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Cone to cone yeast transfer question

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  • Cone to cone yeast transfer question

    Those of you that do a cone to cone transfer of yeast, how do you know when to stop the transfer (in other words, when you've pitched an adequate amount of yeast without overpitching)?

    Or do you worry about overpitching? Thanks!

  • #2
    I don't do this with any regularity and have only done it a few times(usually in a emergency). I must state that we are a 10 bbl brewpub so what we do might not work for everyone. I simply drop trub/yeast from the source cone until I like what I see, then attach a hose with a sight glass to the receiving fermenter. Back pressure from the source and watch it flow,shutting it off when I feel I have an adequate pitch. Nope its not at all scientific, but if you've been pitching yeast long enough you should be able to eyeball via the sightglass how much yeast you will need. This has worked extremely well for when I have had no other optionsbut like I said its 10bbls, which I think is a lot easier to judgethan it might be on a larger scale.

    That's my practical insight, maybe someone can add something scientific.

    Good luck.
    Cheers,
    Mike Roy
    Brewmaster
    Franklins Restaurant, Brewery & General Store
    5123 Baltimore Ave
    Hyattsville,MD 20781
    301-927-2740

    Franklinsbrewery.com
    @franklinsbrwry
    facebook.com/franklinsbrewery

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    • #3
      Cell Count

      I regularly do cone to cone pitching and just look in the manway for the approx vol. I'm going for.
      By doing cell counts every time and evaluating the density of the slurry (again, by eye) I get within 1/2 million cells of my target pitch rate.

      If you don't do cell counts, you'll never know if you're over or underpitching. Even if you don't do cone to cone.

      Pitching the right amount by eye becomes intuitive but is not scientific. Cell counts are. Can you tell I like cell counts?

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      • #4
        Measure out a few volumes of water that represent your 'typical' pitch. Rotate your racking arm so that it just touches the water, then look at the indicator on the racking arm on the outside of the tank and make marks at each level. When you go to pitch, count your cells and use a pitching rate calculator to find your pitch rate, round up to whatever the next increment is on the tank that you marked, adjust the racking arm indicator on the outside to the desired level, and start your pitch, looking into the manway to stop the pitch once it hits the racking arm. That said, spend the money on a proper yeast brink, you won't regret it.

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        • #5
          There's some good ideas floating around so far, I just wanted to add one more.

          If you have a sight glass in your pitching lines (one on the receival tank, at least) then you can gauge how fast your flow is going from one tank to another. And, if you know the length of hose you have between the two tanks you can work out the volume of liquid in the hose. Combine all this information and you can get a rough idea of flow rates from one tank to the other, and hence work out total volume pitched.

          For example, our 1.5" brewery hose will hold roughly a litre per metre. I know that if I've got five metres of brewery hose from one tank to the other and it takes five seconds to fill the hose with yeast (with the source tank valve only just cracked open), then I'm pitching at a rate of one litre per second.

          Sounds like an overcomplicated way to do something in a really rough fashion, but it works well.

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          • #6
            We do cone to cone regularly. We use a peristaltic pump which is set to a standard speed, and then time our yeast transfer. Seems to work...

            Nat

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            • #7
              good ideas

              I use a combination of these methods eyeballing, timing, counting the volumes as they go through the sight glass, etc. but one thing I have been wanting to try (in an effort especially to keep fermentor closed), Put a balloon on your blowoff. stop transfer when the balloon is the same volume as what you wanted to put in (what went in also came out). Could even make marks on the balloon to gauge the volume as the rubber expands.

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