My First Ag (biab) And Also My First Ever Brew!

[matt white]

Another simple idea for a siphon is a 7- 800mm piece if copper hot water pipe (very cheap), bent into an L shape (preferably by a plumber to get the mandrel bend) connected to a metre or two of 10 or 12mm PVC pipe with an in line tap half way down it. Close the tap, fill the top half of PVC pipe with iodophor solution, connect to copper pipe which is already dunked in the hot wort, open tap and commence siphon into a bucket or similar. When pure wort siphons, close tap, put PVC pipe in fermenter, and siphon hot liquid into cube.

 

[kyleg]

thanks again people. i ended up going with the SS siphon tip and a few meters of silicone hosing. i picked it up this afternoon, and tried to give it a go to get the water out of my kettle that is still in it from when i did the test boil. i did struggle a bit and somehow got it to go but i think it was just luck. if anyone who uses this method could share some tips that would be great.

also when i did eventually drain some of the water out from my test boil, i noticed A) there were white floatie bits in the water, not sure what this is? and the has been a discolouration of the inside of my aluminium pot, up to where the water was sitting. should i be worried? im going to give it a propper clean with nappisan and warm water before i brew, not sure why it discoloured though?

 

[Steve@PMF82]

Really good video on getting a siphon started.

 

[keifer33]

Those ss siphon tips do take a bit of getting used too. I find trying to hold it as vertical as possible and making short fast movements up and down and its away.

 

[bignath]

and the has been a discolouration of the inside of my aluminium pot, up to where the water was sitting. should i be worried? im going to give it a propper clean with nappisan and warm water before i brew, not sure why it discoloured though?

NO! STOP WHAT YOURE DOING!! DON'T GO HASTILY CLEANING YOUR POT JUST YET!!!!

The discoloration you have around the inside of the pot at the level your wort was - is it dark grey???

If so, IT'S A GOOD THING. It's called seasoning your pot or something or rather....It is actually a protective layer that forms only on aluminium pots. (stainless doesn't do this). I wouldn't use an aluminium pot that didn't have this "discoloration" barrier.

It's supposed to be there after the first time you use it apparently. If you go cleaning it off, you should reboil some water in the pot to bring it back again. I know it sounds kind of weird, but seriously, do a google search for things like:

"breaking in a aluminium pot" or "seasoning an aluminium pot" etc....

Cheers,

Nath

 

[kyleg]

NO! STOP WHAT YOURE DOING!! DON'T GO HASTILY CLEANING YOUR POT JUST YET!!!!

The discoloration you have around the inside of the pot at the level your wort was - is it dark grey???

If so, IT'S A GOOD THING. It's called seasoning your pot or something or rather....It is actually a protective layer that forms only on aluminium pots. (stainless doesn't do this). I wouldn't use an aluminium pot that didn't have this "discoloration" barrier.

It's supposed to be there after the first time you use it apparently. If you go cleaning it off, you should reboil some water in the pot to bring it back again. I know it sounds kind of weird, but seriously, do a google search for things like:

"breaking in a aluminium pot" or "seasoning an aluminium pot" etc....

Cheers,

Nath

ah good to hear, i only boiled 25L last time so i might need to do it again with more water so as to break in a higher level for when i do a full volume brew. thanks for the quick reply!

also a bit random, but im having problems with typing replys, i use firefox on a mac, and in these reply boxes, there is no flashing line, like the one to indicate where your about to type, also can't highlight and delete. any one else have this problem?

 

[kyleg]

also thanks beer4u and kiefer33. ill check out the video and try holding it vertical. can't wait to finally get this brew under way!

 

[stux]

I use one of those siphon tips.

Another name for them is "jiggle siphons" and that's a good hint on how to use them

try to keep it vertical and use a bunch of short sharp thrusts, with each thrust you pump the wort up, keep on jiggling until it flows

probably worth practising a few times before the Big Boil

Bunnings do sell the Willow 23L (marked as 20L) water jerrys, but I found kmart was cheaper.

