Tips on siphoning from primary fermenter to bottling bucket

[greggus]

Anyone have any tips or recommendations on best ways to siphon finished beer from the fermenter to the bottling bucket? Or any other threads here where I could find that?

thanks
Greg

 

[Revvy]

An autosiphon is easy to start and use...

Practice with water before you move your beer...


That's pretty much it.

 

[JMSetzler]

Ditto to a practice run...

You will want your siphon tube to go to the bottom of the bottling bucket in order to minimize oxygenation of the beer. You will also want to prepare your priming solution first and put it in the bottling bucket before you siphon the beer over.

The auto-siphon works really well, but you can also siphon with a racking cane and plastic tubing. If your primary fermenter is a bucket with a drain valve on it, you can hook tubing to that and go that route as well.

 

[Memorex88]

With both hands and tube sanitized, I fill the tube with water and use my thumbs to hold the water in there, then put one end in the carboy (that's above the bucket ) and the other in the bucket and voila... your siphoning.
Don't worry about the little bit of water mixing with the beer

 

[telemaster]

Memorex88:
Do you use regular old tap water or sanitized water to prime your tube/cane to start the siphon?

TIA

 

[Malticulous]

Worst way- Gargle Listerine and suck
OK way- prime with sanitary watter. I've always used straight tap watter and let the watter run it to a separate container first.
Best way- Autosiphon.

 

[Memorex88]

Memorex88:
Do you use regular old tap water or sanitized water to prime your tube/cane to start the siphon?

TIA

I've always used tap water.

 

[zman]

+1 on the auto siphon. It is so worth the $12 I spent. Well $24 since I broke the first one removing the tubing

 

[oinyo]

I usually like to siphon a small bucket of sanitiser before dipping into the beer. That makes sure the hose is nice and clean.

"D

 

[Saccharomyces]

+1 on the auto siphon. It is so worth the $12 I spent. Well $24 since I broke the first one removing the tubing

Don't try to pull the tubing straight off, it's like a chinese finger puzzle, that will tighten it and snap off your cane. Push the tubing on a little bit further, then twist, and when it starts to twist gently pull it off while continuing to twist. Voila.

I've also found that the thick wall hose is a lot easier to get on and off since it is less flexible than the thin wall siphon hose.

 

[GAbrewer]

I second (third, fourth, fifth?) the autosiphon. I made it through 3 batches before I got tired of siphoning by mouth or spilling the water I filled my hose with all over the place. I believe I spent about $15 on mine at the LHBS, and it was well worth it.

 

[natefrog255]

So if I am getting siphon tubing (5/16") and a racking tube, all I really need to buy is an auto siphon device and I should be good to go...?

 

[Camride]

I second (third, fourth, fifth?) the autosiphon. I made it through 3 batches before I got tired of siphoning by mouth or spilling the water I filled my hose with all over the place. I believe I spent about $15 on mine at the LHBS, and it was well worth it.

It only took me one time siphoning by myself to get an auto-siphon. Best $15 spent.

 

[DeafSmith]

I have the larger size autosiphon (1/2 inch) and found that the vinyl tubing was a real pain to get on and off the cane. Now I use 3/8 ID silicone tubing and it works great - easy on and off, makes an airtight seal without needing a hose clamp, and can be sanitized by boiling.

 

[Malticulous]

I given up on auto siphons. The two I have are junk. I have a stainless 1/2 cane and expect it to last me for the rest of my life. It dosen't self prime but it dosen't leak air in ether. I prime it by filling it with water or sanitizer. Water I just let go in the keg/secondary. Sanitizer I run off into another container.

 

[SamHain]

You will want your siphon tube to go to the bottom of the bottling bucket in order to minimize oxygenation of the beer.

Sorry for the partial hijack here but...what is the effect of oxygenating the beer?

When I siphon I make sure the hose is at the bottom of the bucket and i add the priming sugar at this point too, but i stir my beer at this point too. Im wondering if im oxygenating the beer.

 

[zeg]

I find siphoning with a racking cane and tube to be just fine, I haven't had any urge to get an autosiphon.

After sanitizing everything, I start siphoning it by filling the cane/tube with water from the tap. I then siphon a cup or two of sanitizer through into a waste container and stop the flow, keeping the siphon full. I then transfer the cane to the carboy and resume the siphon into the waste container until I reach beer, and finally switch the tube to pour into the output container.

This way, the siphon is full of sanitizer when it goes into the beer, so if there's any backflow it won't contaminate anything. Also, I usually make my wife handle the racking cane. If I were doing this solo, I might find the auto-siphon to be more useful.