Dumping yeast from conicals?

[japhroaig]

How often should I do it? I have two inductor conicals that work like a champ, but how often should I dump the yeast and trub? Once a week? A little bit every few days? Right before I keg? Any advice based on experience would be great.

Brew house

Close up of the fermenter, with obvious trub/yeast

 

[RiverCityBrewer]

I guess I don't understand your question... are you looking to harvest?

 

[japhroaig]

Let me rephrase--are there any milestones during the fermentation and aging process that benefit from dumping sediment than other milestones. A milestone could be hitting your target FG, a date, kegging day, etc.

 

[RiverCityBrewer]

I usually let my conical sit for about a day after brew day then dump the trub just once. After that if I am looking to harvest I pull a plug or two when I am between 80 and 90% attenuated. BTW those are nice looking cakes in the bottom of those conicals.

 

[japhroaig]

Precisely the sorta answer I was hoping for. So get rid of hotbreak/coldbreak/detritus after a few days, then harvest yeast?

 

[RiverCityBrewer]

You got it, just make sure that if you are looking to harvest to wait until you are at least 2/3 of the way through fermentation so you have nice healthy yeast waiting at the bottom. This is my process for ales BTW, for lagers I wait until I am ready to keg then harvest the yeast I want.

 

[japhroaig]

Ah, nice advice on the lagers. I will likely try my hand at a lager this year since I came into a nice freezer + Johnson Controller. Never actually cared for lagers until I went to Prague and Brno in the Czech republic--that really opened my eyes for what an excellent lager can be.

Budvar was a little disappointing, but Urquell from the tap was a transcendental experience. The stuff from the tap vs. the stuff from the bottle are like two completely different beers--and I had them both side by side, so I'm not making this up

 

[thisjrp4]

I have a V-Vessell and I don't dump anything until I'm ready to keg. Mine does have a collection vessell on the bottom though so most of the sediment is contained. I keep my beer in the fermenter for one to two weeks and never had any problems.

Yeast harvesting is great from conicals BTW.

 

[japhroaig]

The only prob I've had so far really is I placed the racking valve too high on one, and too low on another. Live and learn I guess.

 

[RiverCityBrewer]

Just use the one that is too high with very flocculant yeast and it should be perfect then for side racking.

 

[kryolla]

I usually wait a couple of hours to let everything settle then dump the trub and pitch the yeast. After ferm and d-rest is complete I dump the yeast, wash it to seperate it from trub then acid wash it to kill the bugs then make a starter.