Racking

[owentp]

ANy suggestions for successful racking/siphoning w/o having to get the auto-siphon?

 

[jaycount]

Get the auto-siphon. It's like $8 you tightwad

If for some reason you can't then there are a few options.
-They make a cool carboy cap thing you can blow into to start the siphon.
-You can fill the siphon hose with sanitized water and use that to start the siphon (you'll want a clip or something to stop flow so you can siphon that water into a waste bucket but the beer into the bottling bucket or whatever)

I'm sure someone else has other ideas, but really autosiphons are awesome, I would panic if I lost/broke mine in a time of need.

 

[Scooby_Brew]

Get a cheap-o rancking cane and a $1 store turkey baster to start the siphoning action. I find my turkey baster to be a very useful tool in home brewing.

 

[DosGatosBrewing]

I'm a tightwad like jaycount describes, and I happen to know that:

-The cool carboy cap thing you can blow into to start the siphon - works great
-You can fill the siphon hose with sanitized water and use that to start the siphon - my normal method

I always figured an autosiphon would be a PITA to keep clean, but I am really that much of a tightwad.

 

[owentp]

Where do you get the cool carboy thing? I'll try the turkey baster too. It's strange because I get the sanitizer started, clamp it, place in my carboy, open up the clamp and the siphon goes away!

 

[GASoline71]

The autosiphon is a blessing. Not hard to keep clean either.

Get it, use it, love it...

Gary

 

[HoppyGilmore]

I brewed my first this past weekend and used my mouth. I just rinsed with listerene first. I think I'll be fine

 

[Scooby_Brew]

I brewed my first this past weekend and used my mouth. I just rinsed with listerene first. I think I'll be fine

that's probably not a very good idea.

 

[owentp]

Any bad experiences? They are showing it being done all over youtube.

 

[Ultrazord]

Your mouth is full of bacteria and even listerine won't kill it all. Especially the gunk in the back of your throat or tongue. It'll probably be safe most of the time, but a sanitized baster or sanitized water to start is much safer.

 

[jaycount]

I brewed my first this past weekend and used my mouth. I just rinsed with listerene first. I think I'll be fine

Instead of racking at all you could just dump it from the primary to the secondary... I mean if we're haphazardly taking shortcuts here

 

[BigTerp]

An autosiphon is worth its weight in gold!!!

 

[ncbrewer]

Where do you get the cool carboy thing? I'll try the turkey baster too. It's strange because I get the sanitizer started, clamp it, place in my carboy, open up the clamp and the siphon goes away!

If you loose the siphon, air must be getting in. I started clamping the siphon tube onto the racking cane with a cable tie to be sure it's air tight. And I use the cap on the bottom end of the racking cane to keep the sanitized water from running out before I get it into the beer. This has been working really well for me.

 

[HoppyGilmore]

Instead of racking at all you could just dump it from the primary to the secondary... I mean if we're haphazardly taking shortcuts here

Ah homebrewing....I wonder if the monks perpetuated such dogma and worry of the unknown. Oh wait, they did....they were monks.

I'm going to continue brewing (2nd batch coming in a couple weeks) and I'll use my mouth to start my siphon on every single batch I make. I may not have HBT cred yet, but in 5 years I'll come back and put this holier than thou argument to bed.

happy brewing

 

[okie123]

use you mouth, no problem.