Nebraskan
Assoc. Winemaker
Fermentation has come to an end according to the fermentation lock activity on my 6.5 gallon MiniBrew Conical Fermentor and yesterday I used a long handle SS spoon to give it a good stir to get everything moving around and let that which is heavy to settle in the cone bottom. This conical has a 3/4" valve bottom so a lot of room to allow trub to dump.
Jan 1, 2018, I placed a small container, an empty Great Value (Walmart) 32 oz yogurt container underneath the valve and dumped about 2 cups of gray material into it. No issues with coming out sludgy, or thick, just came out very nice. HOWEVER, I also used this conical to settle the wort from the lautering and dump the gray residue from the mashing ins similar fashion before boiling, and then after boiling, cooling, and measuring S.G. I put it in the MiniBrew 6.5 Gal. Fermentor ( ref: https://www.minibrew.com/products/6-5x-gallon-conical-fermenter?variant=25674595014 ) and then allowed about 45 minutes for any remaining residue to settle in the bottom of the cone, which I dumped, before I added very active yeast starter. This was done late Thursday (12-28-17) night. So there were 2 times the fermentor was used to dump out lees before the fermentation began.
After the initial dump on Jan1, you can see the settling (trub you call, lees I call - from winemaking) below the side valve (1/2" ) up from the bottom of the cone. So I took the same long handled spoon, sprayed Star-San on the spoon and allowed a couple of minutes to work and used the "handle" end of the spoon to gently stir the beer and yeast sediment at the bottom of the fermentor, after removing that 6" lid. I will dump out more yeast/sediment later in the day after it settles a bit.
NOW, since I had removed the lid and stirred up the beer (slightly) I also stirred up the protective layer of CO2 that was in the Fermentor. I sensed a "disturbance in the force.... er beer" and will show you what I had come up with to re-gas my fermentors and other stuff.
I use 20 & 24 oz paint ball tanks for our Soda Stream carbonator. I bought an adapter for the tanks that goes from paint ball to Soda Stream and after I fill my tanks at home from my 20# dip tube CO2 tank to the appropriate ounces then all I have to do is attach the Soda Stream adapter to it and screw it on to the Soda Stream and we are good to go.. THERE IS ALSO a paint ball to CO2 CGA thread adapter I also recently bought on Amazon that lets me use the paint ball tanks with my CO2 regulator and gauges to carbonate my 3 gallon Ball Lock kegs and found a piece at Menard's that lets the tank sit in it an keeps from tipping over (found in the plumbing area)
NOW, I also bought an adapter that goes from pop bottles 20 oz, 2 liter style, to a connector on the GAS IN side of the CO2 regulator line. This soda pop adapter has a SS barb nipple in the center and I used a piece of plastic straw that we saved from McDonalds soft drinks. Fits right over the barb fairly snug, and won't fall off. THIS fits right down easily inside the tapered rubber stopper that is used with so many airlocks for home fermentors. All I had to do now was loosen the top 6" lid a bit, put the drilled plug in the hole on top of the fermentor, and after I connected the adapter to my GAS LINE IN side of my regulator, merely open the valve up and add gas for several seconds and I have re-gassed the headspace of the MiniBrew Conical Fermentor.
This same set up, set to trickle CO2 gas can also be used when you draw off the finished beer when kegging from the MiniBrew Conical Fermentor, just put in the drilled rubber bung, and set up the CO2 gas to just trickle in. Doesn't matter if you put in too much as excess is coming out the loose lid anyway. OR you and put a 3/8" barb to barb fitting in the drilled rubber bung, attach a small piece of tubing to the bar on the bung and use a small hose clamp to attach the tubing to the barb on the pop bottle adapter and just give it some pounds to move the beer out of the side valve, and into another vessel. Talked with John Thomas of MiniBrew and this tank can handle 25 PSI as he's done it. Most SS can't handle very much. It's HDPE so you can see your beer line, especially dark beer, and your trub level, but it is imprevious to air and most important, UV light. Comes out of the stand by just lifting up. Light weight and can hold easily in one hand. Put in bathtub when I'm done and use a dish rag and soapy water to clean the fermentation ring and other parts of the internal easily. Rinse with hot water and let dry. Star San to sanitize.
