Syphoning worry

[hong]

I`m just about to keg my very first beer ( ditches stout ) and have a bit of a concern. My FV has`nt got a tap at the bottom of it so i will have to syphon from bucket to keg. Now i know that this may sound silly, but after some reading online about the subject a lot of people say that it is wrong to suck to start the syphoning procedure becasue of germs & bacteria in your mouth coming into contact with the beer. Is this right? What else can i do? I dont have a auto syphon and i will definitley use a bucket with a bottom tap next time, but i thought the sucking procedure was the only way to get it going. Please help, any advice would be much appreciated, just dont want to lose this brew!

[boingy]

Easiest way is to add a bit of removable pipe to the end you suck. Start the flow into a jug. Nip the pipe, pull off the end and transfer the rest into the keg. Then drink the stuff in the jug!

For many years I got away with a less than ideal method. I used to suck on the pipe, draw off about half a pint into a glass then put the rest into the keg. My theory was that the first half pint would wash away most of the bacteria so the stuff that made it into the keg was pretty much clean. It's not good practice though!

[Ditch]

I just give the pipe a suck, myself. I like to get that first splash of the beer in my mouth. Assurance that yet another ferment has gone fine. I've done this countless times now and never had any problem.

More important, to me, is to ensure the end of the syphon tube soon ends up under the beer flowing into the keg. Keeps the air out of it.

I have used the bottom tap / big tube method. It's fantastic! So much easier and faster than sucking skinny tubes and waiting all day for the beer to slip through. But, I seem to remember I changed taps on my FV's. The big pipe no longer fitted. I don't know what size I'd need now and can't be arsed.

But, no; No problems doing what generations of home brewers have done.

[flytact]

Fill the hose with water, put a finger over one end and stick the other end in the beer. Hold the closed end over whatever you're going to siphon into and release. Instant transfer. I usually keep two small glasses nearby, one to catch the water and one for a sample.

[richc]

Sterilise your mouth with alcohol?

[hong]

Sterilise your mouth with alcohol?

Now your talking!

[hong]

I just give the pipe a suck, myself. I like to get that first splash of the beer in my mouth. Assurance that yet another ferment has gone fine. I've done this countless times now and never had any problem.

More important, to me, is to ensure the end of the syphon tube soon ends up under the beer flowing into the keg. Keeps the air out of it.

I have used the bottom tap / big tube method. It's fantastic! So much easier and faster than sucking skinny tubes and waiting all day for the beer to slip through. But, I seem to remember I changed taps on my FV's. The big pipe no longer fitted. I don't know what size I'd need now and can't be arsed.

But, no; No problems doing what generations of home brewers have done.

Yeah, like you said Ditch generations have done this method for god knows how long. Maybe we are all just getting to obsessed with sterilising?

[Ditch]

Maybe we are all just getting to obsessed with sterilising?

I'd say 'we' most certainly are, mate. 'Bacteria from ones lips spoiling a brew' ?

Listen; Pretty girl? My tongue. Her throat. No f**king surgical wipes!

So, why get all puritanical the moment we go to put some vegetables in water?

[Kev888]

I just sucked the pipe for years with both wine and beer - I only got a very few infected batches in all that time, and I've no way of knowing if any were due to syphoning or not (I suspect the older/inadequate 'sterilizer' I was using may have been up there too). But apparently there is stuff present in our saliva that is known 'can' cause problems for the beer, when I found that out I adopted a method like Boingy described - mainly because its hardly any more effort and it avoids at least a possible way of losing a brew.

I moved to using taps in the FV after I got a fermenting fridge - there isn't enough head-room to really see what I'm doing with a syphon any more. Its easier in that sense, but its also another thing to clean/sanitise, leak and leave open. I think I prefer taps but they're not completely without their own issues.

Cheers
Kev

[hong]

Good points kev

[hong]

Fill the hose with water, put a finger over one end and stick the other end in the beer. Hold the closed end over whatever you're going to siphon into and release. Instant transfer. I usually keep two small glasses nearby, one to catch the water and one for a sample.

Is it really as simple as that? Will try that next time round cheers!