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Just Curious

Northern Brewer General
#1

I have brewed on and off for many years… never gotten beyond the extract kits stage, but have brewed some good beers. I just bought a setup for brewing the one-gallon batches as I have little kids and not much time or space for full 5-gallon brewing. I brewed my first batch last night… an American Wheat and couldn’t believe how easy and fun it was… definitely a great way to re-spark someone’s interest. My one question is this… I went exactly by the book just to because it’s been quite awhile, and I am wondering why I was instructed to use the kind of quirky siphon and hose to transfer my wort from the brewing kettle into the 1 gallon fermentor. Why not a funnel? It wasn’t hard to use or anything, but I definitely ended up with every bit of trub and chunkage as I had to tilt the kettle to get all the beer out.

No big deal, just curious as to why it instructs to use the siphon and hose when it seems a funnel would be much easier.

Cheers!

#2

A funnel would be fine, and may in fact be beneficial for wort aeration.

#3

The two main reasons for a siphon is to leave the trub behind in the boil pot and to avoid lifting a large, heavy pot of wort.

After cooling, whirlpool (spin the wort with a sanitized spoon, siphon or your wort chiller), then siphon from the edge of the pot into the fermenter.

This will leave hop solids and some cold break behind.

#4

[quote=“PupThePup”]The two main reasons for a siphon is to leave the trub behind in the boil pot and to avoid lifting a large, heavy pot of wort.
[/quote]
If a one gallon batch is large and heavy, you need to do some curls.

#5

I would guess the instructions were written for 5 or 10 gallon batches. I do 5 gal. batches and don’t have a problem lifting the pots or carboys… I can see where some folks would however. Now a one gallon batch, yea it doesn’t apply to that (except for leaving the trub behind).

#6

I would guess the instructions were written for 5 or 10 gallon batches. I do 5 gal. batches and don’t have a problem lifting the pots or carboys… I can see where some folks would however. Now a one gallon batch, yea it doesn’t apply to that (except for leaving the trub behind).[/quote]

I would assume the instructions were for a one gallon batch, since that’s what OP was using. But, yes, siphoning can work well for leaving trub behind, but IME it’s easy enough just to pour it through a funnel. Long story short, do whatever is easiest for you, there’s nothing wrong with either method. :cheers:

#7

Thanks everyone… that’s what I thought. When I have done 5 gallon batches into a brew bucket I just dumped it straight from the kettle. A funnel seems like the easiest for the little 1 gallon jug.

#8

I would guess the instructions were written for 5 or 10 gallon batches. I do 5 gal. batches and don’t have a problem lifting the pots or carboys… I can see where some folks would however. Now a one gallon batch, yea it doesn’t apply to that (except for leaving the trub behind).[/quote]

I would assume the instructions were for a one gallon batch, since that’s what OP was using. But, yes, siphoning can work well for leaving trub behind, but IME it’s easy enough just to pour it through a funnel. Long story short, do whatever is easiest for you, there’s nothing wrong with either method. :cheers: [/quote]
I brew 5 gallon batches and pour through a double mesh strainer and funnel into the carboy. The strainer catches most of the chunky stuff and also helps aerate the wort.

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