Racking problem for 1 gal batch in 5 gal glass carboy

[kojinakata]

Hi everyone,

I am near the end of a primary fermentation of a 1 gallon batch in a 5 gallon glass carboy. The problem is that I do not own a racking cane, or autosiphon or a hose clamp or a bottle filler. I only have flexible transparent tubing and that is it. I cannot buy the aforementioned equipment because I live in Finland, and shipping will take a lot of time which can ruin my batch. I also could not find rigid tubing near my area.

Bearing these in mind, does anybody have a method for racking beer out of primary and to a kettle (for priming) and eventually to 350 ml bottles?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[RM-MN]

Lay a large towel on the table or countertop. Fold the edges in until it makes a cradle that will hold the carboy laying on its side. Now you only have a short way to raise the liquid and with a bit of care your flxible tubing will stay in the wort. Lay the carboy down slowly so you don't stir up the trub too much. You'll have difficulty with filling the bottles without a hose clamp or bottle filling wand but you can fold the hose over to make a sharp kink to stop the flow of beer. It would be nice to have a helper for this if possible.

 

[flars]

Use light wire to fasten a rod, or something else fairly stiff, to your tubing. This end will go into your carboy to form a makeshift siphon. Tape the siphon at the carboy top to keep it out of the trub. Make sure the materials used can be sanitized. Use a woodworkers spring clamp to stop the siphon flow at bottling time. Use tape to secure the siphon tube to your bottling bucket.

Good luck. Hope all turns out well.

 

[Leithoa]

Check out Flyguy's DIY t-siphon made from hardware store parts. I have one and actually use it in preference to the auto-siphon I also have.

 

[kojinakata]

That is just magnificent advice. Thank you very much.

 

[IslandLizard]

You could carefully decant the beer out of your 5 gallon carboy into a smaller vessel, like a small bucket. Prime and bottle from there. If too much trub comes along, close it up and put in a cold area (fridge) for a few days to crash, which will settle most of the yeast and all the trub. The problem with the last method is you expose your beer to air (oxygen) for a long time (days) and that is not good. Keeping the head space very small will help to prevent oxidation.

You can tip the carboy a bit (place on a wet towel so it doesn't slide off your countertop), to get a deeper liquid and stick a hose in it. Then start a siphon by sucking or pumping. You could easily make a T-hose to prime the siphon, so you suck on the T-branch. Look it up.

* Everything should remain well sanitized though, so preview and watch all your steps.

On a side note, that 5 gallon carboy is way too much head space for 1 gallon and your beer may be a bit oxidized already.