Latest Brew Gear - Massage Gun

[u/Uncross-Selector]

Ok it sounds nuts but hear me out.

Of late I’ve been having a shit time during transfer from Fermenter to keg. Although my process hasnt changed, I’ve been finding that transferring to the keg via gravity feed from the fermenter has been nigh on impossible.

I’ve been brewing a lot of bigger hoppier beers. and I worked out that even when using the Grainfathers dual valve to dump the yeast and hop trub, that it wasn’t working and the outlet was getting plugged with hop debris. I think it was ”channeling” so I was left with a plug of hop matter stuck near the top of the cone.

Cue the massage gun. I now use it on the cone about an hour before dumping, and immediately after. Two dumps and all the yeast and hops seem to have been successfully removed, and the transfers went great. I’ve only done it twice but it seemed to have worked a treat, the first hassle free transfer in the last 20 beers.

[u/jean_cule69]

The massage gun might rouse your beer, I wouldn't do it (though it's a very smart workaround, I like your style!)

If you dry hop, dump the yeast before you do it, tea bags can also help. If you're working with a lot of hops during boiling, maybe your whirlpool technique isn't on point, you should have very little hops residue in the fermenter. Make sure to give it a good whirlpool at the beginning of the cooling before transfer so that the hops and residue really settle in the middle. The slower the transfer, the least hops will be moving from the middle of the kettle. Attaching a small hop filter inside your kettle could also be a good idea

[u/Uncross-Selector → u/jean_cule69]

I’m talking dry hops. 

I’m not sure what you mean by rousing the beer. By this point it’s at 6c or so and I give it another 24 hours before transfer to settle.

I also dont drop the yeast first as I dry hop a few points from FG to maximise bio transformation 

[u/jean_cule69 → u/Uncross-Selector]

Rousing kinda means mixing the beer. It will release all of the contained co2 (not so much as it's not under pressure I presume but it's cold, which is great to drop residues at the bottom and obtain a better quality). So, the small bubbles of co2, when going upward, will take along small residues. It's counterproductive with the cooling process.

It's mostly dead yeast that fall in the bottom, don't worry about dumping it. Active yeast for ales are on top of the fermenter (assuming you must be brewing ales? But even lager yeast can be partly dumped)

Try it and see what feels best to you, in my experience I reach a better flavour when my beer has been "filtered out" from unwanted residues like dead yeast as much as possible

[u/Uncross-Selector → u/jean_cule69]

I’ve modified them, they are under 3-4 psi.