Simple advice on how to use a syphon please?

[tonight_we_fly]

Is anybody please able to offer advice?

I've spent two days now trying to get my syphon working using a bucket of water, but have had no success whatsoever. My first batch is now just about ready to rack (I believe that's the correct term?), but without knowing how to operate the syphon I have no idea how I can possibly do this.

This is the equipment which I'm attempting to use:

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... yphon.html

As I mentioned in a previous post, the “beginner's” kit which I purchased came with no setting up instructions whatsoever. Sadly, none of the books I've consulted or online guides actually instruct on how to do the syphoning. They all seem to skip a stage, and magically jump from where you are dipping one end of the tube into the fermenting bucket to the later step where it is all freely flowing out of the other end.

I have now watched around twenty-five videos on the internet as well, and not a single one bears the slightest resemblance to what actually happens for me when I try to do this in real life. Some of them suggest “pumping” the magic wand section (“racking cane?”) a few times, and in the videos the fluid then starts flowing through the tube. In real life, however many times I try this with my equipment, nothing happens.

Others suggest holding the tube under the running tap until water starts running out of the other end (in real life it doesn't), although what happens in reality is that even if you do get something trickling through, as soon as I then immerse the wand section in the fluid to be drained the pressure vanishes immediately, the cane section visibly fills with air and nothing further flows.

I have also tried the sucking method, but this works fine until I then stop sucking and drop the open end of the tube into the lowered bucket. Of course the wand section has a funnel of air between the manoeuvrable outside section and the hard plastic tube inside, and so predictably the flow immediately stops as air fills the pipe a few seconds after I stop sucking.

I am now pretty much on the verge of giving up. I don't know what the magic secret is regarding how you actually use a syphon, but if somebody was willing to share it with me then I would be extremely grateful?

 

[alanywiseman.]

Is your receiving bucket/bottle and more importantly the end of the symphony your beer will flow from below the level of the other end?

To try and clarify put the long ridged end in your beer. Suck on the other end till the beer starts to flow but it is important the the end you suck on is below the level of the ridge end. This is how you create the pressure.

Hope this works for you and makes sense. If not I am sure someone more literate will be able to help.

 

[jonnymorris]

As long as the end you suck on is below the level of water in the upper bucket the water will flow 'downhill' after being encouraged to do so by the initial suck. I think your particular syphon replaces this initial suck with a pump action. Same difference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siphon

Simples.

 

[Brewedout]

In the link you sent it shows a clip that adjusts the flow rate is this too tight? I don't use one of these but I know that even a tap on the end of the siphon tube can make starting much harder.

I never suck on the end of the tube, after taking great care to work as cleanly as possible it seems a little odd! I hold both ends of the tube in one hand, use a turkey baster to half fill the tube with the beer/wine, then put one end in the drink to be transferred (on a chair or work surface) and then quickly move the other end into the empty bucket.

Hope this makes sense?

 

[bobsbeer]

The type I have is similar to yours. The expandable bit is not to pump with but to reach into different depths of bucket. You need to suck with the outflow end below the level of the surface of the beer/wine to be racked and keep it there. The liquid will flow. You can close off the flow with the clip valve and that will stop the flow while you position your other container or bottles. The important bit is to have the outflow end below the level of the surface of the liquid you are syphoning. I do it by ensuring I am below the bottom of the bucket.

 

[tonight_we_fly]

Many thanks for your helpful replies to my question.

In fact you are all right; all helpful stuff, but it was in fact very similar to what I was already doing. I have got to the bottom of it now though. Basically, the problem on this occasion seems to be rubbish equipment.

I got second opinions from both my wife and from my next door neighbour, and they both independently suggested the same thing. Everything starts flowing when I suck it through, but air immeditaely fills the system the moment that I stop sucking. The problem, we have discovered, is that the rubber "seal" where the extendable tube section connects with the pipe itself is not airtight. As soon as I leave the system to flow through on its own, air immediately leaks in here, and so the fluid no longer climbs over the top of the bend and flows through; instead the top of the bend just becomes a huge air bubble.

Further to this we then tried taking the extendable section off altogether and just sucking it through the empty tube. Result: it then flowed through fine.

I guess that by doing it this way I may now end up getting some of the sediment into the bottles, but for now I don't think there's any real alternative. If anybody would like to suggest a better quality syphon system which I can buy in time for my next batch though, that would be very helpful!

Thanks a lot to all of the people who responded, I really appreciate it.

 

[Brewedout]

http://www.shop4homebrew.co.uk/index1.html a plastic u bend on the end of the siphon works pretty well. Most homebrew shops have something like this.

 

[tonight_we_fly]

http://www.shop4homebrew.co.uk/index1.html a plastic u bend on the end of the siphon works pretty well. Most homebrew shops have something like this.

Thanks for the suggestion. So simple and so cheap - perfect!

 

[oldstout]

:hmm: :hmm: :hmm: :hmm: :hmm:

Piece of 4 foot tube.

Bucket below your brew to catch it.

Insert tube in brew.

Suck.

Put end of tube into vessel below.


:wha: :wha: :ugeek: :ugeek: :ugeek:


I thank yow...

:whistle: :whistle:

 

[Brewedout]

http://www.shop4homebrew.co.uk/index1.html a plastic u bend on the end of the siphon works pretty well. Most homebrew shops have something like this.

Thanks for the suggestion. So simple and so cheap - perfect!

Your welcome :

 

[jonnymorris]

I use the same method as oldstout above... Insert 4ft tube, suck, job done.

Simple and effective. I get 99.9% of the brew out too by tipping the FV as it gets near the bottom.

 

[orlando]

This is the one you want:

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/cgi ... 849#a89849

add the bottle filler and you will find the whole procedure simplicity itself.

and this is how you use it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAiAUnEsGy8

Careful about sucking on the tube if the tube you suck on gets anywhere near the beer, after carefully sanitising all your equipment clamping the most bacteria filled thing in your house onto the tube that will be stuffed in a bottle is self defeating.

The bottle filler is really good addition as you automatically shut off the flow when you lift the tube off the bottom of the bottle. It also helps to keep air out of your beer which can reduce the life of your beer through oxidation

 

[oldstout]

Careful about sucking on the tube if the tube you suck on gets anywhere near the beer, after carefully sanitising all your equipment clamping the most bacteria filled thing in your house onto the tube that will be stuffed in a bottle is self defeating.

Not when you've gargled with bleach :thumb:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[orlando]

Careful about sucking on the tube if the tube you suck on gets anywhere near the beer, after carefully sanitising all your equipment clamping the most bacteria filled thing in your house onto the tube that will be stuffed in a bottle is self defeating.

Not when you've gargled with bleach :thumb:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Or keg beer I suppose. I would only let it near my drains. :grin:

 

[kentmark]

:hmm: :hmm: :hmm: :hmm: :hmm:

Piece of 4 foot tube.

Bucket below your brew to catch it.

Insert tube in brew.

Suck.

Put end of tube into vessel below.


:wha: :wha: :ugeek: :ugeek: :ugeek:


I thank yow...

:whistle: :whistle:

Second this! All I added to this was a tap to the end of the tube that will go into the bottles. Saved spillage!

 

[oldstout]

:hmm: :hmm: :hmm: :hmm: :hmm:

Piece of 4 foot tube.

Bucket below your brew to catch it.

Insert tube in brew.

Suck.

Put end of tube into vessel below.


:wha: :wha: :ugeek: :ugeek: :ugeek:


I thank yow...

:whistle: :whistle:

Second this! All I added to this was a tap to the end of the tube that will go into the bottles. Saved spillage!

Don't even need a tap matey......

I bleach my thumb too :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: