Conical fermentor yeast dump help

[Steve b]

Hi all I have brewed a nice red ale and used my conical for the first time , its been fermenting now for a few weeks my question is once primary fermentation has finished do you remove the trib and yeast cake from the bottom valve or just leave it there until you transfer to kegs. Any help here please

[Smiffy]

If your aim is simply to get clear ale out of the side port, if all that is in there is a little trub and a normal amount of yeast, you shouldn't need to drain anything from the bottom.

However, if you want to save the yeast for re-use, you've left it too late to do it properly.

[Steve b]

Wjen you say left it too late .why? Whens the best time to harvest this?

[Grant R Baker]

As Smiffy said.. it may be too late but you still might get some live yeast from the cake..

 

Keg your beer then wash the yeast from the bottom of the conical (or dump the yeast from the conical, it might be stuck after a few weeks)... either way give it a few good washes to separate out the dead yest from the live.

Ideally you should use the dump port to extract live yeast about 3 to 5 days after fermentation starts. Hopgoblin site has this guide to using a conical Link