Conical Ferm Yeast Harvest / Oxidation

[laughingboysbrew]

I have a 2" x 12" yeast harvester at the bottom of my concl fermenter. Every time I dump trube or pull off yeast and reattach the harvester...there is air that bubbles up through the fermenting beer to the top and out my blow off. After a few seconds, CO2 bubbling in my blow off resumes. Is that amount of brief O2 exposure a serious risk to my finishing beer? Obviously, I would want to minimize it, but can I safely do it 4-5 times during fermentation with little risk to the beer?

thanks

 

[cfrazier77]

I have a similar set up with my conical. I have a valve at the bottom and dump a quart at a time. I don't take it off anymore.

However, when I used to do it the way that you described I did not have oxidation problems.

 

[laughingboysbrew]

I like the idea of putting a valve on the bottom - would be a lot easier to see when most trub has cleared. But I think my concern would still exist. When you close off the bottom valve, it traps the harvester's volume worth of air inside. When you open the main valve, that air rises into the beer as the beer replaces it in the harvester. Whether you take it on or off...that would occur, right? I thought about blasting some CO2 inside before attaching....but thinking I might be over thinking this. Oxygen during the fermentation is actually good, right? it's only bad once fermentation completes. fair enough?

 

[cfrazier77]

I like the idea of putting a valve on the bottom - would be a lot easier to see when most trub has cleared. But I think my concern would still exist. When you close off the bottom valve, it traps the harvester's volume worth of air inside. When you open the main valve, that air rises into the beer as the beer replaces it in the harvester. Whether you take it on or off...that would occur, right? I thought about blasting some CO2 inside before attaching....but thinking I might be over thinking this. Oxygen during the fermentation is actually good, right? it's only bad once fermentation completes. fair enough?

I just use the valve at the bottom. When the sight glass is full I slowly open the bottom valve and the top valve always stays open. The tube never fills with air.