Hey, I care too and always have a nickel! I do the same thing with carboys and cornies and actually cheat just a bit with carboys. I keep a 2 pound C02 tank (just the tank) close to my bottling table. When racking from one carboy to another, the first step is the hot rinse and inverted drain until cry and cool. The second step turns the carboys upright and I crack the valve and fill the container with cold C02. Third step covers the carboy opening with Saran wrap and move to floor. Fourth step is the siphon. My neighbor and fellow brewer found some real slick hospital style "turkey basters" that can be boiled and slide together easily. It is an amazing siphon starter and much better than using your mouth. Same thing with Cornies and C02 although I leave them pressurized with 20 psi of C02 for inverted storage. When racking from one cornie to another, always use Black to Black fittings. Although you are in a blanket of C02, it is much more gentle on the beer. Rick Oftel Steve, and anyone else that cares, I tend to always treat filling carboys as I would bottles. I "fill" the carboy with CO2 prior to transfer. My understanding is the CO2 is heavier than air, and settles to the bottom. As the carboy fills, the remaining air is pushed out of the carboy. Don't know if it makes a big difference, but it is my habit. Meads, ciders, beers, wine, whatever. Mark At 11:26 AM 7/26/03 -0500, Steve Fletty wrote: Engineer, Gentleman, & Brewer, Mark D. Glewwe http://www.glewwe-castle.com/mark/