I feel like I should have had this down by now. I haven’t brewed in a few months, and while usually pouring the wort from the kettle into the funnel to the carboy I might get a little spill down the side of the kettle, but tonight was just a mess. :cheers:
why not use an autosiphon?
A siphon doesn’t even have to be auto, a siphon hose in general will keep you from spilling your load all over.
Will the siphon handle 100 degrees?
I have read that they can develop stress cracks even by just washing in hot water so my advise would be not to try 100°. You could go with a stainless steel racking cane and maybe find some high temp tubing.
Do yourself a favor and get a spigot for your kettle. The no-weld ones are easy to install and make transferring wort much easier.
+1 A valve & screen works great. If you’re using a smaller kettle on a stove, a large strainer sitting on a 6.5 gal. pail is sweet. Dump it in with no mess. it helps aeration also. You’ll lose the visual effect of the carboy, but i bet the wife wouldn’t care!! 
+1 A valve & screen works great. If you’re using a smaller kettle on a stove, a large strainer sitting on a 6.5 gal. pail is sweet. Dump it in with no mess. it helps aeration also. You’ll lose the visual effect of the carboy, but i bet the wife wouldn’t care!! [/quote]
Yep, it’s easier to add a ball valve than you can possibly imagine until you’ve done it. It is a bit unnerving to drill a hole in your kettle, but once that’s done you can relax, don’t worry and have a home brew.
Check out http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/ for detailed instructions and parts list for installing a ball valve. I used a hole saw (very carefully), not the hole punch they recommend and it worked beautifully.
Put newspaper down first and tape a paper towel to the kettle right below the rim on the side where you’re going to pour - this will catch smaller drips and also cause bigger streams to drop off the kettle onto the paper.
