Seeking method of automating Yeast Pulling

[Patrick Broderick]

Is any mid size brewery willing to share ideas and/or methods that they may have for automating yeast pulls? We spend hours and hours of manpower having a brewer watch yeast come from the bottom of the cylindroconical fermenter into a spent yeast container. It's is such a maddening waste of time! Seems like there must be methods for automating this simple process but I am at a loss to come up with a concrete, practical way of doing it. Can anyone offer suggestions for methods of automating yeast pulls from a concial?

[gitchegumee]

Try this:

Use a peristaltic pump. These can be programmed to slowly and positively pull a predetermined amount of yeast from a tank. Not a perfect solution to pull all and only yeast from a tank without any supervision, but close to it.

[Patrick Broderick]

Hmmm.........

[Matt@Lupulin]

I remembered seeing this a while back. Avery brewing made a way to transfer cone to cone by weight and track the weight real time for proper pitching rates. Maybe this helps?

https://prezi.com/sdbjwozln30d/taking-control-of-cone-to-cone-pitching/

Cheers,
Matt

[Patrick Broderick]

Yes, I remember attending that seminar at the Denver CBC last year. I'm not looking for advice on pitching but for how to automate the disposal of yeast from a conical. I like the idea of a automated peristaltic pump. I'm looking into that now. Thank you Philip!

[Yeast]

Is any mid size brewery willing to share ideas and/or methods that they may have for automating yeast pulls? We spend hours and hours of manpower having a brewer watch yeast come from the bottom of the cylindroconical fermenter into a spent yeast container. It's is such a maddening waste of time! Seems like there must be methods for automating this simple process but I am at a loss to come up with a concrete, practical way of doing it. Can anyone offer suggestions for methods of automating yeast pulls from a concial?

Most automatic setups use optical measures attached to valves. Optek(with a k not c) devices are probably the most used controls for just that reason.

[dick murton]

Optical / haze units can work pretty well, but -

Have a look at Aber instruments as well. Probably more expensive than a simple haze measuring device, but if you really want accurate viable yeast cell count, then the Aber stuff is virtually unbeatable. You still need to use PD pumps, and ideally with a flow meter as well, but they are now producing a unit for smaller breweries rather than the big guys I used to work with / for.

Details here - http://www.aber-instruments.co.uk/pr...-yeast-monitor