Siphoning

[Ol'Wobbly]

I'm relatively new to this game, and am still working with kits. So far, of the 20 brews made most have been OK with some great beers and some not so great. One thing they all have in common is that they're all cloudy to varying degrees because I can't work out a good way to siphon the beer off the top and still use the old spigot-and-drain method.

Using a siphon hose with a suck-it-and-see technique is messy and not so sterile either. Is there a gadget that makes this easier?

Sorry if I sound amateurish but as I said I'm new at this game.

 

[bonk]

Hi OL'Wobbly,

by racking your beer to another fermenter to do 2nd fermenting period will help get rid of lot of 'cloudyness' (unless its a wheat beer) from you brew. also by cold conditioning you will remove even more and end up with crystal clear beers. i've never used finings or the like and my beers have been very good, some execptional. having said that, people like to use finings or similar products to clear it up.

you can use the tap to drain into the next fermenter, however i usually attach a tube so it touches the bottom of the 2nd fermenter to minimise splashing etc.

to siphon, one method is to fill your tube (about 70%) with water and place the empty section into your brew (all sanatised of course) and then take your thumb of the other and into a jar or sink. once you beer is flowing, stick your thumb back over and then into your fermenter.

another way is to use a jiggler to start the siphon.

 

[deebee]

Hold the siphoning tube in a U-shape with both ends uppermost. Fill with boiled water. Keeping the ends of the tube roughly level, submerge one end in the wort in your boiler. Lower the other end into your fermenter.

Your wort will flow.

You could use gloves or tongs or something to be really clean. Oh... and make sure the boiler is ABOVE the fermenter ;-)

 

[pint of lager]

Racking and syphoning, you could set up a website just on this topic.

I rack out of 50 litre fermenters by syphoning.

Have a piece of copper pipe bent into a J shape, with clear plastic tubing over the short part of the J. Soak the lot in iodine, and leave it filled with iodine, then start syphoning, let the iodine fall on the ground, then when beer starts flowing, transfer tube to whatever is being filled.

The solid copper means that I can hold the inlet just above the sediment. Clear tubing means I can see if there is sediment coming over.

Saw on HBD one fellow's cunning way of starting a syphon. He had a T piece inserted in line, with a bit of tubing coming off. So, one end in the wort, one end in the to be racked container, and the short bit in the mouth. Clamp the outflow tube, suck on the short bit, beer fills the syphon. Clamp off the short bit, open the clamp on the tube to the outflow, beer flows through syphon. So his saliva never touches the beer, but he can still use the wonders of the lungs to start the syphon.

Your brewshop should have an Autosiphon from Fermtech suppliers. Country Brewer have them for $18. Makes syphoning a breeze.

 

[Ol'Wobbly]

Thanks for this. Bonk, another naive question - what's "cold conditioning"?

 

[bonk]

run a search on this site or one others from some good answers, it is essenitally (sp) when you put your fermenter (2nd one) into a fridge at around 12C to help drop more yeast and crap out of your beer.

 

[Snow]

I use a brewer's siphon (or racking cane) which I bought from the HBS. It cost $20 and is a hard plastic hollow rod inside a hard plastic tube with vaves, grommets etc. Basically you dip the end of the tube into the wort and pump the rod up and down a couple of times to get the beer flowing through the rod and down your flexi tube into the fermenter. The hard tube has a cone on the end to prevent you sticking it too far into the yeast. it works great and has lasted me over 2 years so far with no problems.

Cheer - Snow