I've searched quite a bit to find an answer to my dilemma and am not finding what I'm looking for, so here goes.
I recently upgraded from carboys and buckets to an SS Brewtech Chronical fementor for all the obvious, beneficial reasons. My first brew in it is a Wee Heavy. I used 20 lbs of grain and 2 oz of Fuggle. As always, I filtered through my 200 micron strainer about 15 times before putting it in the fermenter. I ended up with 5.75 gallons in the Chronical. I used 1 packet of Nottingham yeast and pitched using a starter. My OG was 1.086, FG is 1.020. Fermented at around 62 degrees.
My first attempt to dump trub came on day 9. I dumped into a gallon jug. Because it appeared pretty milky, I drained off 3/4 gallon until I saw clear beer. I let that settle over night and by morning, about 80% of the 3/4 gallon looked like good beer. I've read that was likely too much to dump. However, since then, I have tried dumping about a cup or two at a time. I've done that maybe 5 times and continue to get pretty thin trub. I have tried knocking the sides and, tonight, tried scraping the sides thinking the thick stuff might be stuck on the fermenter as opposed to falling to the bottom. I should also mention, and I'm embarrassed to admit it, I wasn't removing the airlock when I dumped. I didn't even think about the physics behind it.
Being such a big beer, I was expecting a lot of thick trub to come out. Some of the videos I've watched show some pretty solid, poo-like trub. I'm currently at 4.5 gallons and feel like I'm losing much more beer than I should be. In the past, I've had much success siphoning from carboy to bucket and have never lost this much. The beer tastes great and at 8.5%, I don't want to keep dumping good stuff out. At this point, I'm almost considering transferring to a bucket to regain some control I feel like I've lost.
Being my first go with a conical, I expected a little trial and error. But am wondering what others' experience is? Techniques? Issues with dumping? RDWHAHB?
I recently upgraded from carboys and buckets to an SS Brewtech Chronical fementor for all the obvious, beneficial reasons. My first brew in it is a Wee Heavy. I used 20 lbs of grain and 2 oz of Fuggle. As always, I filtered through my 200 micron strainer about 15 times before putting it in the fermenter. I ended up with 5.75 gallons in the Chronical. I used 1 packet of Nottingham yeast and pitched using a starter. My OG was 1.086, FG is 1.020. Fermented at around 62 degrees.
My first attempt to dump trub came on day 9. I dumped into a gallon jug. Because it appeared pretty milky, I drained off 3/4 gallon until I saw clear beer. I let that settle over night and by morning, about 80% of the 3/4 gallon looked like good beer. I've read that was likely too much to dump. However, since then, I have tried dumping about a cup or two at a time. I've done that maybe 5 times and continue to get pretty thin trub. I have tried knocking the sides and, tonight, tried scraping the sides thinking the thick stuff might be stuck on the fermenter as opposed to falling to the bottom. I should also mention, and I'm embarrassed to admit it, I wasn't removing the airlock when I dumped. I didn't even think about the physics behind it.
Being such a big beer, I was expecting a lot of thick trub to come out. Some of the videos I've watched show some pretty solid, poo-like trub. I'm currently at 4.5 gallons and feel like I'm losing much more beer than I should be. In the past, I've had much success siphoning from carboy to bucket and have never lost this much. The beer tastes great and at 8.5%, I don't want to keep dumping good stuff out. At this point, I'm almost considering transferring to a bucket to regain some control I feel like I've lost.
Being my first go with a conical, I expected a little trial and error. But am wondering what others' experience is? Techniques? Issues with dumping? RDWHAHB?