FERMENTER MODIFICATIONS

[karl oemcke]

Hi there,

I am pretty new to the all grain brewing but after a few brews with my conical SS brewing technologies fermenter i discovered the pitfalls with the design which makes it hard to make sure that all of the trub and dry hop material does not go into the fermenter so I am trying out an idea I had which many of you will probably have a better idea whether it will fix my issue.

I am going to cut a slice off the bottom of the fermenter to end up with a 50mm hole in the bottom then weld on a 2" weld ferrule then tri clamp this onto a 2" sanitary sight glass such as this :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111345526240?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649...

then triclamp a 2" sanitary ball valve on the bottom of this.

During fermentation any of the trub and dry hop sludge will collect in this sight glass then 1 day before the cold crash has finished up the valve slightly and dump out the sludge. Then after another day before I keg drain any excess sludge that might have settled over the course of the day and hopefully end up with a fairly clean brew that goes into my keg.

I have had a few issues with the keg downpipe clogging due to left over sludge in the bottom of the keg which is the primary reason for doing this as well I thought it would be good to eliminate wastage...

I have read that minimising the trub area in contact with the brew is a good idea to eliminate off flavours so that may be helped too...And also I dont want to use a hop bag/strainer if possible..

The only thing (I could think of) that may be a downside is that the dry hops might fall into this cavity therefore minimising the surface area in contact with the brew. I guess i could install a second valve immediately at the bottom of the fermenter then only 1 day before kegging open this up?

I am guessing a bit here as my knowledge of brewing is very limited but is there anybody else out there that sees any thing wrong with what I am trying to do?

[Smiffy]

See picture. This is my set-up. With 1" tube and ball valve it sometimes needs a bit of pressure to get the solids moving. To avoid "splash-back" I put a plastic bag over the end and hold it around the outlet with one hand, keeping the other hand on the valve handle in order to shut it off quickly. Smiffy

[Nathan]

I just pass my wort over a fine sieve I bought from brewtopia it does a good enough job in conjunction with a decent whirlpool and rest plus it also does a fantastic job off oxygenating it before yeast....

[Jonathan Ritchie]

I have a similar setup to that which you suggest doing. I whirlpool in my kettle, leave it to settle for 45 minutes then pump the reasonably clear wort through a plate chiller into the conical oxygenating it on the way. The cold break fills up the sight glass (see attached photo) and I normally run off a litre or so till clear (the photo is the last of the cold break) I then add my yeast. When I reach FG I cold crash then harvest the yeast after 24hrs which I think is mainly yeast and not much traub. I dry hop in the keg usually for 5 days or so then transfer to a new keg purged with CO2 etc. My conical is pressurised and that definitely helps with forcing the yeast out the ball valve though it does have 40litres sitting above it which must apply a bit of pressure. I'm about to experiment with filtering the beer as it transfers to the keg.