New brewer needs suggestions

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stooby

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OK, I'm three batches into my brewing career. Decided at outset to go with kegs to eliminate bottling hassles. First batch was drinkable, a hopped can extract kit included with purchase of beginner kit. Second was very good, a kolsch extract kit from NB. Third is almost ready, man I can't wait cause kolsch is gone, an irish red extract. Next batch I'm going BIAB, a nut brown ale.
I'm all into trying to make the brewing process as easy as possible, with as few steps as possible. I currently primary in a bottling bucket, then attach tube to spigot & transfer to keg, carb & drink. One thing I'd like to improve on is to minimize or eliminate the yeast sediment that makes its way into keg. Both kegs that I emptied had a fair amount of trub right where the keg tube sits. I'm thinking the beer would taste better without the yeasty trub particles being sucked up into the line.
Any ideas, keeping in mind simplicity is pretty important to me. I guess if all my brews taste as good as the kolsch did, its not that big a deal, but if I can make it better I'm all for it. Thanks
 
Have you tried cold crashing? Once fermentation is complete, 2-3 weeks, place in fridge (or outside, if its cold) for a day or two to drop the yeast out of solution. Also, do you have a sediment tip for your racking cane? If not, that can help in keeping crud out of the keg.
 
I rack from primary into keg, after it goes at least 3-4 weeks in primary, and get almost nothing in the bottom of my kegs. I'm also using yeast rated either high, or very high, in flocculation.

Without knowing how long you leave the brew in primary/fermenter, you could try longer. You could, also, not ferment in the bottling bucket, but in a primary without the spigot.

In the interest of making my transfers easier on me, as well as virtually eliminate the risk of oxidation, I've been pushing my finished brew into keg with CO2. I purge the kegs, release the pressure, then transfer from my fermenting sanke keg, into the serving corny kegs with CO2. I also use the liquid post on the serving keg to get the brew into it (no vinyl tubing goes into the keg). With this method, I can have both the fermenter, and serving kegs, on the floor and still get a easy transfer. I use only a few psi to get the transfer to happen (usually about 2-3psi) so we're not talking high pressure, or much gas use.

Sometimes trying to make something simple gives you lesser results. While there's nothing wrong with coming up with a clever solution, make sure it's not going to create additional problems.
 
No, that's the thing, I don't use a siphon, I just ferment in the bottling bucket. I keep a telephone book under one side of the bucket to tilt it so sediment is collected away from the spigot. I then just hook up a tube to spigot & transfer to keg. Do you think a racking tube with tip would significantly reduce the trub?
 
With a racking cane, you can set the depth so that you just get clear brew out.

Until I started using CO2 to push my brew from fermenter into keg, I was using the autosiphon to transfer. I would hold mine in place, so that I could adjust the depth as needed. If you set it as far down as possible, without getting any of the cake with it, you can use one of the holders to keep it there.

Personally, I'm rather enjoying using CO2 to push the finished beer into keg. I'll be using liquid dip tubes in the fermenters soon, to pull the brew out. I just need to cut them to the correct length(s) for how much I expect to leave behind.
 
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