When I read advice to beginning home brewers, the major theme seems to be making sure you maintain a sanitized work surface. If you have ever wondered just how important this might be, I think I can provide an idea. In my previous life, I worked with a lot of E. Coli bacteria to carry out various tasks. They are grown in a media comprised of a salt, bactotryptone, and yeast extract (i.e. vegemite). Essentially a nice mix of proteins and everything yeast need to survive. I have a feeling that a few liters of wort would have worked just as well. The take home lesson, don’t let let anything you wouldn’t want to ingest get into your beer.
One of the best times for germs to hop into wort has to be during the transfer from one carboy to the next. A great way to do this is by using an auto-siphon. After watching that video I see two problems: 1)apparently auto-siphoning makes you talk in extreme monotone 2)what’s the fun of siphoning without even the slightest chance of getting something in your mouth?
The picture is not Joe indulging in medicinal marijuana. It’s our very own psuedo-sanitary siphoning technique. We could have purchased an auto-siphon, but when one of your two bloggers may or may not be unemployed it’s best to not make any unnessary purchases. Instead, we used the thoroughly sanitized (and already purchased) airlock and placed it at the end of our tubing. It allows all the fun of using your mouth, but without the nasty contamination.
Tags: brewing, siphoning, Techniques
Aha! Now I finally know what Joes looks like. I am very happy that the picture shows a siphon tube and not Joe indulging in marijuana!
Love, MOM
I absolutely love it you guys!