Haputanlas
Well-Known Member
Hey Guys,
I'm trying to find what most others are doing that might be different from what I'm doing. I've been doing this for a while and never got around to asking about this due to stubbornness.
Right now, I'm using Sanke kegs as ferementers. Basically I'm using them in pretty much the same way you'd use a carboy. I remove the spears and use large carboy caps to cover the opening and use airlocks with a stainless racking cane (In position during fermentation as well).
When fermentation is complete, I attach an MFL-barb coupler to the carboy cap and my C02 tank for racking.
My question is this. Since I can't tell where the top of the yeast cake is, what procedure do you suggest I use to gather as much beer with as little yeast as possible?
With a glass carboy, it's easy. Just put the cane very close to the top of the yeast cake and turn on the C02. However, with the sanke, I've tried a couple of things:
1. Start with the racking cane lifted high. Once the cane only releases C02, turn off the C02, re-adjust the cane a little bit lower, and repeat. Then once I start seeing the beer go cloudy, I stop racking.
2. I place the racking cane at the very bottom (Middle of the yeast cake). Then I rack the yeast to a separate container and wait until the beer turns clear. Then I move the transfer over to the kegs
The drawbacks to #1 are that it's lengthier of a process than I think it should be, and more C02 gets wasted (Not that much). The positive is that i believe this gets the most beer with the least amount of yeast.
One drawback to #2 is that the beer seems to take a long time to clear up before getting really clear. This tells me that I either have to lose more beer into the yeast container than I should, or have a cloudier beer that goes into the keg. The positive to #2 is that the process is really quick and I don't have to adjust anything at all during this process.
Do you guys know of a better or different method that might be able to draw the positives of both and as few of the negatives as possible?
Or is one of these two methods the preferred?
I'm trying to find what most others are doing that might be different from what I'm doing. I've been doing this for a while and never got around to asking about this due to stubbornness.
Right now, I'm using Sanke kegs as ferementers. Basically I'm using them in pretty much the same way you'd use a carboy. I remove the spears and use large carboy caps to cover the opening and use airlocks with a stainless racking cane (In position during fermentation as well).
When fermentation is complete, I attach an MFL-barb coupler to the carboy cap and my C02 tank for racking.
My question is this. Since I can't tell where the top of the yeast cake is, what procedure do you suggest I use to gather as much beer with as little yeast as possible?
With a glass carboy, it's easy. Just put the cane very close to the top of the yeast cake and turn on the C02. However, with the sanke, I've tried a couple of things:
1. Start with the racking cane lifted high. Once the cane only releases C02, turn off the C02, re-adjust the cane a little bit lower, and repeat. Then once I start seeing the beer go cloudy, I stop racking.
2. I place the racking cane at the very bottom (Middle of the yeast cake). Then I rack the yeast to a separate container and wait until the beer turns clear. Then I move the transfer over to the kegs
The drawbacks to #1 are that it's lengthier of a process than I think it should be, and more C02 gets wasted (Not that much). The positive is that i believe this gets the most beer with the least amount of yeast.
One drawback to #2 is that the beer seems to take a long time to clear up before getting really clear. This tells me that I either have to lose more beer into the yeast container than I should, or have a cloudier beer that goes into the keg. The positive to #2 is that the process is really quick and I don't have to adjust anything at all during this process.
Do you guys know of a better or different method that might be able to draw the positives of both and as few of the negatives as possible?
Or is one of these two methods the preferred?