I use an autosiphon to rack my finished beer from fermentor to keg. I can’t stand it sometimes because it seems to pull too much air between the cane and the outer housing (if you have ever seen one of these you know what I mean). I also don’t like that there is twice the amount of plastic to clean and sanitize with an autosiphon compared to the traditional cane and tubing setup. A conical fermentor would be great, but I can’t afford one just yet. Then I thought of a similar cheap alternative that I may try.

I ferment almost exclusively in buckets these days (yes I used to do swear by the glass carboy thing, but then switched. Topic for another post). I was thinking of installing a spigot, much like the one found on a bottling bucket, in my primary fermentor. However, instead of putting it on the bottom of the bucket I would install it an inch or two above the base of the bucket at a height that would be above the normal yeast cake. Then all I would have to do would be to loosen the lid, sanitize some tubing for the spigot, then let it flow into my keg (or mouth; whatever is handy at that moment).

A second modification I could envision would be to attach a 90 degree elbow to the spigot inside the bucket. The I would rotate the elbow so the opening faced down during the ferment, and I could turn the opening up or to the side, when I wanted to “rack”. That might limit even more yeast from coming through the valve into the keg (or mouth, see above paragraph).

I realize that this “gadget” may not be original, because I vaguely remember seeing something like this in BYO magazine.

If anyone recalls that article and can past a link to it or has the issue information, that would be great.