Bottling via a second bucket

[Slid]

Talking about syphoning etc I've just revisited Graham Wheeler's Bible, and he writes:
"If we British are renowned for our inventive genius, our scientific accumen and our brilliant application to all things technical, why is it that our Syphon tubes float?"
Amusing words, but he does have a point. He goes on to suggest that you can use a stainless steel or copper pipe to alleviate this, but I was always told that copper is not safe to use for finished beer...
Your thoughts, genii of this forum, tia.

I cannot imagine that contact with copper for a few seconds will harm your finished beer.

 

[terrym]

Amusing words, but he does have a point. He goes on to suggest that you can use a stainless steel or copper pipe to alleviate this, but I was always told that copper is not safe to use for finished beer...
Your thoughts, genii of this forum, tia.

Before stainless steel became widely used much of the brewery pots and pans and plumbing was made from copper. Many breweries had their own coppersmiths. In Burton there were at least two large engineering companies who were coppersmiths. Some of the old breweries may still have some of the old kit made from copper including FVs lined with copper sheet. So I would seriously doubt what you have been told.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I use a copper pipe to syphon and attached the crud trap at one end and plastic tube at the other simple. Never had an issue with taste.

 

[johncrobinson]

Short term contact with copper is harmless.
The acids in wine/beer will leach small amounts.This can actually be benificial in removing hydrogen sulphide (rotten eggs ) smell from the brew.
Like everything else too much is not a good thing.

 

[gingerneil]

I'm having a similar dilemma with my current brew - Festival Summer Gold. The elderflower and dry hops will need filtering, so I plan to rack into a second FV. Unfortunately the tap on that one is fitted way too high, making bottling direct from that a nightmare as the brew gets low. I therefore plan to clean the original FV, siphon the brew back and then bottle using the tap and wand from that one. I am hoping that as long as I ensure the tube is below the level of the beer, and everything is clean, I should be fine. Its not like I'm pouring and swishing between vessels.... I'd normally prime with a sugar cube in the bottles, but might as well batch this time as I'm moving the beer about. I chucked the primary sugar into the original brew before I thought this through - oops! nevermind...

 

[GhostShip]

I always dissolve the sugar for secondary fermentation in boiled water in my pressure barrel, then syphon the beer from the FV into the barrel very carefully. I put a muslin 'sock' over the end of the tube, almost lay the barrel horizontally and hold the syphon tube on the inner side of the barrel so that there's no splashing and minimal chance of too much oxygen entering the beer. As the barrel fills, so I slowly raise it up. The amount of crud that is left in the sock is amazing and I always feel much better for knowing that it's not going into my bottles.

Once it's in the barrel, I transfer to bottles using a Little Bottler, which is a brilliant little gadget that I absolutely wouldn't be without.

 

[dad_of_jon]

I always dissolve the sugar for secondary fermentation in boiled water in my pressure barrel, then syphon the beer from the FV into the barrel very carefully. I put a muslin 'sock' over the end of the tube, almost lay the barrel horizontally and hold the syphon tube on the inner side of the barrel so that there's no splashing and minimal chance of too much oxygen entering the beer. As the barrel fills, so I slowly raise it up. The amount of crud that is left in the sock is amazing and I always feel much better for knowing that it's not going into my bottles.

Once it's in the barrel, I transfer to bottles using a Little Bottler, which is a brilliant little gadget that I absolutely wouldn't be without.

I co2 purge my bb with and bike tyre inflator at 16g co2 cartridge - don't worry its never been used on a bike. I wedge the sypon tubing under the bb tap and it follows the contours of the bucket the sugar solution is already in and it gently self mixes.