Idea For Better In-Kettle Fermentation?

[joshwoodward]

I posted a few months back about an idea I had for filtering and aerating wort post-boil using a pump and strainer. I've made a few batches this way and they've come out great. I had another idea that I wanted to float out there.

Flame out. I fire up the pump and the chiller. When it gets below 120 or so, I start running the pump output through a strainer and splashing it a lot, stirring periodically with the chiller to agitate the trub. I end up with wort ready for pitching and fairly well filtered out. At this point, I've been transferring it into a sanitized pail to ferment. But wait - it's already in a giant sanitized vessel. Why not just ferment in the kettle?

There seems to be a ferment-in-kettle subculture that doesn't chill, then pitch yeast the next day, on top of trub and all, but I can see where that'd be a bad idea. This approach seems like it would address all of the shortcomings.

One concern I have is the output side of the closed BK valve. I'd need to find a way to sanitize it before transferring it to the keg (or just clean it as best I can and use a racking cane instead).

My goal is to not make any serious compromises on the quality of the beer, but making it in as little of my not-so-abundant free time as possible.

Is this sane? Am I missing anything important?

 

[billl]

Well, the obvious thing would be that your kettle is tied up.

You also won't be able to use the port to transfer once the yeast settles down to the bottom, so you would still need to rack.

You'd also need to worry about the lid and potential headspace issues and have no airlock/blowoff.

I'm sure you could make it work, but I'm not sure what the benefit is. It takes 2 minutes to drain a kettle into a fermenter and you can clean up while its going.

 

[joshwoodward]

Well, the obvious thing would be that your kettle is tied up.

You also won't be able to use the port to transfer once the yeast settles down to the bottom, so you would still need to rack.

You'd also need to worry about the lid and potential headspace issues and have no airlock/blowoff.

I'm sure you could make it work, but I'm not sure what the benefit is. It takes 2 minutes to drain a kettle into a fermenter and you can clean up while its going.

Yeah, I only brew once a month max, so tying up the BK isn't a big deal for me. And I do 5-gallon BIAB brews with a 15 gallon BK, so definitely no headspace issues. Going back to racking is a minor drag, but I can just stick that in the keg while that's sanitizing, I suppose.

The advantage is that it saves sanitizing a pail pre-brew, and cleaning the brew kettle post-brew, plus eliminates the need for an entire vessel. I enjoy brewing and all, but if I can eliminate a few minutes of drudge work that doesn't actually benefit the beer, all the better. I'm guessing it might also be more sanitary, since there wouldn't be any little plastic scratches to harbor bacteria.

Does the regular pot lid (maybe weighed down for a better seal) provide enough protection against the air and gross stuff during a week or two of fermentation?