- Clip the racking cane to the inside of fermenter, using a siphon clamp or so. Suspend so the bottom end is about midway between beer level and trub line.
- Fill your racking hose with Staran. Curling it up on the bottom of your Starsan bucket is easiest.
- Still under Starsan, plug up the end going into your bottling bucket, or put a clamp on it. Key is, the hose remains full.
- Pull the hose out of the bucket keeping the open end up. Again, tubing should remain full of Starsan.
- Connect hose to the top of your racking cane.
- When ready to rack, pull the plug off the bottom end or release the clamp. Let the Starsan run out into a spill container, that should start the siphon. When beer comes out, plug back up or tighten clamp quickly. Or hold your Starsaned finger on it.
- Transfer the end of the hose to your bottling bucket or keg and remove finger, plug, or clamp.
When filling kegs best is to do a (near) closed transfer. Put a keg's liquid-out (black) quick disconnect on the bottom end of the tubing. Prime the line with Starsan, similar to above, and let fill with beer as the siphon starts. Then fill the keg through the liquid-out post.
Before filling, the keg should be either "100% liquid pre-purged" using CO2 from a cylinder, or has been pre-purged with fermentation CO2.
Train yourself with a bucket of water or Starsan before using on beer. Once you get the knack of it it becomes second nature quickly.
If you're fermenting in carboys, use a carboy cap and start the siphon by sightly pressurizing the carboy through the side teat on the cap using air (blow in it) or CO2 from a cylinder. You only need a couple psi to start the siphon/transfer.