racking arm for Brewhemoth

Any one know of a place to buy a 1" tri clover racking arm to use on the Brewhemoth?

Here ya go (1 and 1.5" TC use the same size ferrule so it will work")

https://morebeer.com/view_product/5941

Thanks, much appreciated!

I'm not at all sure that will fit in a brewhemoth. How much is left below the valve anyway? It doesn't seem like much. I'm pretty sure the measurement is in the beginning of the brewhemoth thread. It would take a long time to recoup 70 bucks if you're only getting an extra pint per batch. I used blichmans for years and never felt the rotating arm was worth it. With my tubing, semi transparent, it was very hard to tell if you're picking up yeast. Obviously if the arm is buried in the cake you can tell, but at that point, you've picked up too much yeast imo. Furthermore, it's best to have the pickup some (relative) distance above the cake, as convection around the opening will disturb the yeast, and pick some up. And this small amount of yeast, which I don't want in the kegs, is near impossible to see in the tubing. And again, once you see it, you've picked up too much imo.

Yeah I don't bother with the racking arm on my brewhemoth either... just one more thing to clean and doesn't provide much benefit IMO.

All the pros we talked to in the St. Louis area (during the initial design phase) pretty much said they don't use the racking arms on their pro equipment! That said, we have found that you only lose a pint or two of beer by not using a racking arm.

Get one if you wish, but it is not needed, in our opinion.



Josh
The Brewhemoth

....at least it should be because I've ordered one in advance of my Brewhemuth arriving. If it proves to have little benefit I'll end up using it on a larger fermenter with a deeper cone.

Heck, it's shiny so it must be beneficial!

Brew on!

The morebeer rotating racking arm is designed for a 60 degree conical. When you put it on the Brewhemoth 45 degree cone, it actually can't remove as much liquid compared to just putting a valve on the Brewhemoth TC. You'd have to bend the arm more for it to remove below the TC drain line.

Ok, that being said... I vaguely recall a discussion that a 60 degree slope was needed to make the yeast slide down and cake. 45 degrees apparently left a film of yeast on the side wall. Any issues with that on a brewhemoth? Otherwise, it looks like a great deal compared to the Blichmann, Morebeer, or Stout.

When we started making these, I read everything I could find on the angle of cones. The only research on these was for dumping dry goods, the 60 degree cone was better at emptying a bin of corn or wheat over a shallower. Hence the huge abundance of 60 degree cones. The brewing industry adopted these 60 degree cones. No research on whether that was the optimal angle, it was availible, stock, hence cheaper than custom angle and it worked. The 45 degree cone on the Brewhemoth is stock item, hence cheap, it works well (I don't have a problem with the yeast not settling to the bottom) there for we use it. Not saying it's better than a 60 degree cone, only it works well, we have more than a few hundred that were headed to the scrap yard a year ago. When they run out......we'll start testing again as to the optimal angle.

Anybody get the morebeer racking arm and bend it to fit better? Or come up with a better idea?

volbrews said:

Ok, that being said... I vaguely recall a discussion that a 60 degree slope was needed to make the yeast slide down and cake. 45 degrees apparently left a film of yeast on the side wall. Any issues with that on a brewhemoth? Otherwise, it looks like a great deal compared to the Blichmann, Morebeer, or Stout.

Click to expand...

Yeast will stick to anything. There isn't a pitch that will allow you to dump yeast and not have to clean the side-walls. A 60* cone is used in many industries because it is the best angle for a full dump. Used with pharmaceuticals, powders, etc anything.

For large fermenters, 30bbl and above you want to get yeast off the hydrostatic weight as soon as you can so it doesn't cook the yeast cake and decrease viability. I actually asked Chris White thru email what size fermenter this starts to be a problem and he answered around 30 bbl and above. On a homebrew scale, the difference between a 45* cone and a 60* cone.... well, that's the slope a brewhemoth is because that's the material they work with. I would still buy one in place of any hopper type conical (like the ones you mention) for its other features. It's by no means a deal breaker. Your yeast will still settle to the bottom for you to easily harvest.

My fermenter is a sanke with bottom dump (not dip tube but dump like a conical). I work around not having the full pitch of a conical no problem. Not that it wouldn't be nice but... I can harvest about a pint of yeast while the beer is still on the cake before just beer comes thru the dump (in which case I come back later to harvest another cup or 2). It's not the whole cake, so now I just wait till I rack to harvest it. Once the beer is off, the whole cake goes down the drain in one motion- conical or dome-ical.

I also think that racking arms are useless and still wonder why no one (that I've noticed) hasn't gotten corny post bulkheads welded to their top caps like I have. I just rack with regular dip tubes (that you can cut to different lengths at little cost). Also put different length gas ones in so I can more efficiently top crop, reaching down into the krausen. You can buy a 15 gal dip tube (~32" long) for $15 and cut it how ever long you want. Having a gas post as well as the additional blowoff port on the brewhemoth like it has would be great.

If you use a butterfly valve instead of a racking arm/sampling valve, how well does the 1" to 1.5" butterfly valve work for taking a sample?