dropping yeast and not beer

[lhall]

Hi guys,

I'm looking for ideas on how people drop yeast prior to filtration. In an ideal world, we'd have the time to grab a pint at the end of the day and watch the yeast drop out, shutting off the valve when we see beer. Problem is, when you're trying to manage brewing, filtering, and kegging all at the same time, you don't always have the tank in view. We're pretty good about it, but occasionally we don't catch the end of the yeast and end up wasting a good bit of beer.

What are your procedures for dropping yeast? Anyone have a nifty gadget that would close a valve when the stream of yeast turns to beer?

[Jephro]

Anyone have a nifty gadget that would close a valve when the stream of yeast turns to beer?

yea, it's called an assistant! ...just kidding

But seriously i have thought about that too, but without some sort of pricey sensor and a solenoid i cannot figure out a feasible way for a small brewery to do it.

But if you have some extra time, money, and tech ability:
You could use a flowmeter set to switch a solenoid when the flowrate spikes, or maybe a photo sensor on one side of a sight glass set to close a solenoid when light comes through (wouldn't work too well on a stout).

[Seangoloid]

we use a turbidity meter which operates off light refraction. It's hooked up to a slow pumping peristaltic pump (maybe 5 gallons per minute) that has been slightly modified, electronically, to shutoff when the yeast slurry becomes less turbid, or when there is some light coming back to the sensor (meaning more beer is present than yeast). I'm sure it was pricey though... as we got it from Negele

http://www.negele.net/

if that's too pricey, I'd go with the assistant idea... seriously. Those small amounts of beer being accidentally dumped, will add up over time.