Siphoning from kettle to primary, Are there benefits? Options

[gimmebeer]

I've read on this forum of people siphoning from kettle to carboy. I've always ladled and/or poured from the kettle through a strainer and funnel and into the carboy. Seems to me this aerates the wort at a time it should be aerated. Why do people siphon? Are there any benefits from this? Just curious. Thanks.

[zymological]

I've read on this forum of people siphoning from kettle to carboy. I've always ladled and/or poured from the kettle through a strainer and funnel and into the carboy. Seems to me this aerates the wort at a time it should be aerated. Why do people siphon? Are there any benefits from this? Just curious. Thanks.

Siphoning would be good if you were trying to get most of the trub to settle into the middle of the kettle. Otherwise I'm not sure what the benefit is...

[Denny]

It allows you to have a more "closed system" and eliminates the small possibility of airborne contamination.

[chuck_d]

Splashing the wort aerates it, but not very well, and not to the point where you have the desired amount of dissolved O2, and it also exposes the wort to possible infection. So like Denny said, you can reduce exposure to unsanitized air and then you can aerate using an aquarium pump with an inline filter to keep out unwanted bugs (or use pure O2 as some people do). If you don't have an aeration system, you can still splash while siphoning by using a siphon sprayer at the end of your hose. This aerates just as well as splashing, but neither will exceed 3.5ppm I don't think. In this case, it's just an easy way to transfer off the trub if you have one of those wort siphon starter things or an autosiphon would work too I suppose. I don't think false bottoms or bazooka screens filter out break material either, so racking might be the only way to leave that in the kettle, but I'm not sure about that.

This post has been edited by chuck_d: May 31 2008, 03:06 PM

[MtnBrewer]

I think siphoning from the kettle is a pain right in the butt. The best way to do it is to install a valve in the kettle and simply drain it. If you use whole hops you can also add a filter of some kind (false bottom, bazooka, etc.).

[chuck_d]

I think siphoning from the kettle is a pain right in the butt. The best way to do it is to install a valve in the kettle and simply drain it. If you use whole hops you can also add a filter of some kind (false bottom, bazooka, etc.).

Precisely why I included these specific mods in my new kettle as part of my 2008 brewery upgrade. Very sick of siphoning so I've got a ball valve with a nipple & a bazooka, most of my hops stock is leaf. I had definitely outgrown my 7.5 gallon kettle, so I made sure to include these almost essential features on my 15 gallon.

So that actually leads me to my question about the break material. I assume my new system is transfering the break material, is that accurate? Does anyone take measures to prevent this?

This post has been edited by chuck_d: May 31 2008, 08:23 PM

[Yambor44]

I used a Bazooka tube about 3 times and saw no difference in the amount of hop particles that transferred to the carboy. So now auto siphon (at this time anyway, once I go with ten gallon batches and all grain brewing I will change that). I try to stir the trub to the middle but it doesn't seem to do so well with the IC in there. With the auto siphon once it starts it siphon it clears a small area around the siphon end and as ong as I don't disturb the kettle it doesn't suck up anything else. Also, I wouldn't want to try and pick up 5 gallons of wort and trub and pour it into a funnel on top of a carboy as I am sure I would pull something or drop it! (IMG:style_emoticons/brewboard/biggrin.gif)

[Bobby_M]

On one hand, a bulkhead drain is the easy way but you can't really be selective as to where the pickup tube is located from brew to brew. If you chill, then whirlpool and are patient enough to let the trub/hop pile settle, siphoning over the top lets you pick a spot where you will pick up the least amount of junk. It's all compromise of course. All internal hop filtering mechanisms have a hard time with cold break + pellet hop gunk so that doesn't quite work unless you're chilling externally or using some whole hops.