When to harvest ale yeast from conical fermenter?

[Smiffy]

Now that I have a conical fermenter and will be able to drain yeast at any time, the question is which yeast to save?

My thinking is that the yeast which settles to the bottom early on is not the yeast which is working well, and that the yeast which is working well (top fermenting ale yeast) won't settle until the fermentation is coming to an end.

So, can anyone tell me which day's yeast is the best stuff to save for the next brew?

[Chris Banks]

Whats the od of the section? A 1'' ferrule would be 22ish id (approx) and give plenty of downstream options.

[Liam Callaghan]

The body is about 6mm thick so would be around 31-32mm od of the pipe so if I went with a 38mm or 50mm flange that would need a 1 1/2" or 2" ferrule and appropriate clamp...

[Smiffy]

To make a sight glass with plastic tubing, I would need
2 off 1/1.5" Tri Clover to 1" Hose Barb
1 off 1/1.5" tri-clover clamp

From brewers hardware, that would cost 16 + 16 + 3.75 + 14.95 shipping, US$ 50.70 or about NZ$ 61

With the tapered edge, and the groove around the gasket surface, and barbs on the hose connection, surely making them from scratch would be much more than $60 worth of work?

[Chris Banks]

Not nessecarily - sent you a message.

[studio1]

Chris - could you retrofit a tri-clamp dump valve (and yeast harvester) to my blichmann conical with threads?

[Chris Banks]

Yes.

[studio1]

sweet - I'll email you

[JackoNZ]

Hey Studio, does this mean you've found the fittings that come with the unit too small? I recently purchased a blichmann too, yet to use it but heard a few stories that the dump valve at the bottom can get a bit tight. I thought if you dumped the trub at regular intervals rather than leaving it for a week then it should come out no problem. How have you found them?

[Smiffy]

What I have at present: the (25 l) fermenter has a collection area about 30 mm diameter and 60 mm tall, with a 30 mm outlet. Clamped to that is the 1/2" ball valve that came with it. Clamped to that is a hose-barb fitting and 150 mm of 12 mm clear tubing, with a small (5 mm) plastic tap on the bottom of that.

It has been left with the ball valve open so that the sediment is settling into the clear tube as well as the collection area in the fermenter.

After three days, I could see clean, dense looking yeast in the tube. I have drained off more than 1/2 pint, but it comes out slowly, like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube. (I filtered out the hop residue before it went into the fermenter this time, see above.)

It seems silly to have the wide opening then the small valve (then in my case the tiny valve) hence wanting to make a sight glass of similar size to the outlet. Once I have that set up I will see if the 1/2" ball valve is adequate and decide whether it "needs" a 1" valve (which would obviously be more appropriate).

[Liam Callaghan]

Looks like a flanged fitting is a really good option, going in to see the stainless guys tomorrow to discuss it and take a few fittings back to the plastics place, hopefully done and dusted this weej and moulding starts on Monday :)  Thanks for this option guys, really nice finish with this clamp.

 

That unit you make there Chris is that polycarbonate or glass?

Looks like there might be some need for more of them if these plastic conicals take flight :)

[Chris Banks]

Ive only made one before - Not actually my photo I got the photo from brewers hardware in the us just to show what I meant.

http://www.brewershardware.com/TC10SG.html

Easy enough to make - those ones are borosilicate glass I think - the one I did previously was polycarbonate.

[Hillman]

I've been reading through Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff's Yeast, and apparently the best time for bottom-cropping is 8-12 hours after fermentation is complete.