I also like Ryan’s ideas, especially the first one which sort of sounds like a cool ship approach (something I’ve been kind of interested in trying anyway). I think Bierstadt does something like what you desribed don’t they? That said, I’m sure I’d have more than “a cup or so” of leftover material. In order to get every last drop of wort from my kettle, I’m sure a fair amount of break material would be flowing to the cellar. The reason I haven’t tried something like this before is that I always thought you needed to wait until the wort had settled clear before pitching the yeast, and of course I didn’t want it to sit that long without some kind of fermentation getting started. But the thought of pitching and then transferring is appealing. I’d like to learn more about that whole process.

– The method to mimic some of the pros that use holding tanks. Put your beer into a fermenter and pitch your yeast. About 12 hours later, transfer to a new fermenter, leaving about a cup or so of whatever has gathered on the bottom of the vessel. This should help not only get clearer wort but also remove some of the weaker/dead yeast from fermentation.

– Recirculating through a filter. Many systems I’ve brewed on including my robobrew, I often recirculate for the last 10 min or so of the boil. I’m thinking of doing it sooner and doing it through a filter, something similar to a hop screen. I’ve done it through a hop screen before, but since it wasn’t dedicated it spreads the hop material out and plugs up too easily. I think if I go through a 2nd screen that has no hops in it, it could potentially filter my wort clean.

– The method to mimic some of the pros that use holding tanks. Put your beer into a fermenter and pitch your yeast. About 12 hours later, transfer to a new fermenter, leaving about a cup or so of whatever has gathered on the bottom of the vessel. This should help not only get clearer wort but also remove some of the weaker/dead yeast from fermentation.

– Recirculating through a filter. Many systems I’ve brewed on including my robobrew, I often recirculate for the last 10 min or so of the boil. I’m thinking of doing it sooner and doing it through a filter, something similar to a hop screen. I’ve done it through a hop screen before, but since it wasn’t dedicated it spreads the hop material out and plugs up too easily. I think if I go through a 2nd screen that has no hops in it, it could potentially filter my wort clean.

I have not done this yet but am planning to and have seen some people do variation on you tube. Take your hop back, put rice hulls in a mesh bag and place in your hop back. It should act as a filter.

I came across this because I have a Blichman Hop Rocket and they say only use it with whole leaf hops which are getting harder to find. I found some videos on the Hop Missile (an exact clone of the Hop Rocket) and they use pellet hops mixed with rice hulls in a mesh bag. If you recipe does not call for hops at that point I don’t see why you could not just use the rice hulls. Worth a try since you already have the hop back. Link to youtube video.

Pellet Hops in Hop Missile.

I’ve tried whirlpooling and I agree with others on this forum who suggest whirlpooling to pile trub in the center of the kettle is an urban myth; my whirlpooling efforts seem to support this notion and the trub gets stirred up and re-suspeneded as soon as I fire up the whrilpool pump! All of this being said, I’ve managed to come up with clear wort for “part” of my runoff (see attached pic of my recent Best Bitter). This pic represents only the middle part of the runoff though. It seems that at the beginning of wort collection I get a burst of trub, but after the pick-up tube drills out a half-dollar sized hole, everything is quite clear for a bit. Then towards the end of collection it gets real cloudy again (so much so that I have had to dump the last 4 to 7 quarts!). I’ve had better luck with lagers, but I think that has to do with the “type” of break material you get when you do step-mashing and decoctions. The trub tends to settle more tightly than brews made with a single-temp infusion and well-modified ale malt. I’d really like to hear from the braintrust here. What are you doing that I can learn from?

It’s been awhile since I’ve harvested and repitched and I’m no expert at this. I’ve never ‘washed’ my yeast and I’m sure my methods are less than ideal. If anyone out there has experience with this I’d sure like to hear what your process is and pick your brain a bit.

If it helps…here is the process I’ve used in the past with some success:
I typically pressure-cook a small erlenmeyer flask (500ml) and a breathable silicone stopper. In a bucket of Saniclean solution I soak my dump valve tube. The dump valve on my conical gets sanitized with Alpet D4 surface sanitizer (I get it from Morebeer). When I’m ready, I attach the dump valve tube and open the valve to allow the first bit of yeast slurry to dump from the fermenter. After about 8 ounces has drained out, I start collecting yeast into the flask. If the slurry starts to turn to beer I continue collecting anyway, just to fill any air space with liquid. I seal and put into a fridge right away. As the sample cools and settles, a nice yeast cake forms on the bottom of the flask. At pitching time I flame the lip of the flask and pour off all of the bier, then pour the yeast into a new starter for the next batch.

I was wondering how this turned out for you. Where you happy with the result?

Yes it is only in 8 oz bottles.

But there is an alternative – Tractor Supply sells a Milk Stone remover – which is the same thing as beer stone (calcium oxalate) – It is $15 per gallon at tractor supply. If it is good enough for the dairy industry it is probably okay for the brew industry.

Milkstone remover

It is about 50% phosphoric acid so it is may be aggressive.

Sounds like a subject where there is little information on. I wonder what the breweries do to clean the equipment.

I purchased some beerstone remover (B.S. Remover from Five Star). But it only comes in 8 oz. bottles (at least that’s all I have found). Wasn’t sure how well it would work since I wanted to mix up about 3G for each conical, then recirculate it through my CIP system. So that would be 12 fl. oz. of product for all four of my fermenters. Probably need another bottle.

Colter – I’ll be listening to your podcast with Five Star this week. Good move to host them for one of your sessions! THANKS.