Constipated Conical Fermenter

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pnh2atl

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I'm using my 14.5 gallon Blichmann fermenter with Tri-Clamps for the first time. I've got a Stout (10 gallon batch) that has been in there for 6 days. OG was 1.055 and it is now down to 1.018. I pitched 2 packs of US-05 and fermented at 64F. I drained out the trub on day 2 and noticed a fair amount of yeast coming out too. I tried to drain off some yeast today and nothing will come out. It is constipated I think. I pulled a little beer off from the upper fitting and got more yeast than I thought I would (remember first time with the new toy).

So should I add a psi or two and push it out? Should I just leave it and rack to secondary? Is my FG still to come or is 1.018 ok? These questions will in fact keep me up so I would appreciate your input.

Here is the recipe:

11.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 52.38 %
4.00 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 19.05 %
2.00 lb Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 9.52 %
1.75 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 8.33 %
1.00 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 4.76 %
1.00 lb Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 4.76 %
0.25 lb Acid Malt (3.0 SRM) Grain 1.19 %
3.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 26.3 IBU
2 Pkgs US-05 (Safale) Yeast-Ale

Thanks for the help.
 
Gentle persuasion along the sides might help ease the constipation. That's what I have done with plastic conicals, with SS gentle so as not to dent. Basically bang at it.
 
you're rushing things

Let it ferment until finished before dumping trub. Once it's dumped and you've let the yeast clean the beer up a bit, crash it and thats the yeast you'll collect. Ive never had one compact to the point it wouldn't come out. Open the bottom drain fully and just give it time to let gravity to its things.
 
If you get a lot of hop pellet gunk through to the fermenter it will plug up like that. I've had few plug up solid. I take a sanitized butter knife and poke it up there to break up the trub layer. Once that breaks up the yeast drops pretty easily. I do it after a transfer my beer though, if might make a mess if you do that while the conical is full.
 
I have a Blichmann as well and this can happen if I leave the beer in too long (much longer than you at this point.)

All you have to do is apply some CO2 pressure, give it a couple minutes (maybe) and out it comes.

I like to use the CO2 even when the conical is not plugged so I don't introduce air to the fermenter.
 
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