In-Line Yeast Pitching

[Bainbridge]

You can. People do. The connection is not as easily cleaned as a Tri-clamp, so there's increased risk of contamination but that can be mediated with careful practices. But in my mind, the biggest problem is that there's no pressure gauge, so you can't be sure you don't have a yeast bomb on your hands.

[scmorgan]

I really like cone-to-cone pitching as you can used the sanitised line from the run off with a quick switch around from the 1st tank. My old 20bbl tanks with lines in place and a 10 second count would put enough yeast in for a happy ferment. We had sight gauges on them, and with out fail the right amount went in time after time,hence why i would just count to 10.

Storing in a corny i do not like as if there is any hops in there the small connections can easily block. I also would not open a sanitised corny, it breaks the loop. For a standard 50l kegit is a no brainer, put it on a scale and you can weight it out as well, there is also no issue with the 5/8th odd sized cellar hosing compared to the cornie. If there is so much pressure, remember a commercial leg usually has a burst disk, if a yeast bomb then you will get it in much quicker than expected or will go bang and just make mess.

For the GW Kent type kegs, i have 4 of similar from IDD i am just about to play with, never used them but its all the same principle; clean it 3 times, never take a short cut and if doubt go back to rule 1, clean it 3 times.

[scottatron]

You can. People do. The connection is not as easily cleaned as a Tri-clamp, so there's increased risk of contamination but that can be mediated with careful practices. But in my mind, the biggest problem is that there's no pressure gauge, so you can't be sure you don't have a yeast bomb on your hands.

That's interesting. If you just harvest and re-pitch into another tank right away I don't see any problems with it but if you plan to store I can see where that can become an issue.

I really like cone-to-cone pitching as you can used the sanitised line from the run off with a quick switch around from the 1st tank. My old 20bbl tanks with lines in place and a 10 second count would put enough yeast in for a happy ferment. We had sight gauges on them, and with out fail the right amount went in time after time,hence why i would just count to 10.

Storing in a corny i do not like as if there is any hops in there the small connections can easily block. I also would not open a sanitised corny, it breaks the loop. For a standard 50l kegit is a no brainer, put it on a scale and you can weight it out as well, there is also no issue with the 5/8th odd sized cellar hosing compared to the cornie. If there is so much pressure, remember a commercial leg usually has a burst disk, if a yeast bomb then you will get it in much quicker than expected or will go bang and just make mess.

For the GW Kent type kegs, i have 4 of similar from IDD i am just about to play with, never used them but its all the same principle; clean it 3 times, never take a short cut and if doubt go back to rule 1, clean it 3 times.

Is there a way to measure out how much yeast to put in? How can you accurately determine the volume? Say you do a yeast cell count and determine the amount of slurry needed, how can you accurately determine how much to put in the cone from the other cone?

Also, what is the best method to clean the GW kent type converted keg?

[dfalken]

Best way to clean those kegs or any hard to clean item like a heat exchanger or filter is with hot water. We boil a couple of hectoliter in the kettle and then use them for those hard to clean jobs. Temperature will kill even if particles are trapped in the item you are cleaning as if you leave the hot water in long enough the temperature of the entire item will rise. Chemicals will only kill what the touch so if there are particles the chemicals might only kill what's on their surface.

[gitchegumee]

I'm curious

How do folks who use the cone-to-cone method deal with cold yeast from a crashed beer entering warm wort? Doesn't present problems with thermal shock? Or is thermal shock not something you see?

[kugeman]

I've been cone-to-cone pitching for 12 years with a variety of yeasts (chico, various lager yeasts, english yeasts, various belgian yeasts) and I've never had a problem with pitching yeast from a cold crashed beer into warm wort. In fact, it's my SOP. I've never noticed any negative effects on yeast health or performance.

[BrewinLou]

[QUOTE=OneMoreBrewer;108544]While I agree there are many satisfactory and safe methods for transferring yeast, I personally do not like the extra risk of a tank to tank transfer. If a hose were to break, you could loose two fermenters potentially. You could also risk a new guy (someone other than me, of course) transferring the wrong tank (maybe wrong yeast). I also would worry about scheduling as I would have to pitch with less flexibility. That said, I would certainly use this method without major concern if I had no better alternative.

I have never seen a brewer/vintners hose break, and I have used one for CIP until you could see through the liner. You have a lot of "what ifs" there, what if your apparent lemming hooks up your brink to the wrong tank? I manage 4 yeast strains in 12 tanks pretty easily. Tank to tank or tank to brink should be very similar in setup. Set up the loop, clean, sanitize, pasteurize, transfer.

