I just read through this entire thread. A lot of great info from all. I finally bought a CF 15 and had a few questions on best practices and procedures. I'm not trying to invent the wheel here, just would like some feedback:
I have had my cf5 for about 5 months and about to finish fermenting my 6th batch with it. I stopped using the elbow after the 2nd batch. I don’t think an elbow is needed on the homebrew scale because 2-3 feet of 1/2 inch tubing functions as well for me. I use the sight glass differently depending on if I plan on dry hopping. After seeing all my dry hops stuck in the sight glass with little contact with the beer, I stopped using the sight glass for dry hopped beers. This is where I am at currently but still a newbie with this.
For dry hopped beers:
Fermenter>valve>sight>TC barb & tubing
I transfer wort from kettle through the bottom and leave connected with valve open and wait for trub to settle. Then I close valve trapping trub in sight glass and remove sight glass for good. Pitch yeast and let fermentation finish. Swap blow off for gas manifold and purge with co2 a couple times to 10psi. Drop temp to ~50 degrees for 24 hours while under pressure then slowly dump yeast/trub under pressure using TC barb & tubing. Then add dry hops and let free rise to ~60 and maintain for 3-5 days. Dump hops slowly until consistency changes. Wait 12-24 hours and repeat. Then rotate racking arm up and rack to keg under pressure.
For non-dry hopped beers:
Fermenter>sight>valve>TC barb & tubing
I transfer wort from kettle through the bottom and close valve. Then wait for trub to settle. Open valve below sight then close once sight is clear. Pitch yeast. Let fermentation finish and cold crash. If I can’t see beer in top of sight I dump yeast until beer is visible. Leave racking arm down and transfer to keg under pressure.
1. As JRG laid out above for dry hopped beers, I have been wondering about attaching the 2" butterfly valve directly to the cone to avoid pellets sinking in the plumbing. I saw where
@eric19312 has been blowing CO2 through the bottom port to rouse the hops which is a great idea as well but I worry about not being able to fully mix? But I'm thinking cone>valve>sightglass>elbow>valve. Where you empty the trub and yeast and then once dry hopped close the valve attached to the cone? Which would theoretically keep the pellets in more contact with the beer. Then if you want to rouse, simply hook up one of
these to the valve. Has anyone else done this or does this? Or does this not follow best practices? I don't want to overthink dry hopped beers.
2. Similar to 1 above, there seems to be some debate when using the sight glass on the cone as to how to place the valve. If using the 2" sightglass do people find it best to have the butterfly valve after the elbow? As in cone>sight glass>elbow>valve? Or even minus the elbow if you have leg extensions (which I will probably be getting the shorty extensions with extended bracing shelf). I would be harvesting yeast and dumping trub along the way, cold crashing, etc to get the clearest [carbonated] beer out of the conical.
3. How are people liking having the carb stone attached to where the sample valve would be (during the whole process) and putting the sample valve on the racking port? I saw
@Blazinlow86 keeps his on the sample valve port. I figured that would be the easiest for mitigating clogs on the sample port (will have racking arm on the packing port) and not allowing any O2 when attaching the stone. Only issue would be potential clogging of the stone?
I'll be buying some accessories and I don't want to over-buy/under-buy. Not sure if Spike ever runs sales on their accessories either (considering waiting for black friday/holiday times to buy - google search has not shown past sales but third party retailers possible?). But as for 1-2 above, I'll be getting the leg extensions with extended bracing shelf, TC sight glass, and racking arm as a minimum (already have Temp control, carb stone, and pressure manifold). Just not sure on the need for two 2-in butterfly valves.
Thanks in advance and to all those who have contributed their knowledge so far.