Pictures:
Jan 1, 2018, I placed a small container, an empty Great Value (Walmart) 32 oz yogurt container underneath the valve and dumped about 2 cups of gray material into it. No issues with coming out sludgy, or thick, just came out very nice. HOWEVER, I also used this conical to settle the wort from the lautering and dump the gray residue from the mashing ins similar fashion before boiling, and then after boiling, cooling, and measuring S.G. I put it in the MiniBrew 6.5 Gal. Fermentor ( ref: https://www.minibrew.com/products/6-5x-gallon-conical-fermenter?variant=25674595014 ) and then allowed about 45 minutes for any remaining residue to settle in the bottom of the cone, which I dumped, before I added very active yeast starter. This was done late Thursday (12-28-17) night. So there were 2 times the fermentor was used to dump out lees before the fermentation began.
After the initial dump on Jan1, you can see the settling (trub you call, lees I call - from winemaking) below the side valve (1/2" ) up from the bottom of the cone. So I took the same long handled spoon, sprayed Star-San on the spoon and allowed a couple of minutes to work and used the "handle" end of the spoon to gently stir the beer and yeast sediment at the bottom of the fermentor, after removing that 6" lid. I will dump out more yeast/sediment later in the day after it settles a bit.
NOW, since I had removed the lid and stirred up the beer (slightly) I also stirred up the protective layer of CO2 that was in the Fermentor. I sensed a "disturbance in the force.... er beer" and will show you what I had come up with to re-gas my fermentors and other stuff.
I use 20 & 24 oz paint ball tanks for our Soda Stream carbonator. I bought an adapter for the tanks that goes from paint ball to Soda Stream and after I fill my tanks at home from my 20# dip tube CO2 tank to the appropriate ounces then all I have to do is attach the Soda Stream adapter to it and screw it on to the Soda Stream and we are good to go.. THERE IS ALSO a paint ball to CO2 CGA thread adapter I also recently bought on Amazon that lets me use the paint ball tanks with my CO2 regulator and gauges to carbonate my 3 gallon Ball Lock kegs and found a piece at Menard's that lets the tank sit in it an keeps from tipping over (found in the plumbing area)
NOW, I also bought an adapter that goes from pop bottles 20 oz, 2 liter style, to a connector on the GAS IN side of the CO2 regulator line. This soda pop adapter has a SS barb nipple in the center and I used a piece of plastic straw that we saved from McDonalds soft drinks. Fits right over the barb fairly snug, and won't fall off. THIS fits right down easily inside the tapered rubber stopper that is used with so many airlocks for home fermentors. All I had to do now was loosen the top 6" lid a bit, put the drilled plug in the hole on top of the fermentor, and after I connected the adapter to my GAS LINE IN side of my regulator, merely open the valve up and add gas for several seconds and I have re-gassed the headspace of the MiniBrew Conical Fermentor.
This same set up, set to trickle CO2 gas can also be used when you draw off the finished beer when kegging from the MiniBrew Conical Fermentor, just put in the drilled rubber bung, and set up the CO2 gas to just trickle in. Doesn't matter if you put in too much as excess is coming out the loose lid anyway. OR you and put a 3/8" barb to barb fitting in the drilled rubber bung, attach a small piece of tubing to the bar on the bung and use a small hose clamp to attach the tubing to the barb on the pop bottle adapter and just give it some pounds to move the beer out of the side valve, and into another vessel. Talked with John Thomas of MiniBrew and this tank can handle 25 PSI as he's done it. Most SS can't handle very much. It's HDPE so you can see your beer line, especially dark beer, and your trub level, but it is imprevious to air and most important, UV light. Comes out of the stand by just lifting up. Light weight and can hold easily in one hand. Put in bathtub when I'm done and use a dish rag and soapy water to clean the fermentation ring and other parts of the internal easily. Rinse with hot water and let dry. Star San to sanitize.
Pictures:
