# Siphon Or Tap?



## benarnot (23/5/10)

Hi all, 

Was just wondering what the consensus is out there re using a siphon or a tap for bottling beer? 

Met a guy who owned a home brew shop who couldn't stop telling me all about how superior siphoning was to using a tap. 

Cheers!


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## peas_and_corn (23/5/10)

I voted tap, but that's because I've never used a syphon. The disadvantages of taps come mainly from bacteria being caught in the thread and getting into your beer. However, they strike me as being more convenient than syphons.


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## phinnsfotos (23/5/10)

Didn't vote, I"ve only used a tap. What are some of the arguments for siphons? They seem like a PITA, but like I said, I haven't used one.


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## Florian (23/5/10)

I voted syphon, as I always get air into the hose when using the tap. Although I have not bottled with a syphon yet, I only use it to rack to secondary. I syphon with a plain clear hose, I don't use an autosyphon or similar. I start the syphon by using one of these silicone dispenser you get in the hardware store for free. The little white plastic ends. As you shouldn't suck on the hose for possible infection issues, I insert the sanitised plastic end with the thin end into the hose and then suck. That get's the syphon started pretty well for me. Once it runs it runs very well and I can exactly control what I transfer to the new vessel and what not.

I might give bottling with a syphon a go, but it means that you have one hand less available for bottling as you need one in your fermenter.

Florian


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## Sammus (23/5/10)

I always use a syphone. I started after my taps started shitting themselves and I didn't have any more aound to replace. After seeing all the shit in the tap threads, and after using an autosiphon which is as easy as piss, I cant go back to taps 

IT may be psychological, but it just seems cleaner. Also, it's the only option I have to get stuff out of my glass carboy 

The only thing I miss are easy as pie drinking from fermenter... oh, and gravity readings...


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## Florian (23/5/10)

Sammus said:


> I always use a syphone. I started after my taps started shitting themselves and I didn't have any more aound to replace. After seeing all the shit in the tap threads, and after using an autosiphon which is as easy as piss, I cant go back to taps
> 
> IT may be psychological, but it just seems cleaner. Also, it's the only option I have to get stuff out of my glass carboy
> 
> The only thing I miss are easy as pie drinking from fermenter... oh, and gravity readings...



So do you have your bottles all lined up when bottling, so you keep one hand on each end of the hose, or do you attach the syphon to the fermenter?

Florian


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## bcp (23/5/10)

I also haven't used a siphon, so can't compare. But i use a little bottler attachment, and that makes the tap simple, and no splashing, so limited contact with oxygen. Taps are easy to clean.

In the US because they generally use carboys they need to siphon.


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## benarnot (23/5/10)

Sammus said:


> I always use a syphone. I started after my taps started shitting themselves and I didn't have any more aound to replace. After seeing all the shit in the tap threads, and after using an autosiphon which is as easy as piss, I cant go back to taps
> 
> IT may be psychological, but it just seems cleaner. Also, it's the only option I have to get stuff out of my glass carboy
> 
> The only thing I miss are easy as pie drinking from fermenter... oh, and gravity readings...



Yeah, I was wondering how one would go about doing grav readings. Guess you'd have to sanitize the syphon every time huh? That would be a pain in the butt! Seems another argument for taps. 

Although taps kind of bug me re getting the tap to line up just right and tight enough to stop leakage...


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## Sammus (23/5/10)

I take an OG reading during chilling into the fermenter (ie just stick my measuring cylinder under the hose for a tick). And do the same when I rack (and its usualy hit FG at that point) and or keg. The other option is to use a syringe or a turkey baster kind of thing. Some people use a wine theif to take samples for gravity. I let em ferment for about 3 weeks and swirl and use temp control... never had one stall in the past 4 years.

My little bottler fits on the end of the hose of the autosyphon pump thing (looks like this, that's not mine, just googled it). I just pump the autosyphon once with the little bottler nose depressed in a bottle to get it flowing. The spring valve works like normal after that. Leave the bottles where they are, and use the bottler on the end of the hose to fill each of them up.

edit: just thought I'd add (after reading asis's post below) that I've never felt I needed another person until you get to the dregs and want to tilt the fermenter to get the last bit out  I just prop it up before I start, and can pretty easily hold the siphon with one hand as the level gets near the bottom and do the rest with my other hand.


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## asis (23/5/10)

I used the tap all the time when I was bottling, after kegging for a couple of months and some issues with leaking taps I got an auto siphon and put bungs in my fermenters. The siphion is a PITA when bottling though even with a bottler, really need 2 people.


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## jiesu (24/5/10)

Theoretically If you use a glass carboy you could just leave your hydrometer in your brew from start to finish. Actually It may be a better idea to drop it in there after krausen has subsided.


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## jiesu (24/5/10)

daft templar said:


> Theoretically If you use a glass carboy you could just leave your hydrometer in your brew from start to finish. Actually It may be a better idea to drop it in there after krausen has subsided.




I sort of use both. I use clear plastic hose out of my tap with a bottling wand attached so I can move the wand rather then the bottle to go between filling one and the next.


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## TidalPete (24/5/10)

asis said:


> The siphion is a PITA when bottling though even with a bottler, really need 2 people.



Depends on your fermenter. Bucket type fermenters (See pic) are cheaper, easier to clean, & easier to use with a auto-syphon. All you need do is to gently clamp the auto-syphon to the front of the fermenter thus keeping both hands free for kegging\bottling.
Checking FG is easily done with a sanitised syringe.
Still use a couple of screw-lid fermenters with snap-taps for racking to secondary when I need to but they will get the flick in due course.





TP


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## peterhop (24/5/10)

This is topical for me because I just bottled by siphon for the first time today. Just a piece of tube - held one end in the beer with a bulldog clip handle and controlled the flow by bending the tube in one hand. Sucked tube to start (sigh). OK for one person, but it is hard to take a break to cope with an emergency. 

I should have put the bottles in a crate to give more support. I found a few drops would sometimes come out the end of the tube when I transferred it to the next bottle, so I wiped the tops (starsan) and gave the bottles a shower after topping.

A wand would be much easier. And a tap even more so. I siphoned because I wanted to ferment in a stainless pot and not do a secondary in a container with a tap.


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## benarnot (27/5/10)

Hi, 

The literature that the guy gave me says that siphoning from a fermenter into bottles is better than using a tap as it reduces sediment and stops oxidation of the beer meaning you get better head retention and less chance of infection. 

However, if I were using the stem with the pressure valve shoved into the end of the tap and bottling from that, (I don't know the name for this thing - I'm talking about the plastic tube that lets the beer out when you push the bottom of the bottle up against the valve), wouldn't that minimize oxidation by the same amount as the siphon he was trying to sell me has this same stem on the end of it? 

I can see that the sediment would be reduced a little bit though due though. 

Cheers.


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## raven19 (27/5/10)

peas_and_corn said:


> I voted tap, but that's because I've never used a syphon. The disadvantages of taps come mainly from bacteria being caught in the thread and getting into your beer. However, they strike me as being more convenient than syphons.



+1, but I shall have to invest one day in a siphon for getting lambics out of demijohn's !


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