I read about mead a while back then forgot about it until I watched Beowulf and saw King Hrothgar's (Anthony Hopkins) legendary mead hall in action. Wifezilla gave me some simple recipes and got started, now after 2 weeks in the primary fermenter I have to transfer it into the secondary for a few months of aging.
I have plenty of racking equipment and transfer pumps for my larger appurtenances but nothing for these small 1 gallon jugs. I tried the standard suck and siphon but it was awkward, messy, and wasteful. It was hard to get the hose in the little hole on the jug fast enough so as not to spill it everywhere or to lose suction - I gave up and went to thinking with some inspirational whiskey.
Remembering from my science days a siphon works by gravity, you can start it with a bit of suction then quickly move the outlet hose lower then the inlet and the gravity of the falling liquid column keeps the liquid flowing. This is similar to how a drinking straw works except it depends on a continuous differential of atmospheric pressures. The sucking reduces the the pressure in your mouth and the weight of our atmosphere (14.7psi) pushes the liquid up and out.
Having these simple facts and also an aquarium air pump which I use for aerating grain mashes I made a few modification which only took 10 minutes.
First I took the $7 air pump apart to see how it worked - a simple rubber diaphragm drew air in from a hole in the case and pushed it out the tube hole. I did not want to pressurize the jug or entrain air into the ferment which can cause it to oxidize and off flavors. So I converted it into a vacuum pump by sealing all holes and cracks with caulk, then drilling a small hole in the top for the suction hose and sealed that too.
Don't pay any attention to the generic cereal box, I only use it as a source for wheat and yeast vitamins for my mashes.
I then took a standard 1 gallon airlock bung and drilled a small hole for the tiny suction tubing, this is now both a air and vacuum pump.
I took a piece of 3/8" copper refrigeration tubing which fit the airlock bung perfectly and bent it into a u-shape and placed in both bottles, the full one open to atmosphere the empty one tightly sealed with the vacuum hose connected. I was surprised at how quickly the transfer started, a few seconds at most, the whole process took 4 minutes to complete transfer without any sediment or air.
I also crushed the end of the pick-up tube closed and drilled four smaller holes about a 1/2" above the bottom so as to leave the fines and sediment behind.
Theory of operation - the full jug has 14.7 psi of atmospheric pressure pushing down on it from the small neck opening, the copper pipe is sealed in the empty jar along with the vacuum tube, turning on the pump reduces the pressure in the empty jar and the 14.7 psi of the full jar pushes the liquid over. Remember the old idiom "Nature abhors a vacuum"
This whole project took 1 hour from taking the pump apart to transferring the grape mead pyment, including letting the caulk cure for 45 minutes. The aquarium pump and 8' of tiny tubing was less than $10. I have plenty of copper on hand but no tubing, next week when I go to Lowe's I will try this with plastic tubing which is usually about 50 cents a foot.
Note: 14.7 psi is the pressure at sea level for those in Colorado it is closer to 12 psi.
I have plenty of racking equipment and transfer pumps for my larger appurtenances but nothing for these small 1 gallon jugs. I tried the standard suck and siphon but it was awkward, messy, and wasteful. It was hard to get the hose in the little hole on the jug fast enough so as not to spill it everywhere or to lose suction - I gave up and went to thinking with some inspirational whiskey.
Remembering from my science days a siphon works by gravity, you can start it with a bit of suction then quickly move the outlet hose lower then the inlet and the gravity of the falling liquid column keeps the liquid flowing. This is similar to how a drinking straw works except it depends on a continuous differential of atmospheric pressures. The sucking reduces the the pressure in your mouth and the weight of our atmosphere (14.7psi) pushes the liquid up and out.
Having these simple facts and also an aquarium air pump which I use for aerating grain mashes I made a few modification which only took 10 minutes.
First I took the $7 air pump apart to see how it worked - a simple rubber diaphragm drew air in from a hole in the case and pushed it out the tube hole. I did not want to pressurize the jug or entrain air into the ferment which can cause it to oxidize and off flavors. So I converted it into a vacuum pump by sealing all holes and cracks with caulk, then drilling a small hole in the top for the suction hose and sealed that too.
Don't pay any attention to the generic cereal box, I only use it as a source for wheat and yeast vitamins for my mashes.
I then took a standard 1 gallon airlock bung and drilled a small hole for the tiny suction tubing, this is now both a air and vacuum pump.
I took a piece of 3/8" copper refrigeration tubing which fit the airlock bung perfectly and bent it into a u-shape and placed in both bottles, the full one open to atmosphere the empty one tightly sealed with the vacuum hose connected. I was surprised at how quickly the transfer started, a few seconds at most, the whole process took 4 minutes to complete transfer without any sediment or air.
I also crushed the end of the pick-up tube closed and drilled four smaller holes about a 1/2" above the bottom so as to leave the fines and sediment behind.
Theory of operation - the full jug has 14.7 psi of atmospheric pressure pushing down on it from the small neck opening, the copper pipe is sealed in the empty jar along with the vacuum tube, turning on the pump reduces the pressure in the empty jar and the 14.7 psi of the full jar pushes the liquid over. Remember the old idiom "Nature abhors a vacuum"
This whole project took 1 hour from taking the pump apart to transferring the grape mead pyment, including letting the caulk cure for 45 minutes. The aquarium pump and 8' of tiny tubing was less than $10. I have plenty of copper on hand but no tubing, next week when I go to Lowe's I will try this with plastic tubing which is usually about 50 cents a foot.
Note: 14.7 psi is the pressure at sea level for those in Colorado it is closer to 12 psi.