Siphon Instead Of A Tap

[black_labb]

The element in my urn blew a while ago so i rigged up a legally aquired keg with an element. after drilling throught the stainless keg I decided I didnt want to do it again, even if i'd only have to drill a smaller hole for a tap. I decided to try siphoning it out so i bent a piece of flexible copper to the right shape and attached a bit of silicon hose to the other end and use that as a siphon. worked really well and I'm just as happy with the siphon as a tap so I thought i'd share


The trick to bending the copper tubing is to avoid kinking it by bending it gently with longer sweeping bends than quick bends. I bent it so that it sits firmly over the edge of the kettle and the nozzle is in the same spot. I no chill so I collect as much as i can and let the break material precipitate in the cube so i put the hose near the middle at the bottom, but if you can bend the copper tubing to suck from anywhere in the kettle so it automatically leaves what is below that point.

here is a pic. i tried to take a second to show the other end but the battery on the camera died so you'll have to use your imagination.

making it stay in one spot in a stable way seems hard but it just takes a bit of tweaking. just do that before you bend the other ends.

So how do you siphon without sucking boiling water into your mouth? stick a funnel on the hose end and pour some wort in until it pushes all the air into the kettle (lifting the funnel up high when full helps do it quicker). then take the end of the hose and lower it below the water level to start siphoning out. simple.

This could easily be used with a chiller of some sort by using a longer coil of copper running through cool water, but i dont feel the need to go past no chill at this stage.

 

[Chops]

I do something similar, but start my syphon with a vacuum pump attached to a fitting on my no chill cube.
Forming tight neat bends are easy on annealed copper if you've got a bending spring or tube bender, or have a mate who is a plumber or fridgy to do it for you!
Looks like you've used 1/2" tube, how do you find the flow rate?
Damo.

 

[Rodolphe01]

Timely thread, now i hijack! I have been arguing with myself for ages about whether or not to convert the keg I have or to just buy an urn. I want to put as few holes as possible in the keg and was thinking of ways of syphoning out, this looks like a winner as it avoids having to try and handle any hoses etc once flow is achieved.

The element you have installed, is it one of these? If so, how goes it? Some people seem to think it will be fine, some think not enough, and of course some say it will be borderline! I'm interested to hear from someone who actually has one in a keg so I can compare apples with apples, rather than making assumptions about different surface areas etc.

 

[black_labb]

Chops, the flow rate is alright. I need to bend the end (not visible in the pic) as it is too close to horizontal when i want it to point down. this means the hose kinks a bit restricting flow, though the flow is quick enough when i manually unkink it. I'm not sure of the rate really.

Rudi, thats the element. though if you shop around you should be able to get a better price. the boil is not too hard but i'd say its quite acceptable. I've been draining from my urn (using it as a biab mash tun) and sparging in the urn as it comes to boiling temp and it seems to get there at about the same time if I put a fair bit of effort into squeezing the bag. Its not as strong a boil as my 30L urn but that had a 2800w element which is almost too strong (and kind of annoying as I had to use the laundry room to borrow the washer or drier's power socket). the 2.2kw is great as it can be plugged into sockets on the usual 10A fuse.

 

[Rodolphe01]

Sweet, was looking at getting a second one if required, but with that comes the problem of trying to *safely* draw 4400w in a 40 year old house :unsure:

I will be insultation the keggle anyway, I figure even if I spend the same cost of a second element on insulation (i.e. 10 camping mats :lol, but it keeps a solid boil, it will pay itself off rather than making a power station rich.

Thanks for info, given me a lot of confidence in going ahead with my keggle (shit loads cheaper than an urn).