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Dale Kirkwood

Dale Kirkwood

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Do you struggle clearing the trub from your conical? We open the bottom valve but because it's so compacted it doesn't flow out. Wasn't sure if we could poke it with a sterilised pole or something.
 
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Dale Kirkwood said:
Do you struggle clearing the trub from your conical? We open the bottom valve but because it's so compacted it doesn't flow out. Wasn't sure if we could poke it with a sterilised pole or something.
Click to expand...

I've seen a few commercial breweries use a pole/brush to get things moving along from the bottom valve. As long as it is sanitised it I can't see a problem.
 
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Remembering to do at least a partial purge after 2-4 days is the best policy.

Prodding the dump valve with sticks sounds fraught. If anything jams in the open dump valve … no, I just can't bring myself to think about it.

Having secondary fermenters when you use a conical fermenter is just weird.
 
Trub from the kettle or not, the yeast cake and hop particulate will, on occasion, choke the bottom valve of a conical.
 
Dale Kirkwood said:
Do you struggle clearing the trub from your conical? We open the bottom valve but because it's so compacted it doesn't flow out. Wasn't sure if we could poke it with a sterilised pole or something.
Click to expand...

I transfer to secondary, but actually it's the bottle vessel so it's not for fermentation purposes, but for clearing.
 
As long as some effort is taken early on (2-4 days) it doesn't really matter if yeast afterwards clogs the dump valve. If the level of yeast sediment can't reach the racking valve (where the beer is taken out) it really doesn't matter if the dump valve is clogged.

I've never had trub cause an issue. It never packs down that hard. But I don't put trub in on purpose, I just don't care if some does go into the fermenter.
 
foxy said:
Then do what commercial craft brewers do, transfer off the yeast into a secondary (or bright tank)
Click to expand...
Ah yes, some breweries do transfer to "bright tanks". But they'll do it to free up fermenters for the next batches. I can't see any reason to transfer from conical to anything other than kegs, bottles, or bottling buckets (if you do that sort of thing) when at home. But I suppose there may be times where the beer needs extended periods before kegging/bottling in home-brew situations, in which case freeing up the fermenter becomes important?
 
Never had a problem with my BB 75l's dumping trub. I tend to stick to CML USA IPA yeast though, or, maybe it's because i'm a vegetarian,,, no finings!
@peebee I'm looking @ one more tank, but considering a unitank so I can experience the joy of kegging brite under pressure,,, My first experiment was a disaster foaming beer everywhere and very little in the final keg,,,,:tinhat:
 
Thanks for the replies folks

@aamcle @peebee just for clarity - I am doing the whole fermentation and maturation in the one conical fermenter, then transferring to a brite tank for a couple of days to force carb at the very end. I have a lager on the go at the minute and don't want the lager sitting on top of the trub for a month to 6 weeks picking up off flavours, hence why I was going to try and clear the trub out. So the advice is to do it in stages early on in fermentation? Obviously just ensuring the bottom valve is sanitised before and after/quick spray etc.?
 
Sitting on sediment for a month to six weeks … some might argue that would improve the beer! But if yeast autolysis is a concern even in that short time do remember what the features of a conical include: The dump valve will rid the beer of much "trub" and initial dead yeast cells early on, and the cone greatly reduces the beer's contact with sediment (compared to a flat based "bucket").

But most conicals cannot be pressurised to any great degree (some can handle about 1psi for pressure transfers, the "Fermentasaurus" is a notable exception and can be used to carbonate beer, GF are working on it too apparently). So if you want to keg bright carbonated beer you might consider a "brite tank": I'd watch out for @Druncan's experiences of this (see above, #11).

I keg/cask directly from the conical (less clear up) but rarely have beer in the conical for longer than two weeks. Some people here bottle directly from the conical.
 

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