Couldn't get a good siphon going for the life of me last night while racking a Belgian single over to the keg. Massive amounts of air /oxygen would have been absorbed. How long do I have to drink these bad boy before it becomes doomed? Or am I already SOL? Thanks in advance
How would you expect anyone to know for sure? The only thing you can do is get the beer cold, carb it, relax, and start drinking.
I feel your pain . . . experienced similar problems last night (was it a full moon?) siphoning from a 1 gal carboy for bottling. In your case (keg), I believe you have some room. When you burb the keg you eliminate the headspace oxygen, so that contact is minimal. The dissolved oxygen could well be a problem . . . for a single my guess is you aren't looking for any aging so it might be best to drink-away. My case (bottling), hopefully the yeast will see the oxygen and chose that metabolic pathway, could work in my favor. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking with it. FWIW, siphons lose the ability to siphon over time. Maybe they're like us, just wear out and break down. I'm contemplating keeping a spare on call.
I suspect you'll be okay longer than you might think (fear), since a single is typically not a particularly hoppy beer.
Absolutely, this might actually be a beer my wife drinks. It is always a good thing when she does because the next brew session I don't get as much stink eye
Maybe they're like us, just wear out and break down. Well I've seen this play before, and there's no escaping the final act On a plus note, did some troubleshooting and found the source of my problem: a new hose was attached to the rigid siphon tube that let just enough air escape (no liquid leaking) to break the siphon. This should have been more intuitive when it happened . . . maybe I shouldn't attempt siphoning after about 5 PM. Still, I have had auto-siphons simply give up the ghost . . . somehow lose their ability to suck and blow. For the price, it may pay to keep a reserve.
Store your racking cane outside of the autosiphon. Otherwise, the rubber piece at the end of the cane will shrink and you will be more likely to lose the seal.
Wasn't doing this so appreciate the tip. I don't think the hosing to the racking cane had a good seal last night, going to put a clamp on there next time.
That was exactly my problem. Had a clamp around vinyl tubing and it was on tight. But some deformity allowed the vacuum to break. Due to the nature of the cane there were no liquid leaks so it wasn't obvious. Replaced all today with silicon tubing and worked like a champ (without a clamp). After looking around I found the mini-3/8" auto-siphon which looks like it would do much better in my 1 gal carboys.