Anaconda/BCF type/Disposals sell the 20L cubes

I would recommend filling them up with hot water and flushing a few times to season the cubes. Essentially you don't want to taste plastic in the water

 

[pimpsqueak]

also a bit random, but im having problems with typing replys, i use firefox on a mac, and in these reply boxes, there is no flashing line, like the one to indicate where your about to type, also can't highlight and delete. any one else have this problem?

Try going to "My Controls", then scroll down and on the left you click "Board Settings" then scroll down and change the type of text editor from "Rich" to "Standard".

 

[felten]

try to keep it vertical and use a bunch of short sharp thrusts, with each thrust you pump the wort up, keep on jiggling until it flows

:lol:

 

[bignath]

try to keep it vertical and use a bunch of short sharp thrusts, with each thrust you pump the wort up, keep on jiggling until it flows

And be careful about the "boilover"...

 

[kyleg]

ah thanks again people. going to give the siphon a bit more practice soon, just waiting for my pot water to cool a little bit more. and changing to stand text editor did the trick. thanks!

 

[kyleg]

mmm still couldn't get it going via stroking. i find the silicone hose is hard to stroke, i get alot of friction. in the end what i did was put the hose in the water, with big thick plastic heatproof gloves, and filled up the siphon with a bit of water, put my thumb on the end to keep the water in then lowered the hose into my cube, then released thumb to start the flow, only problem was the first bit splashes in a little bit because you need to take your thumb off just before you put the hose in through the top hole.

would there be a problem with doing this on brew day? that little splash make much of a difference? as long as my gloves and everything are sanitized. only problem i can see apart from the innitial splash is that the first bit of wort that fills up the siphon hose might be clumpy with hop residue as its not going through the SS tip, im assuming the SS tip acts like a bit of a filter?

EDIT: figured it out. good link ->

 

[keifer33]

Are you stroking the ss syphon just below the water level or near the base?

 

[pimpsqueak]

mmm still couldn't get it going via stroking.

Try viagra.

Seriously though, it's a jiggle siphon, not a stroking syphon. I doubt you'll get it going that way.
In order to prepare yourself, go and google up a video of Pamela Anderson using a skipping rope... that's jiggling.



Stroking is optional

 

[kyleg]

Try viagra.

Seriously though, it's a jiggle siphon, not a stroking syphon. I doubt you'll get it going that way.
In order to prepare yourself, go and google up a video of Pamela Anderson using a skipping rope... that's jiggling.



Stroking is optional

yeah i looked up jiggle siphon on youtube. made it much easier! so now i have my new no chill cube and fermenter soaking in hot/warm water with a bit of nappisan. now off to go buy a burner!

 

[kyleg]

Are you stroking the ss syphon just below the water level or near the base?

yeah i was stroking outside of the pot, so not even near the water, i guess that was wrong!

 

[kyleg]

bought one of those campfire mega jet burners this afternoon, and fired it up for a test boil with approx 60L in my 80L Pot. Stopped it at 45 degrees because the paint on the base of the cooked was melting and flaking. i then saw on the box it says maximum diameter of pot 300mm, and mine is about 500mm which means it covers the whole base.

heres a photo of the burner if your unfamiliar - http://shopping.netsuite.com/core/media/me...39372e6225798cb

Do you think once the paint has melted off that it will be ok to keep using? i sure hope so.

 

[stux]

mmm still couldn't get it going via stroking. i find the silicone hose is hard to stroke, i get alot of friction.

I have no idea what you were trying to do

BUT I'm glad YouTube saved the day

 

[stux]

bought one of those campfire mega jet burners this afternoon, and fired it up for a test boil with approx 60L in my 80L Pot. Stopped it at 45 degrees because the paint on the base of the cooked was melting and flaking. i then saw on the box it says maximum diameter of pot 300mm, and mine is about 500mm which means it covers the whole base.

heres a photo of the burner if your unfamiliar - http://shopping.netsuite.com/core/media/me...39372e6225798cb

Do you think once the paint has melted off that it will be ok to keep using? i sure hope so.

Good idea to pre-boil water in your pot as a "dry run", it will also mean you can burn off the paint, as its going to burn off anyway, and this way, maybe you wont get fumes in your beer