siphoning your brew

[bazooka]

I am getting ready to brew my first batch using a food grade plastic pale with a snap on lid. It doesn't have a spout on the bottom though, so I will have to siphon it out with a tube when transferring it over. Will sucking on the tube contaminate my beer, and if so, what other methods are there if your pale does not have a spout on the bottom?

[batkins]

Buy a auto-siphon. You can sterilize it, and it starts to siphon with one pull. I got mine at Bader, in Vancouver, Wa.

[yonkersbrewer]

Get a racking cane and a clip to hold it in one place on the pail. Attach your hose to the racking cane. Both need to be santized obviously before this happens.

Now it gets interesting. I have had some luck using a turkey baster to suck the air out and the wort up the tube. You can also sanitize a funnel and pour cooled boiled water down the tube until you are almost at the cane. Pinch the tube, remove the funnel and then lower the hose to the bottling bucket. You might want to put the little bit of water into a seperate bucket or not, as you like.

LOL...as I write this I can see myself being convinced the next time I go to the homebrew store that I NEED that auto siphon! :D

[mountain beer]

auto siphon all the way. It is definitely the easiest way to go. You should also get a bottle filler that you put at the end of the hose and lets you fill the bottle when you put pressure on the tip and as soon as the presure is released fromthe tip it stops the flow.
Though I have used Papazian's method of filling the plastic tube full of water(no air bubbles allowed). Put your clean thumbs over the end, walk to the carboy of beer and quickly insert one end into the beer.

[YamahaXS]

i have always just sucked on mine...

that way you can taste it.... :D

[bazooka]

"i have always just sucked on mine...

that way you can taste it...."

didn't Ron Jeremy once do that several years ago???? :)

[YamahaXS]

Do I really want to know who ron jeremy is? :D

[BucksBrew]

Mountain: I fill the hose with water and start siphon that way. Are you saying the auto siphon is a great tool? I was debating on it. I think water in hose is easy and I have had no trouble doing it this way.


Yamaha: Everything I read says not to siphon with your mouth, due to contamination.

[Tweek]

I have this thing that fits on top of my carboy creating a seal, it has two tubes coming out of it. One tube for your racking cane and one tube that I use my co2 line on. it pushes the beer right out. This is like a 2$ part at your local hombrew store. Need to be using carboys though. It wont work on buckets.

[b3s]

sounds like co2 has a lot of good uses other than pressurizing kegs...what are you guys paying for co2 and where are you getting it?

[batkins]

Tweek,
What is that thing called? Who makes it? Who sells it online?
Thanks,
Bill

[b3s]

it's called a carboy cap and virtually every place that sells carboys sells them. stpats.com has them for various sized carboys at a couple of bucks. thehomebrewstore.com has a universal cap for about five bucks. listermann.com has what is apparently a universal cap for just under two bucks.

[Tweek]

yeah b3s has got it