Why You Need An Auto Siphon

Siphoning is one skill that is essential to the home brewer. There aren’t many reasons in a day to day life which would require you to siphon anything so must home brewers will not have ever had a chance to practice it. The problem is, home brewing involves moving lots of liquids around whether it is beer, wine or mead and it is important not to aerate the home brew to get the best results. A piece of kit that is indispensable to racking beer or wine, in my opinion, is an auto syphon, it is one of the most efficient methods of racking beer or wine at the same time as being the easiest and most hygienic.

What Is An Auto Siphon?

An auto siphon is an all over upgrade to a regular siphon hose which might not sound like much but a regular syphon tube has some inherent issues that make it difficult if you are not used to siphoning or starting a siphon.

An auto siphon comprises of a racking cane with a filter, a PVC tube and an outer housing for the racking tube which is vital for starting the siphon automatically. This might not sound like a lot but in practice the auto siphon is a whole lot easier and more efficient than a regular siphon tube and racking cane.

When using an ordinary siphon tube the issues begin in starting the siphon. If you have ever had occasion to siphon fuel before then you may, unfortunately, know that the most common way to start a siphon is by sucking it (if you want to know how to siphon read this). For the home brewer this is probably the worst way you could consider to start a siphon as we want to keep bacteria out of the beer in all cases. Starting the flow is where the auto siphon comes into its own.

The way in which a siphon is able to start a liquid, in our case beer or wine, is to create a vacuum that pulls the liquid from one vessel, down via gravity into a lower vessel. This initial stage of creating a vacuum is handled by the auto siphon with a simple pull on the tube the siphon is housed in. As you do not come into contact at all with the beer this is a much more hygienic way to start a syphon and introduces no air at all.

Using An Auto Siphon

Using an auto siphon is very easy and takes even a complete beginner only one or two practices to get perfect every time. The first thing you will want to do before using the auto siphon is to thoroughly sanitise it inside and out.

1. Position the vessel to siphon from higher than the vessel you are siphoning into. The auto siphon still relies on gravity once you have started the siphon.

2. Lower the sanitised auto siphon into the beer or wine to be siphoned. The rigid end with the racking tube goes into the home brew, carefully, to avoid disturbing the sediment and the PVC hose goes into the empty vessel to be siphoned into.

3. To start the auto siphon you need to pull the inner racking cane upward while holding the outer tube stationary in the beer, this draws beer or wine into the outer tube of the auto siphon.

4. Next push the racking cane back down and the liquid will be drawn into the tube and down into the awaiting vessel. The siphon is not working via gravity and there is nothing else for you to do.

The auto siphon works with a simple pull – push motion. It becomes so intuitive after a few attempts that you will wonder why you ever bothered with a regular siphon at all.

Key Benefits of Using An Auto Siphon

The biggest selling point of the auto siphon is the ease of starting the siphon. Using a regular siphon you have to either pre-fill the siphon or the biggest no no is to suck the hose which is not recommended under any circumstance. The auto siphon take all the bother out of actually starting the siphon so you can concentrate on keeping the beer or wine from splashing into the vessel.

Oxygen is another problem for home brew, you want to minimise oxygen exposure for your beer and wine and the auto siphon removes all possibility for oxygen pickup, all you have to do is make sure the end of the hose is submerged. This is a really key point, for a new home brewer, poorly siphoning a beer can greatly diminish the quality once it all bottled up. Using an auto siphon removes the hassle of siphoning and pretty much anyone will be able to do it perfectly.

If you do not have an auto siphon I thoroughly recommend you get one. Out of all the vast array of home brewing gadgets out there a simple auto siphon has to be on of the best in terms of ease, efficiency and value for money.