SS Brewtech Brew Bucket Racking Arm Modification

When pulling a sample of a saison that is near the end of fermentation, the racking arm was positioned within the level of the trub/yeast that has flocculated at this point. When opening the valve, there was a slight hesitation before some yeast came out.

It made me wonder if anyone has used a modified racking arm that could reach a bit further possibly to the bottom cone of the fermenter? At which point you could potentially dump trub and some yeast before cold crashing. After cold crashing twice in this thing it looks like the racking arm would be too small as the yeast and trub compact pretty tightly in these things to possibly dump after a crash.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

Right, that arm's opening is too small to allow a thick yeast cake to flow thru it. I think Ss has said there is no real good way to deal with this issue in their brew bucket. To put a modified arm that went to the bottom of the cone would result in a an even bigger problem with no flow. If you could put some pressure on the tank, the pressure would help push, but these tanks wont stand more than a pound or two. Conicals with a 1.5" dump valve are designed for this exact purpose.

I always leave my racking arm's opening oriented to either 3 or 9 o'clock during fermentation. If you note the yeast cake rises above the arm's opening at 6 or 9, you may want the arm a bit more toward 12. But the higher you go, the more yeast will fill the arms' opening. Then I turn it up to 12 o'clock to begin transfer. You'll get a real small yeast plug come thru, then clear beer follows. As the level drops, I turn the arm down toward 6 o'clock until it picks up trub, then I'm done.