Question About Bottom Dump Conicals

[Lennie]

I want to know if I can open a butterfly valve and get rid of trub, then harvest yeast a week later without it becoming contaminated. I'm thinking not unless I can spray some Starsan up into the valve to get the sweet wort off it.

My motive is to know if I can add the wort hot and use a cooling coil in the conical (Brewhemoth with internal chilling coil) to chill, then get rid of the trub before commencing the ferment.

 

[eastoak]

you can't chill before racking to the conical? in any event there is no reason why your beer would go bad because of this, spray off the valve and you're set.

 

[Bokonon]

You could definitely do that. I'm not sure the chiller would be up to the task, though I guess you would essentially be no chill brewing. Just make sure the vacuum formed as it cools doesn't crumple the tank.

 

[Lennie]

Yes I was wanting to be lazy and do away with one step. You're right about it pulling a vacuum though. I don't guess I'll go this route but just opening/closing the valve more than once seemed like a potential problem as far as the outlet side of the valve. With no trub dump I'll only need one dump for yeast harvest.

 

[audger]

Brewhemoth with internal chilling coil

what is the power source for the chilling? ie. what do you have the coil hooked up to? will this power source be able to sink that much heat in a timely manner, and without damaging it?

you are probably correct to be weary about letting the bottom valve sit for a long time without cleaning it, but you arent extracting beer out of this (you use the racking arm) so unless you want to save the yeast, there is no reason this valve must be sanitary. i would imagine you could just hose it off once you are closed. if you want to sanitize it again to get yeast out, i like to use a spray bottle filled with hydrogen peroxide in this way. you could use any sanitizer though.

 

[LordUlrich]

Yes you would need to clean the outside. But it is the outside, so you can clean it. I doubt your chiller will take you from a boil in a reasonable time, plus remember you need to pitch the yeast at some time, I typical pitch during transfer when using a conical.

 

[Lennie]

Right now I have a little fountain pump in a plastic tub inside a small wine cooler. The fountain is pumpng water through the chilling coil.

I've come to the realization this isn't going to work as a chiller in any sort of timely manner. I think it will regulate temp during fermentation though.