Conical Fermentor- When to Dump Trub?

[micraftbeer]

I've started experimenting with a conical fermentor that has a true 60-degree cone that is steep enough to truly collect gunk and slide it down to the bottom. And it has a dump valve.

I don't harvest yeast, so I would only be using this dump valve to remove trub/yeast/hops precipitate. Not having the ability to do this before, it's opened up some questions in my mind and I was interested in other's experience and research:

1. How long can I sit with this "gunk" at the bottom of the beer before I should pull it off? Maybe this is a cool tool that isn't really needed.

2. Assuming I do want to dump trub, when would it be done? It seems like there are competing/conflicting times here: a) Do it later because you won't have precipitate until later in fermentation, b) Do it while the yeast is still active because the volume of stuff coming out of the bottom of the fermentor will be replaced by a volume of air in the headspace at top of fermentor.

 

[odie]

if your drain valve for the beer is above the trub level there is no reason to dump the trub.

I wouldn't bother unless you need to get the trub below the port that you will use to rack the beer or if you desire to harvest the yeast.

 

[micraftbeer]

if your drain valve for the beer is above the trub level there is no reason to dump the trub.

Good thought. Maybe this would require some experimentation to figure out what beers/yeast create how much volume of trub. If I were fermenting in something clear like a FermZilla conical, I could better see this. But in a stainless conical, since the pickup tube is in the cone, it seems like I would be getting some yeast/beer slurry on initial drawdown.

 

[eric19312]

Sometimes I dump a couple hours after transfering to the fermenter. Especially if I need to use fermenter to get the beer to pitching temperature I will dump before pitching.
Then I may I dump a bit on day 2 or 3.
I dump a bit more when fermentation is done to get rid of the dead and poorly attenuating yeast (the ones that crashed early)
Then I dump to harvest the good yeast.
And then dump again a few hours later to try to get as much yeast out as I can without sacrificing too much beer. I don't like a lot of yeast in the fermentor during dry hop
Then I dry hop.
Then dump the dry hops. Then cold crash and do one more small dump before kegging.

 

[micraftbeer]

@eric19312 , that's a lot! Out of curiosity, what volume do you have going in fermentor, and how much do you have for kegging after?

 

[pvpeacock]

I dump after week 1 and again a day before I rack the beer to a keg. Depending on the yeast, the trub/yeast can be pretty thick after 1 week, but this seems to be the right schedule for my 7 gallon SS Brewtech conicals.

 

[eric19312]

@eric19312 , that's a lot! Out of curiosity, what volume do you have going in fermentor, and how much do you have for kegging after?

17.5-18 gallons into fermentor, 15 gallons to the kegs

 

[odie]

@eric19312 , that's a lot! Out of curiosity, what volume do you have going in fermentor, and how much do you have for kegging after?

that's not really a lot...not really anything when you consider that trub or yeast is not beer. You ain't drinking it. It's just solids. You're not kegging the trub or yeast. Remember that the total volume in the fermenter is more than 5 gal since some of that volume is non-beer that will be left behind.

 

[jerrylotto]

Trub and spent yeast compact over time. The longer you wait, the less space it takes up. It is also pretty variable depending on what you are brewing, how clear your starting wort was, yeast type and pitch rate, fermentation temperature, and what you added (dry hopping). I do use a FermZilla and the collection ball is 700 ml. For a 5 gallon batch, that ball is usually about 3/4 full but I've brewed some recipes where I had to dump twice.

 

[eric19312]

Trub and spent yeast compact over time. The longer you wait, the less space it takes up. It is also pretty variable depending on what you are brewing, how clear your starting wort was, yeast type and pitch rate, fermentation temperature, and what you added (dry hopping). I do use a FermZilla and the collection ball is 700 ml. For a 5 gallon batch, that ball is usually about 3/4 full but I've brewed some recipes where I had to dump twice.

Agreed with this...time helps a lot with trub dumping and reducing beer losses. When I am trying to hurry a batch along my dumps can contain a lot of beer. Sometimes will dump into a growler and let it settle...come back next day and see 75% of what I dumped was beer. When I dump yeast I use a half gallon mason jar and it will be half beer a week later.