[Danetrain26]

Contamination from gas source

I'm planning on getting a keg style brink soon, and was planning on pushing yeast with CO2 directly into the FV from the brink. Anyone out there sterile filtering CO2 before it gets to the brink. I wasn't concerned about contamination from CO2 or our gas lines, but I seem to have heard some folks doing this. That said we push O2 directly into cooled wort inline without any kind of sterile filtration with no issue. Thoughts appreciated.

[Deutschebeverage]

Yeast Prop Keg

I harvest yeast into a few of these:

http://www.gwkent.com/keg-for-yeast-propagation.html

Then I store in my cold room until I need them (usually a day or two). On brew days, I pull them from the cooler and let them warm up. I also shake them up and vent any CO2. I'll do a yeast cell count as I'm brewing then hook up the yeast keg to my transfer hoses and push with CO2 during the transfer. I have the keg on a scale and I'm pitching by weight.

What Dick says is interesting. Now I'm going to look into somehow fitting a filter on my CO2 hose.


Cheers,
Mike

We sell a 304 stainless propagation keg for $150 at Deutsche Beverage Technology. Give me a call and I'll hook you up.
Cheers,
Ryan Hice
704-900-6606

https://www.facebook.com/deutschebevtech/

[beerguy1]

Well that is my solution wort enters thru the bottom tri clamp and valve goes thru an elbow. The elbow gets the wort swirling so all of the yeast goes out the top to the fermenter. I have used this system for about 6 months now with no problem at all. I include the keg in my CIP line and its all clean I do have a 4" opening on the top this way I can dump dry yeast into distilled water to rehydrate it prior pushing it into the fermenter. We do 15 bbl batches and if I order a 15 bbl pitch its pretty expensive so I will buy a 7bbl pitch run some wort in let it prop up and then run the 15 bbl batch as described above into a ferm. I used an old keg with a hole in it and had it all welded up cost me about $50 total

[beerguy1]

How do folks who use the cone-to-cone method deal with cold yeast from a crashed beer entering warm wort? Doesn't present problems with thermal shock? Or is thermal shock not something you see?

I also do it that way most of the time. I transfer it over first thing so it has a bit of time to warm up but in 15 years I have never had a problem doing it that way

[grnis]

We have been having some problems with direct cone-to-cone pitching. The level pipe on the fermenter can't show us the correct volume for thick yeast.

So, I had a spare magnetic flow meter, DN15, that I bought a couple of months back and we installed this.

We still pitch from one cone, but through a flow meter and into a venturi mixer with fresh wort coming through.

The plan is to upgrade this to a spare mass flow meter and a excenter screw pump I also happen to have lying around.

This will just give us the volume and mass of yeast added, not the actual numbers of cells/ml but we'll get there eventually.
This is still better than having 1-5hl of yeast. Yes, It actually was that bad a couple of times.

Bonus: I can sell some equipment I have to the brewery for more money than I spent on it.

[tprautbrewer]

I'm with MPKill/Mike as a big fan of the GW Kent yeast brink.

I harvest enough yeast every Monday for the whole week, two or three pitchings depending on the schedule. (10BBL brewhouse - 40-60BBL weekly production.) The whole brink goes in the cold room with a blowoff hose hooked to a CO2 fitting on top to a bucket of sanitizer to keep the pressure from blowing the thing up. I keep a 3 foot length of 1 1/2" brewer's hose attached to the brink with a valve on the end. This hose is cleaned and sanitized as a unit along with the brink.

I will occasionally do a cone to cone pitch, but only if I have to. It's way easier, but I prefer to spend a few extra minutes and pitch a known quantity by weight. Think of the math: V=1/3*pi*R squared*H. Transferring yeast into a cone visually can be off by quite a bit if your level is just an inch or two off.

As far as using corny kegs, I just can't get comfortable pushing the yeast through a spring loaded poppet valve. I do not have confidence in any cleaning regime to properly take care of all those nooks and crannies. I'm way more comfortable using sanitary butterfly valves. Also, my yeast slurry is so thick that I think I'd have issues trying to force it through a poppet and a 1/4 inch hose. Just the time saved by using the Kent brink will eventually make it pay for itself.

$500 of equipment (brink + hose + valves) is not that much to spend in the long run. Consider how much you are saving vs a new prop each time.

-Mike

Mike,

Can you define your variables in that equation. Expanding from 4 to 10bbls, and this discussion is very relevant to me. I have been just pitching new dry yeast with nearly every new batch, but production schedule in the new brewery will allow me to pitch and re-pitch. I'm not clear on the weight to cell count equation you quoted.

Trent