Trouble racking to secondary

[horrorclause]

I'm brewing a 5 gal. Amber ale with some fruit additions and in my infinite wisdom I didn't bother to check to see if my auto-siphon would would fit in my 6.5 gal carboy. Well, it didn't. I had everything sanitized both carboys ready to go and I was stuck. I was only able to siphon out about a gallon until the auto siphon couldn't reach deep enough anymore (it's meant for a one gallon carboy). I did have a racking cane that was long enough though. I had no other way to siphon it out other than by mouth to get it started. I rubbed cleaning solution on my mouth and and went to it. I couldn't get it the first couple times but on the fourth time I got an excellent flow. Tries as hard as I could to not let any beer fall from my mouth to the secondary, but some did anyways. What can I expect from this? Is there a large chance of infection? Has anyone siphoned by mouth before?

 

[flars]

I siphoned gasoline once by mouth. A week of belches that tasted like burned shrimp. Your beer will most likely be fine, but you'll worry anyway.

 

[RainyDay]

You'll be fine. Believe it or not, its pretty difficult to infect a beer.

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

Next time fill the tubing with water/sanitizer cap the ends with your thumbs. Submerge one end in the beer keeping you thumb over the other end. Hold the other end below the level of the beer and release your thumb. The sanitizer/water will drain out the tube and create suction that will pull the beer out behind it. Just rack into a container till you reach just beer out your tubing. Then you don't have to worry about infecting your beer via mouth.

 

[ILoveBeer2]

I love brewing beer. Do you know why? It is relaivly inexpensive, the results are rewarding and... f'ups are a learning experience. Next time you will not do that.

If this happens again. Sanitize some water, fill the syphon tube, stick one end in the fermener, lower the other end into a waste bucket andl let go. When you see beer, put the tube into your racking container.

 

[horrorclause]

Awesome advice from you all, thank you! Next time I'll post here when I run into trouble first, and then move forward.

 

[adamdillabo]

I've had to do the mouth thing. Felt bad about it. Turned out fine. Filling the tube thing can be a real pain. A nice auto siphon is the way to go.

 

[malweth]

For glass carboys (and maybe better bottles), the best way to siphon is with a carboy cap and a racking cane. Feed the racking cane through the large opening in the cap ... seal it against the carboy, and blow into the other opening in the cap.