There must be a better way to siphon,,,!!

[geek]

There must be a better way to siphon...!!

Specially this big 15gal demi-john.
I have an auto-siphon that came with a cane, towards the end of the carboy, when you tilt the carboy the cane being rigid obviously doesn't adjust and stays straight down but the wine is now to the side (carboy tilted).

On the 5 gal carboy I had to remove the hose from siphon and manually (well, ahmm, used the mouth to start the flow).
The big container.......I will kind of loose some wine because it was difficult by only me tilting the container and moving the hose accordingly, to the end the suction stopped and some wine came down and moved sediments and created a very cloudy wine left to the bottom........which I am going to throw away...

All in all, there's gotta be a nice way of racking from container to container...!!

 

[UBB]

ALLINONE and never look back.

 

[roadpupp]

+1.

I always felt like I was leaving too much wine behind. The allinone definitely helped with this.

 

[Rocky]

Geek, I agree with UBB and Chad, the way to go is a pump.

In the meantime, one part of the technique that you are employing can be improved. When you are about to siphon out of a carboy (you should have it elevated on a table) carefully tilt the carboy on its bottom edge before you begin and place a 12" length of 2 x 4 under the opposite side, giving you a 3 point support, i.e two on the 2 x 4 and one on the table. Then, install the auto siphon. I find that when I use an auto siphon on a 5 gallon carboy, it wedges very nicely into the inside lower rim of the carboy and the neck of the carboy (it will flex a bit in order to wedge into the corner). Try this with an empty carboy to see what I mean. As far as a demijohn is concerned, the only way to get wine out of it (unless it is elevated) is a pump. I keep my demijohn on the floor on a dolly and siphon or pump into it but only pump out of it. See pictures.

 

[geek]

ok.
Also, I tried de-gassing with a drill attachment and I didn't really see much bubbles or foam forming up on the top, almost nothing. This was on the 1st 5gal carboy. I am using the stir wand that has the 2 plastic flex wedges at the bottom.

Should I be concerned????

..

 

[CoastalEmpireWine]

What is the difference between a Carboy and a demijohn

 

[KyleRitchie]

Can someone please help me...I dont really know how to use this website but i am making a batch of green apple riesling, i wanted to increase my alcohol percentage so i added half the f pack before adding the yeast which raised my starting SG, So now after 5-7 days the kit says to rack it but only if my SG is1.010 or lower....mine should be higher because i added half the f pack shouldn't it? If so do i just ignore the SG reading and rack it anyways or keep waiting until it reaches 1.010?? Thanks a lot


Kyle

 

[Rocky]

Kyle, I would still rack it at SG 1.010.

 

[pete1325]

Costal......look at Rocky's (Mrs. Rocky's) pics above.....the top pic is a Carboy the bottom is a Demijohn.....different shape holds differnent volume of wine. I've seen Carboy's in 3, 5 and 6 gallons......15 and 23 Liter Demijohn......there might be other sizes as well.....others will chime in too.

 

[Rocky]

What is the difference between a Carboy and a demijohn

CEW, it is probably just in the usage but generally when people talk about a demijohn, they are speaking about the round shaped containers normally encased in wicker or plastic and of fairly high volumes, e.g. 14-18 gallons.

A carboy technically is just a glass container used to hold a liquid, could be wine, could be acid. In wine makeing, when people say carboy they are almost always talking about the 3, 5, 6 or 6.5 gallon variety used for fermenting or aging wine. Less often, I see people talk about a 1 gallon carboy, which I suppose is technically correct but is what we always called a "jug."

 

[Rocky]

ok.
Also, I tried de-gassing with a drill attachment and I didn't really see much bubbles or foam forming up on the top, almost nothing. This was on the 1st 5gal carboy. I am using the stir wand that has the 2 plastic flex wedges at the bottom.

Should I be concerned????

..

If you used a drill attachment and got very little activity, I would guess that the wine is de-gassing naturally. I would keep it under airlock and let it clear completely. You are fine.

 

[geek]

I hope so rocky, I used an older 18v drill.
The demi john is not topped off to the very top, there are about roughly 3 inches left.
One 5-gal, the one that captured the "left overs" and most sediments has a lot of space, see the 2 pictures....

I think the demi john is fine but I should complete that cloudy 5gal.

 

[Rocky]

I think I would be concerned about the airspace. If it were mine, I would add some from the 5 gallon to the demijohn to get the level up to about 1-2" from the stopper (should not need very much compared to the total volume) and then I would find smaller containers for the remaining wine in the 5 gallon (looks like it would be about 4 gallons). If you could find a 3 gallon and a one gallon jug, you would be in good shape.

 

[geek]

Rocky, ok, I just didn't want to take out of the cloudy wine since the wine in the demi john didn't bring any sediment from the pails, but I guess a bit to top off would be ok.

What about this for the 5gal carboy:
If I have a 6gallon white Riesling at the last stage of first fermentation, SG is around 1.012 right now. Would it be ok to leave 5gal carboy as is missing about a bottle of wine and wait for the other batch to ferment completely and THEN use from it to complete the 5gal carboy?

Since the fermenting batch is a 6gal, I'd have extra when poured into a 5gal carboy anyways and would either put that into a 1gal container or use to refill my first batch.

Thanks much for all advises.

..

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Take a look at the video on my website and it should answer most if not all your questions. This week I am planning on making an updated video with more details including the updated bung that replaced the orange universal and much - much more.

Rember that is has a 30 day money back guarantee !!
If you are not completely satisified

Specially this big 15gal demi-john.
I have an auto-siphon that came with a cane, towards the end of the carboy, when you tilt the carboy the cane being rigid obviously doesn't adjust and stays straight down but the wine is now to the side (carboy tilted).

On the 5 gal carboy I had to remove the hose from siphon and manually (well, ahmm, used the mouth to start the flow).
The big container.......I will kind of loose some wine because it was difficult by only me tilting the container and moving the hose accordingly, to the end the suction stopped and some wine came down and moved sediments and created a very cloudy wine left to the bottom........which I am going to throw away...

All in all, there's gotta be a nice way of racking from container to container...!!

 

[geek]

Steve, yes, I've tried watching that video in the past but it stops and restarts all the times making the video almost unuseful, you should look into it. I've tried with both IE 7 and Chrome.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Sorry about not being able to watch the video - I am planning on making a new video soon, it is proubly because of your internet speed and my size of the video as well.
I will send you a smaller version, until I am able to correct this issue

 

[geek]

Thanks Steve, but my high speed is very good here (cable modem) and the video from youtube works well, it must be something on the way your site handles the video.

Anyhow, thanks.

 

[KyleRitchie]

Thanks Rocky