GW Kent tanks: Racking arms and yields

[MikeS]

Hello All-

We have a number of GW Kent CC tanks (20 and 40 bbl) with racking arms. I believe that there is a fundamental design flaw that is lowering our yields of finished beer to the brite tanks. I would like to run some ideas by the collective before I do anything rash.

The problem I see is that the DIN fitting that attaches the racking arm to the tank is parallel with the cone of the tank rather than being perpendicular to the ground.* When we transfer the beer out of the tanks, we rotate the racking arm down. Due to the angle of the attachment point of the racking arm, it swings out as well as down. When we get to the end of the transfer there is a significant amount of usable beer left above the yeast bed that is left in the tank. Note that we don't filter our beers, so switching over to the bottom outlet of the tank is not an option. On the 40 bbl tanks this waste can amount to (visual estimate) a barrel plus of beer.

I am contemplating having my welder come in and modify the racking arms to make up for this design flaw. I was thinking of having him cut the arm near the base, miter an angle that corresponds with the angle of the cone, and welding it back together so that the racking arm's "tip" is farther down in the tank when rotated down.

So, is this a stupid idea? Or rather, has anyone come up with a more elegant and effective solution to getting more beer out of these tanks?

* In previous breweries I've worked at, with much larger, American made (Mueller and JVNW) tanks, the racking arm attachment was perpendicular to the ground.

Thanks- Mike

[wailingguitar]

How much yeast are you dropping prior to transfer? For my ales, I drop no more than I need for repitching and never end up with the arm more than about 70 degrees off horizontal. Same for all of my 10/20/30bbl GW Kent and Premier tanks (they're the same tanks). When doing a lager (which I have only done in my 10bbls so far), I drop yeast then fine in the FV. By the time it has dropped clear, I am still don't end up with enough stuff in the cone bottom to have to avoid pulling dregs.


That being said, I do find the design to be a pain... especially when cleaning a tank, there is always a bunch of yeast in the port and it makes a heck of a mess when you pull the arm to clean it.

[MikeS]

I pull ~15 gallons from the tanks from which I harvest. I dump an equivalent amount from the 20s that I do not harvest from. (Although I have been experimenting with no dump to try to bump up yields but have no data yet on that front.)

On our dry hopped beers, I pull more: until the yeast goes "chocolate milk-y" (i.e. from beery yeast to yeasty beer.)

The 40s are recent acquisitions and I have only done dry hopped beers in those tanks so far. I've been filling my brink (15gal) and then dumping prior to dry hopping. Probably another 20 gal or so.

The arms almost always end up straight down. Yeast donor tanks, drained tanks, and dry hopped tanks.

-Mike

[MikeS]

So here is a picture of the problem:



This is inside a 40bbl GW Kent tank after transfer to the brite. This is a tank that has been harvested (~15 gal) for repitch and dry hopped with 8# of pellets. There's a lot of beer left in there... Note (and I apologize for the cell phone pic quality...) that with the racking arm turned all the way down that the level of beer at which the racking arm "sucks dry" (emphasis on "sucks..." [wink]) the beer level is only about 3 inches or so below the port.

This seems to be a major design fault. Am I the only one who thinks this way???

-Mike

[Ted Briggs]

Bend

Every brewery has different process/products so it would be impossible to design a racking arm that leaves the right amount for everyone.
You might be able to just bend it to the right shape? A good metal shop would be able to do this, otherwise a re-weld seems like a good idea.