What are you doing with homebrew today?

RoadRoach said:
Floating pickup? It shouldn't stir it up much if you're pulling from the top. Even if you had a rigid pickup tube, it wouldn't get much of the yeast/trub.

I close the valve on mine about 3 days after fermentation starts so I can remove the trub/sediment that goes into the bulb first. It settled, so it really isn't going to contribute anything, right? There's probably a bit of yeast in it too (which shouldn't be there if it's still feeding). By doing this, I get a VERY clean yeast cake when fermentation is done. Now, granted, I'm at atmospheric pressure, not 22 PSI. My fermenter is not pressure rated, but I'm sure gonna give it a try when I can find the right parts to put a gas post on the lid. When I put the bulb back on, I make sure it's full of water or wort to minimize any air going through the batch, as well as prevent sucking air back in through the airlock. The bulb holds a quart, so that would suck in a LOT of air if I just let it fill from the batch. In a 5 gallon batch, that's only 5% dilution, so it really doesn't make a huge difference in the beer. I could do it with DME, but it's still a 5% dilution of the recipes. A sample valve on the side would let me fill the collector, but then, I'd have to take the air-lock off to keep it from sucking it dry into the batch. When the batch is ready for bottling, I close the valve and remove the collector again, and put on the hose adapter to transfer to my bottling bucket. That last bit is what I want to be able to use pressure transfer for, so I don't have to lift heavy batches of beer. I usually draw my gravity sample from the collector as it usually has fairly clear beer on top of the yeast cake, depending on the flocculence of the yeast. If it's cloudy, I take a top sample from the fermenter.

As far as depressurizing the fermenter before closing the valve, that indicates the butterfly valve doesn't have a very good pressure rating. That looks like a pretty beefy valve to me. I find that odd, because butterflies are used extensively in paper production and hold back some pretty high pressures. The ball valve on my FF7.9 is a Schedule 80 PVC ball valve. That thing's good for 300 PSI. Probably couldn't open it with that much pressure on one side, but I don't think 22 PSI would give me any noticeable issue. Closing wouldn't be a problem because the pressure should be the same on both sides of the valve. Surely that butterfly will hold back 22 PSI, and I don't see it being hard to operate the valve with that little pressure on it. You should be able to collect the yeast without depressurizing the fermenter. Pretty sure I read that as one of the features of the FermZilla. The whole point of these conicals is to allow removal of trub and yeast to control off flavors and collect yeast cultures. Having to depressurize to me would completely defeat the whole purpose and usefulness. Valve closed, the cup will be full as well as the neck of the valve, so it shouldn't squirt much when you loosen it. Remember, the beer/trub/yeast is not going to compress like air will. The valve will most certainly drain some small amount that doesn't fit in the collection ball. Just put a shallow tray under it when you're removing the collection ball. Loosen the collection ball and sit it on the tray, and you've got your drips/splashes contained. I usually keep a tray under mine anyway just in case it decides to leak. Lotsa o-rings and two threaded connections just waiting to give me a surprise. Seems I have seen some with gas posts installed in the side of the valve neck, but I'm pretty sure that was for CO2 purghing the ball. Purging becomes unnecessary if you fill the collector up first, and you don't get agitation of any sediments/yeast on the sides of the fermenter. You do smaller batches, so you might draw a sample into the collector before reinstalling it. That will prevent significant dilution that monkeys with the FG.

I tried to decipher what you found for a leak, but at 22 PSI, if it can leak, it's going to. Was something just not quite tight enough?
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I don’t think I had the pressure release caps tight on the collection container. Tightened and I’ve good there now. Yeah seems to defeat the purpose if I can remove the collection and allow it to continue to condition before transferring. It is supposed to double as a uni tank so I am a little confused there. I don’t plan to use it that way unless winter is nice and cold in my garage
 
Been cleaning & dusting my brew corner
Time to brew something again
It's cooled down, rainy season is here.
Should have my bathroom wall semi-finished tomorrow, and should/could bottle Sunday, maybe brew as well and use mash time to re-arrange my bathroom irrigation pipes.
 
Need room in my cooler, going to bottle up the kegs that still have beer in them today. Need room for the new beers coming out of the fermenters.
 
Finished checking out the ferm fridge - costs 10 cents a day to run - and unplugged it 'til needed. Also treated my beer lines* to some PBW.

*I keg and use only picnic taps, so cleaning is rare, I more often just buy a new one for $10.
 
Didn't do anything with brewing but was out in the shed (where I normally brew now) till late last night, and again this morning.

Added a 3rd function valve to my tractor to operate my new grapple. I didn't know cleaning up deadfall and brush could be so much fun.

Took me nearly two weeks to clean up one small spot with just the bucket and box blade. This afternoon, I cleaned up nearly a third of the lot and created two enormous mounds of brush and deadfall.

First bite with the new grapple:
BHRF7638[2].JPG


Will probably bottle my Frankenbeer II this weekend. For now, time for another stout.
 
RoadRoach said:
Didn't do anything with brewing but was out in the shed (where I normally brew now) till late last night, and again this morning.

Added a 3rd function valve to my tractor to operate my new grapple. I didn't know cleaning up deadfall and brush could be so much fun.

Took me nearly two weeks to clean up one small spot with just the bucket and box blade. This afternoon, I cleaned up nearly a third of the lot and created two enormous mounds of brush and deadfall.

First bite with the new grapple:
View attachment 22930

Will probably bottle my Frankenbeer II this weekend. For now, time for another stout.
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Nice!
The looks like alot of Fun!
Love the little tractor.
I used to run around in tiny versions of this tractor in the peach orchard back in the day.
 
Trialben said:
Nice!
The looks like alot of Fun!
Love the little tractor.
I used to run around in tiny versions of this tractor in the peach orchard back in the day.
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It is fun tearing things up with the tractor, until it's time to take down some rather large dead pine trees. The ones you see leaning in the background are actually on the neighbor's property, but leaning on trees on my property. He and I agreed to take them down together, but then I started having back issues. Best laid plans, and all that..... Got a double epidural scheduled for the 18th. Doc says my back isn't bad enough yet to warrant surgery, so just gonna try to relieve it with steroids at L3/L4 and L4/L5 on the left side (again) and anti-inflammatories to keep it at bay for a while.

It's a good little tractor, and I'm getting a pretty decent collection of attachments and accessories for it. Stuff for brewing is expensive, but stuff for tractors is a LOT more expensive. This one's 26 HP, 19 at the PTO, hydrostatic transmission (no clutch). It's a bit noisy with the hyrdaulic whine, but that's what noise cancelling head gear is for. It's basically a rolling hydraulic pump. Oversized tires filled with ballast which really helps with stability. It came with the bucket and a box blade. I've since added a stump bucket, a chipper, a sub soiler, and now the grapple. If I need a backhoe, I'll just rent a mini-excavator one weekend and do what I gotta do. Otherwise, this one will do most everything I really NEED to do.
 
Inventoried my malt and rearranged the brewing storage space a little. How long do you all keep specialty malts? Air tight containers but some are a year old or more
 
Josh Hughes said:
Inventoried my malt and rearranged the brewing storage space a little. How long do you all keep specialty malts? Air tight containers but some are a year old or more
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Might have to di one of them clean out brews Josh Brown ale would be perfect for that all in style :p.
Yeah I've got a bag or two that's pretty old
 
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