Conical fermenter & Yeast

I would not mind knowing which fermenter you have to start, so I can at least see what you are talking about. But second, I would like to ask: why are you stirring the contents of a fermenter before before racking to a bottling bucket?

 

There is no way to avoid wasting a little beer. If you clear the deposited yeast and trub after about a week, you'll lose some beer, and when you finish fermenting there will still be yeast in the cone. If you use the racking port without draining the cone there's gonna be gunk in the cone that will get into your beer and you'll still leave beer in the cone. My process has always been to drain the cone halfway through fermentation(before it hardens into thick sludge) and fill from the racking port, turning it slowly as the fermenter empties until I am sure the yeast isn't filling the kegs. But even before i do any of this I make myself understand that out of an 11 gallon batch I will get 10 gallons of drinkable beer and I'm cool with that. Hope this helps

 

I've never measured it, that might be depressing. Of course if you leave it full of trub and yeast then the level of liquid is higher and there's less waste, but more chance of getting yeast into the kegs. Another consideration is whether you're going to rack fresh wort onto that yeast cake as soon as you drain the fermenter. Back when i was a much more serious brewer/drinker I would brew 3 or 4 beers before I emptied everything and cleaned the fermenter-I started with something like 1.050 brown or pale ale, and the last beer would be a 1.100 monstrosity. I would always bump the trub/yeast after 3 or 4 days to keep the b=debris to a minimum

 

On a side not that seems like a lot of head space for a 5 gallon brew.

 

I have 2 questions...

1. How do you like that fermenter? It looks like an awesome transition from carboys without the price and overwhelming gadgets and parts of a stainless conical

2. @the_owl or anyone, wouldn’t the head space fill with CO2 and not be a problem as long as the liquid to head space ratio isn’t ridiculous? Would this particular ratio in question fall under too ridiculous?

Also, my 2 cents on the matter so I don’t completely jack the thread, with the caveat that I have no experience with conicals... I would assume you would want to empty the beer from the top port... there is always going to be some beer mixed in the cone with the yeast that you’re going to have to sacrifice and be ok with it

 

I guess the stirring part still seems weird to me. How long do you wait after stirring? I would wait a day or two to let everything settle out. If you are dropping out that much yeast/trub I would wonder if you are over pitching or something, but can't say for sure. Have you tried draining some trub from the bottom port before?

For 2, yes and no. If it is a 5 gal batch I would worry about the head space. But if he is doing 10 gal batches, then he should be OK.

 

I'm sure he makes more than 5 gallons-I made 11 gallon batches in my 12.5 gallon conical so I would end up with 2 5 gallon kegs. I might then add different dry hops to each keg to get 2 different IPA's

 

You have a conical fermenter that holds 15 gallons and you don’t keg?

 

If I’ve followed this correctly……
Ferment
Yeast flocculates
Stir because some of it sticks to the side of the cone and doesn’t slide down
Let the yeast settle (as @Granitebeard asked, how long?)
Pull yeast from the bottom dump valve
Add priming solution to the MiniBrew conical (and presumably stir again)
Bottle your beer via the bottom dump valve
Then it’s pretty much smooth sailing

Since you prime in the MiniBrew, have you considered isinglass to help the yeast settle? I haven’t used it, but there’s plenty of reading to suggest it’s effective. Maybe someone with first-hand experience will chime in.
Can you cold-crash? Maybe gelatin, or just time and temperature are your friends.
If you have the means to transfer to a bottling vessel (via the racking/testing port) you could prime during transfer. But I suspect that goes against one of the reasons you got the MiniBrew.

Inspect the surface of your cone. Maybe there’s a manufacturing defect on the surface of your cone, or a design flaw that escaped their QC. Might be worth a shot to contact MiniBrew to see if there are any known issues.

 

A filter with co2 pushing is probably the best solution. You can also try a extended dip tube on the sampling port if it fits. I've also thought of using a floating dip tube in the fermenter.
https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/truebulkheadedge.htm

 

Well, I didn’t follow correctly. I overlooked your bottling bucket comment….twice. Brewdays extended diptube/racking arm is probably the ticket, especially if it rotates.

This link has a decent breakdown of a DIY rotating racking arm that was installed in a plastic conical.