bottling bucket and or an auto siphon..if you start the siphon with the spring loaded bottle wand compressed and never lift it above the siphon it will maintain the siphon and it makes bottling super easy even if you dont have a bottling bucket with spigot.