Siphoning
It is always best to siphon beer into jars or bottles since in this way the heavy yeast deposit may be left in the fermenting vessel. If a lot of yeast passes into the bottles, as would happen if the murky wort were poured into bottles, a very heavy yeast deposit would form in them and, as we have seen, we do not want this.
Arrange the bulk beer on a table and the bottles on a lower level - a stool or on the floor. Insert the siphoning tube into the beer to a depth of a couple of inches or so. Suck the other end until the beer flows, pinch this end tightly and lower it into the first bottle and let the beer flow. Fill the bottle to within one and a half to two inches from the top, pinch the tube again and insert it into the next bottle and so on. As the level of the beer in the fermenting vessel falls, the tube may be lowered into it. If the beer falls below the end of the tube the siphon will be broken and you will have to lower the tube into the beer and suck again as you did in the first place. If the beer is draught beer or if you have checked with a hydrometer to ascertain the amount of sugar left unfermented the bottles may be stoppered at once and in the case of draught beer (non-gaseous), the bottles may be stored in a cool place. In the case of beers that are to ferment on in the bottles, the bottles should be kept in a warm place - not hot - for a few days and then moved to a cool place.
If you are making draught beer and at bottling time are proposing to make it into a gaseous beer, now is the time to do it. If this is what you are doing, then do not bottle from the fermenting vessel, but siphon off exactly one gallon and dissolve two and a quarter, or two and a half ounces of sugar in as little boiling water as can be used - about half a cupful - and pour this into the gallon. Stir a little to ensure dispersal and then bottle. This amount will produce enough fermentation to produce the gas required but not enough to burst the bottles.
Users of the hydrometer should bear in mind that two and a quarter ounces of sugar will raise the reading by 50. So it will be seen that the amount of sugar mentioned above is just about the amount required without it being too much.
By treating the gallon we overcome the difficulty and riskiness of adding so much to each bottle - the amount having to be so small that it would be difficult to measure satisfactorily.
Don’t forget to sterilize the siphoning tube, using the metabisulphite solution. Use proper siphoning tubing obtained from a home brew firm and get about six feet of it - it’s very cheap.