Question Of Collecting Yeast From SS Brewtech Chronical

[ZeMadMonkey]

I have an SS Brewtech 7 gallon Chronical. I have only brewed and fermented with it once so far.

When I used the dump valve, the 3/4" ball valve, attached to a 90 degree elbow, after day two of fermentation I got about 30-40% trub and 60-70% beer. I always do a whirlpool and let it settle for 15-20 mins before draining it into my carboy, now Chronical. I think I have prevented a majority of the trub from making it into my fermentation vessel.

I attempted to collect the yeast after a week of fermentation, right before dry hopping. I got mostly liquid and it was hard to tell what was yeast and what was beer. I closed it off not wanting to lose too much beer. After 5 days of dry hopping I drained the beer into the keg. After which, I checked out what was inside the Chronical and saw a large peanut butter/dough ball of yeast in the Chronical.

Does anyone have any experience or best practices from dropping the yeast in a conical? FYI I was using WLP002 which is HIGH flocculation. The beer I made from my first conical fermentation was awesome! I am just looking at better ways to harvest the yeast using the conical.

 

[day_trippr]

I don't have any advise, but 002 is the cottage cheese of yeast and it doesn't surprise me that its chunky goodness didn't go with the flow...

Cheers!

 

[brewfarmDan]

I connect about 6" of clear tube to the 1.5" dump with hose barb. I always install the ball valve handle up so it opens bottom first on the tank side. The morning after pitching I dump trub and sanitize. When fermentation stops or gets real slow (say 7 days) I drain slowly into a tub until I see clean yeast in the hose then start running into a large steril jar until I see beer.

 

[sudsybrewer]

Do you know how long you were at terminal gravity before you tried collecting yeast? Even though WLP002 is highly flocculent it might need a bit more of a push before falling out. You might try waiting at terminal gravity a bit longer, or chill it a few degrees if possible to try and get it to drop out. Both would probably be best actually. I've got a half barrel chronical and I love it so far! I'm skeptical of the threaded dump valve though, and I don't currently have any 3/4" fittings that I could use for the transfer.

Another note, with that large of a ball valve on the bottom, it's quite possible that you're punching a hole right through the yeast cone and leaving most of it behind. You might try and put a reducing fitting like a small diameter hose barb and only open the valve a little bit. You want to transfer the yeast out very slowly.

Cheers!

 

[sudsybrewer]

Do you know how long you were at terminal gravity before you tried collecting yeast? Even though WLP002 is highly flocculent it might need a bit more of a push before falling out. You might try waiting at terminal gravity a bit longer, or chill it a few degrees if possible to try and get it to drop out. Both would probably be best actually. I've got a half barrel chronical and I love it so far! I'm skeptical of the threaded dump valve though, and I don't currently have any 3/4" fittings that I could use for the transfer.

Another possibility, with that large of a ball valve on the bottom, it's quite possible that you're punching a hole right through the yeast cone and leaving most of it behind. You might try and put a reducing fitting like a small diameter hose barb and only open the valve a little bit. You want to transfer the yeast out very slowly.

Cheers!


hmmmm now how do I delete a duplicate post???

 

[ZeMadMonkey]

I connect about 6" of clear tube to the 1.5" dump with hose barb. I always install the ball valve handle up so it opens bottom first on the tank side. The morning after pitching I dump trub and sanitize. When fermentation stops or gets real slow (say 7 days) I drain slowly into a tub until I see clean yeast in the hose then start running into a large steril jar until I see beer.

Thank you for the reply and advice brewfarmDan - I like the idea of orienting the ball valve like that. I will have to try that.

 

[ZeMadMonkey]

Do you know how long you were at terminal gravity before you tried collecting yeast? Even though WLP002 is highly flocculent it might need a bit more of a push before falling out. You might try waiting at terminal gravity a bit longer, or chill it a few degrees if possible to try and get it to drop out. Both would probably be best actually. I've got a half barrel chronical and I love it so far! I'm skeptical of the threaded dump valve though, and I don't currently have any 3/4" fittings that I could use for the transfer.

Another note, with that large of a ball valve on the bottom, it's quite possible that you're punching a hole right through the yeast cone and leaving most of it behind. You might try and put a reducing fitting like a small diameter hose barb and only open the valve a little bit. You want to transfer the yeast out very slowly.

Cheers!

sudsybrewer - I think that is exactly what I am doing, punching a hole right through the yeast cone. A reduced fitting is a good idea. I had opened my ballvalve only partially but nothing came out so I opened it full on and the tube of yeast slowly came out then a rush of liquid. I should try opening my ballvalve partially again and probably looking at reduced fittings and let it slowly drop. Thanks for the reply and advice. Cheers!

 

[ZeMadMonkey]

I don't have any advise, but 002 is the cottage cheese of yeast and it doesn't surprise me that its chunky goodness didn't go with the flow...

Cheers!

Haha very true, I am doing a Saison this coming week. We will see how a less flocculant yeast does for collection.

I usually use WLP007 for all my IPAs, so I an kinda worried on that front as it drops like a brick too.

 

[Dcpcooks]

I just got a conical and I have a quick question? Why are you collecting the yeast so soon? It seems that you might be better off dumping trub letting all the yeast settle, rack your beer and then collect the yeast. If you dump yeast early aren't you just going to leave beer in the cone?

 

[sudsybrewer]

You do end up having some cone loss, though the racking arm helps to minimize that. You dump the yeast after primary so that a) you get the beer off of the early floculant yeast/trub/cold break goo for secondary fermentation and prevent off flavors from that, b) you're left with mostly good yeast when you cold crash after you're done fermenting, c) you can re-use the yeast sooner if you want to, and d) the longer you leave the yeast in the cone, the lower the viability, so you want to get it into the fridge sooner than later.

You should end up with little trub in the conical if you're whirlpooling and transferring the wort carefully. Depending on how you're chilling, you could (or not) end up with cold break in the fermenter that you'd have to dump before getting to the good stuff (yeast), but the controversy over cold break is a wholly different beast to discuss.

Cheers!