Okay, I'm Hooked

[bonj]

...And if you have a separate HLT, that adds flexibility...

Did I just read that? h34r: :lol:

 

[drtomc]

Your 50L pot will serve you well though - in a matter of months you will have a burner and a brewstand and a kegging system and probably a mashtun and a plate chiller and 5 or 6 fermentors and a fridge or two ..... I don't see why Les would think your missus might object

Like I said, I'm easily lead - you should have opined in favour of the rest of the gear at the same time, and I'd have bought it at the same time. ;-) I did eye off the 3 ring burner....

A while back I got all excited about heat exchangers and read up some of the relevant technical stuff (I'm a sciences academic, so I can't help myself), and I certainly was quite taken with plate chillers. As for the rest, I already have 2 fermenters and 3 conditioning/secondary cube+airlocks.

Surprisingly, the piece of equipment which has got the missus interested is the bench capper. We do tomatoes each year and so far we've mostly used Fowler jars, but SWMBO has just recently started expressing an interest in doing the bottled sauce thing instead. We shall see. It'll certainly make it harder for her to argue against my considerable collection of glass bottles, if we start using them for sauce as well as beer. ;-)

T.

 

[drtomc]

So I think I've got all the gear I need to do a BIAB+NC, but I have a question about the NC part that I have not seen an obvious answer to.

I have an auto-syphon (a "facile syphon" from G&G, to be precise) - will it be okay for transfering hot wort into the cube? Or should I get some silicone hose and do the hose-full-of-water syphoning technique? I saw a recent post somewhere here suggesting that the auto-syphon would buckle if used with hot word. Opinions, or even better, facts?

T.

 

[PostModern]

Drill a hole in your pot and mount a tap.

 

[drtomc]

Drill a hole in your pot and mount a tap.

<sigh> I thought someone might suggest that. Any suggestions on how to convince SWMBO that this is a good idea. Come tomato season the sauce will be horrid in the tap....

T.

 

[PostModern]

<sigh> I thought someone might suggest that. Any suggestions on how to convince SWMBO that this is a good idea. Come tomato season the sauce will be horrid in the tap....

T.

Then what you need is a three piece ball valve which you can completely dismantle to clean. If you get it from a specialist valve shop, $30-40 should cover it, inlcuding hosetail, plus a bit extra for your fittings, etc. Or you could get a weldless kit from one of the site sponsors or other HBS.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Tap is the best option - who knows, the sauce might actually come out through the tap and make life significantly easier come tomatoe season.

I think that auto syphons aren't that great for hot wort - If I recall earlier in this thread, the auto syphon destruction factor was one of the things that prompted stowaway to chill in the kettle rather than transfer to a cube. As he said, often equipment limits technique.

A length of hose (silicon or otherwise) and a cheap turkey baster will do the trick though. You drop one end into the wort and squeeze the other end into a Z shape. Squeeze the air out of turkey baster - shove into the end of the line - relax the Z crimp you have put in the line - suck with turkey baster - re-crimp.

It takes a few "sucks" to get the line full, and a few goes to get the knack of it - but after that it works just fine. Me personally, I hate syphoning so I went with a tap as soon as I could manage

 

[wambesi]

Then what you need is a three piece ball valve which you can completely dismantle to clean. If you get it from a specialist valve shop, $30-40 should cover it, inlcuding hosetail, plus a bit extra for your fittings, etc. Or you could get a weldless kit from one of the site sponsors or other HBS.

+1 for the tap.

Exactly how mine is (three piece ball valve) and don't know how I'd live without it.
I have never used the syphon for the kettle as I am sure the heat would melt/warp it (as others have experienced).

I have a jiggler syphon which I will be using when transferring my meads but otherwise it's taps on everything from the kettle to the NC cube to the fermenter to the bulk prime bucket.

 

[mesa]

I've been using a slightly different siphon technique for going from kettle to fermenter. I use a standard piece of vinyl tubing (but I am using an immersion chiller first)
I have a pump for inflating air beds and more importantly for deflating them. One end of the tube in the kettle on the bench, the other end on the tap. Stick the pump in the hole for the air lock and suck a bit of air to get her started. I imagine its a little easier than the turkey baster technique . Since we're talking about transfering to cubes you would need to get a second lid and drill a hole in it to accept the air mattress pump (and of course its only worthwhile if you already have a pump with a deflate fitting). Because its going in through the tap, this is good for hot wort (but bad for me with my cold wort) as it minimises aeration. Also if you siphon you can avoid some break/hops without needing a filter.

 

[Cocko]

+ 1 Go the tap!!

I went weld less which has worked out well for cleaning and mounting - NO welding!!

I put off going BIAB for weeks till I had a tap I wouldn't think about syphoning but each to their own

TOO EASY!



Anyways good luck with everything!

Happy brewin!