Equal gravities in two fermentors (10 gallon batch)

I did a search, but couldn't find an answer.

When draining my 10 gal keggle into (2) seperate 6 gal fermentors, what do I do to make sure that I get equal gravities in each bucket? If I am whirlpooling, will that solve it? how fast will stratification re-occur (i.e. how often do I need to stir up again?

My only thought is to fill half of one bucket first, then fill half the second, then go back to the first and fill it up, etc.

thanks

Why would your gravities be skewed between the two fermenters after the boil? It would be skewed if you put your first runnings in one and then the sparge in the other but I can't see why it would be skewed after the boil.

You're probably getting different amounts of trub in each one, but the gravities should still be the same.

Have you taken seperate OG readings and are in fact getting different readings? If you are filling post boil, I suspect you are not.

MNBugeater said:

Have you taken seperate OG readings and are in fact getting different readings? If you are filling post boil, I suspect you are not.

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No. I have done this once and did get a lopsided amount of hops in one verse the other. But, I was relieved to find the gravities were equal. I thought I had just gotten lucky and that by trying (unsuccessfully) to whirlpool I had kept the wort properly mixed.

So, when is stratification a concern? Only pre-boil?

thanks for the quick replies.

stratification is only going to happen when you add top off water, like if you do a partial boil or if you boil off was so much that you came out with too high a OG and had to dilute. There is no reason for stratification to happen after the boil otherwise.

Johnny9 said:

No. I have done this once and did get a lopsided amount of hops in one verse the other. But, I was relieved to find the gravities were equal. I thought I had just gotten lucky and that by trying (unsuccessfully) to whirlpool I had kept the wort properly mixed.

So, when is stratification a concern? Only pre-boil?

thanks for the quick replies.

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Post boil? How did you get a lopsided amount of hops in 2 different fermentors? Unless you are talking about dry hopping and you measured wrong? Some clarification, please.

MNBugeater said:

Post boil? How did you get a lopsided amount of hops in 2 different fermentors? Unless you are talking about dry hopping and you measured wrong? Some clarification, please.

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What I meant was that I got alot of trub (from the hop pellets) in one fermentor and very little in the other.

If you're that worried, put a wye on the outlet of your kettle and drain to 2 carboys simultainiously. Make sure you put a clamp (5330K23) on the hoses so you can regulate (match) the flow if using a pump.

I've tried using a T on the outlet before, and it didn't work so well. One filled much faster than the other.

I did too, so the tee was switched for a wye and a clamp was put on both hoses to throttle one or the other if needed. I'm also using a pump so I don't know if this would work well with only gravity.

Johnny9 said:

What I meant was that I got alot of trub (from the hop pellets) in one fermentor and very little in the other.

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Ah..trub. Ok. Well that is a combination of cold break material and hop residue. It really doesnt matter if there is a disparate amount of trub between your two fermentors. The hop utilization is done at this point. If you had used whole leaf hops there wouldnt be any (or very little) hop residue to worry about. Not saying that one is better than the other, just pointing out that if you had used whole leaf, you wouldn't be worrying about this issue. Also, some people run their wort through a filter (course) before it goes into the fermentor to cut down on the trub entirely. So no worries if they aren't equal.