Starting a syphon bottle filling machine

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hambrook
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Starting a syphon bottle filling machine

Post by hambrook » Mon Nov 09, 2015 10:47 pm

Quick question; how do you prime / start these syphon type fillers?

http://www.brewuk.co.uk/bottle-filling-machine.html

GeeThom

Re: Starting a syphon bottle filling machine

Post by GeeThom » Tue Nov 10, 2015 12:06 am

Fill the reservoir and put a tube on each of the outlets and suck until the beer comes through.
Use your hand insteadof potting mouth on the tube to prevent infection

As soon as the beer comes through then rase the outlet tube to stop flow. Repeat for each station.

windrider
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Re: Starting a syphon bottle filling machine

Post by windrider » Tue Nov 10, 2015 10:31 am

hambrook wrote:Quick question; how do you prime / start these syphon type fillers?

http://www.brewuk.co.uk/bottle-filling-machine.html
The places I have seen using these usually have the bucket / fermentor higher than the bottle filling machine. Connect it up to the back of the filling machine using some piping and the floating valve will shut off when it gets to the correct level etc. Then it’s just a case of grabbing bottles and filling the same sort of a way you would with a little bottler.
GeeThom wrote:Fill the reservoir and put a tube on each of the outlets and suck until the beer comes through.
Use your hand insteadof potting mouth on the tube to prevent infection

As soon as the beer comes through then rase the outlet tube to stop flow. Repeat for each station.
You don't need to add any tubing to the 3 x outlets :shock: it cuts out automatically when you remove the bottle and works via gravity...so no need to suck :lol:

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JamesF
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Re: Starting a syphon bottle filling machine

Post by JamesF » Tue Nov 10, 2015 11:08 am

windrider wrote:
hambrook wrote:Quick question; how do you prime / start these syphon type fillers?

http://www.brewuk.co.uk/bottle-filling-machine.html
The places I have seen using these usually have the bucket / fermentor higher than the bottle filling machine. Connect it up to the back of the filling machine using some piping and the floating valve will shut off when it gets to the correct level etc. Then it’s just a case of grabbing bottles and filling the same sort of a way you would with a little bottler.
GeeThom wrote:Fill the reservoir and put a tube on each of the outlets and suck until the beer comes through.
Use your hand insteadof potting mouth on the tube to prevent infection

As soon as the beer comes through then rase the outlet tube to stop flow. Repeat for each station.
You don't need to add any tubing to the 3 x outlets :shock: it cuts out automatically when you remove the bottle and works via gravity...so no need to suck :lol:
Surely the beer in the bowl needs to travel upwards around the filler pipes to start the syphon effect though? It's not going to do that by itself.

James

GeeThom

Re: Starting a syphon bottle filling machine

Post by GeeThom » Tue Nov 10, 2015 11:16 am

As you say the beer has to flow up from the reserveoir through the dispensing tube and so needs to be primed. The one I used (Vigo) needed a pipe just to prime the system as I described earlier.
Obviously once primed you take the pipe off and it will refill automatically.

I am surprised that this one is available so cheaply, previous ones I have see in Vigo and on eBay were £150 and upwards.

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JamesF
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Re: Starting a syphon bottle filling machine

Post by JamesF » Tue Nov 10, 2015 11:56 am

Indeed. It's rather tempting to get one as I'll soon be stepping up my brew lengths to around 50l and I bottle everything. At £150 I was contemplating trying to make one, but for £60 I think I'd struggle to do it any cheaper myself. That said, the Vigo one does look considerably more robust than the BrewUK one.

All of them appear to let the liquid splash into the bowl though. I'd prefer a ball valve more similar to that on the Blichmann Autosparge with a side outlet so a short length of pipe could be run to the bottom of the bowl to reduce the amount of air that gets into the beer during filling. Perhaps it's not really that much of a consideration given that there's going to be a certain amount of splashing inside the bottle until the end of the filler is covered by the beer in the bottle...

James

windrider
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Re: Starting a syphon bottle filling machine

Post by windrider » Tue Nov 10, 2015 12:07 pm

GeeThom wrote:As you say the beer has to flow up from the reserveoir through the dispensing tube and so needs to be primed. The one I used (Vigo) needed a pipe just to prime the system as I described earlier.
Obviously once primed you take the pipe off and it will refill automatically.

I am surprised that this one is available so cheaply, previous ones I have see in Vigo and on eBay were £150 and upwards.
Ahh I see what you mean now. My fault for skim reading :) Might find this video useful, similar sort of machine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA3LlPQmsuI

asd

Re: Starting a syphon bottle filling machine

Post by asd » Tue Nov 10, 2015 12:30 pm

That is an excellent price for such a machine!

These ones are meant for bottle conditioned drinks, so the air splashing isn't so much of an issue, as the yeast in the bottle will soak it up as it conditions.

Simon.

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