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Fermentation chamber is an old refrigerator with an STC1000 controller and a hair dryer heat source. High tech, I know...
Cooled wort is sitting in the kettle
I use kegs with shortened dip tubes for fermenters
Yeast pitch goes in the keg first, then the wort is runoff via the hose to the bottom, so there's no splashing
The wort is at 15c or so upon pitching, but immediately goes in the fermentation chamber set at pitching temperature. It will cool down within a few hours, before the yeast is active enough to cause any ill effects. I'd rather do this than wait and risk the wort oxidizing without yeast
A blowoff tube is hooked up to the gas fitting of the keg
A couple hours after pitching, once the wort is chilled to pitching temp, I'll hook up the aquarium pump (with filter) to the beer tube of the keg. It would be better to have an aeration stone on the end, but this has worked well enough that I haven't bothered with it
I'll run the pump for a few minutes, until foam starts to come out the blowoff tube. Stop, come back later and do it again. I keep repeating this process every few hours until the fermentation is releasing co2 - usually within 12-24 hours
Once blowoff is finished and the fermentation starts slowing down, I swap the blowoff hose for a spunding valve set to low pressure, 3-4 psi. Just enough to push samples out a picnic tap
When the gravity is 1.5p above the expected final gravity, I transfer to a purged keg via gravity siphon and jumper hoses
Harvest yeast cake from primary keg
Spunding valve goes on secondary keg, set to full carbonation pressure
Eventually this keg gets moved to the kegerator for lagering, and then serving from the same keg. I no longer filter or transfer to a serving keg. Clear beer two weeks faster isn't worth the risk of picking up oxygen during the transfer, and losing "it"
Statistics: Posted by Roachbrau — Thu Apr 28, 2016 2:38 pm
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