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  • Cone Jackets On/Off?

    Our brewers have always run the fermentations in our 20BBL tanks with the glycol to the cone jacket closed off until it’s time to crash. I was exploring the idea of opening the cone jacket earlier in the process to help improve harvest viability and I found that a bunch of brewers just run the fermentation with them on to no ill effect (and possibly to the benefit of their yeast). If you have jacketed cones, do you leave them on/off during fermentation? Any issues with compacted cakes, sluggish fermentation, stratification? I want to gather as much info as possible before suggesting we change out SOP. Thanks!

  • #2
    No idea why you'd turn them off....

    Yeast and trub settle during fermentation. They are very good at insulating the cone jacket from the cone contents. If you do NOT have your cone jacket on, then your settled yeast autolyses and your trub rots faster as that pile warms. Both taste awful. What advantage could there be to turning off the cone jacket? Especially since once in a while you would expect someone to forget to turn on the cone jacket. That ruins the yeast for repitching and taints your product with yeast bite. Leave the jacket on.
    Phillip Kelm--Palau Brewing Company Manager--

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    • #3
      Originally posted by gitchegumee View Post
      Yeast and trub settle during fermentation. They are very good at insulating the cone jacket from the cone contents. If you do NOT have your cone jacket on, then your settled yeast autolyses and your trub rots faster as that pile warms. Both taste awful. What advantage could there be to turning off the cone jacket? Especially since once in a while you would expect someone to forget to turn on the cone jacket. That ruins the yeast for repitching and taints your product with yeast bite. Leave the jacket on.
      Agreed. I’m guessing their thought process was that the increased surface area around the yeast would chill the cake and cause a sluggish ferment? I did find an old thread where someone mention temp stratification, but I’ve since heard from others using 30BBLs and larger that don’t have an issue. Just trying to gather info from enough folks to make my case before challenging a hard set practice.

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      • #4
        I've never heard of anyone doing this, and can't think of a good reason to shut off the bottom jacket, and a lot of reasons not to shut it off - yeast autolysis being the main one. Stratification is more of a worry with multiple fills of a fermenter over too long a time.




        Originally posted by zmtaggart View Post
        Agreed. I’m guessing their thought process was that the increased surface area around the yeast would chill the cake and cause a sluggish ferment? I did find an old thread where someone mention temp stratification, but I’ve since heard from others using 30BBLs and larger that don’t have an issue. Just trying to gather info from enough folks to make my case before challenging a hard set practice.
        Linus Hall
        Yazoo Brewing
        Nashville, TN
        www.yazoobrew.com

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        • #5
          Originally posted by lhall View Post
          I've never heard of anyone doing this, and can't think of a good reason to shut off the bottom jacket, and a lot of reasons not to shut it off - yeast autolysis being the main one. Stratification is more of a worry with multiple fills of a fermenter over too long a time.
          Thanks guys. I asked around on a couple of other boards and only one other person worked at a brewery that shut them off. IÂ’m going to pass along the info and suggest running them open on one of our core beers that we have solid history of data on.

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          • #6
            cut it back, but not all the way off

            I have seen benefits to cutting the bottom jacket flow rate during crashing. Specifically this has to do with stratification. I would not recommend it for any active fermentation. As mentioned, there are some risks involved when manipulating manually.

            If you reduce the flow of glycol to the bottom jacket, it will slow how fast the cone cools. Normally this would be seen as a bad thing, however since beer is not its densest at our preferred crash temp (0*C or 32*F), it is actually beneficial to slow the cooling rate of the cone. Yeast left in the cone will insulate as mentioned, but if removed, the cone will cool extremely fast.

            Since there is more surface area of glycol jacket to beer in the cone, it will cool faster than the upper cylindrical portion of the vessel. If the cone reaches maximum density (4*C or 39*F - usually about 37*F in my practical experience) before the upper portion, then you will see stratification occur. In this circumstance, the cone liquid will need to get even colder before it gets less dense and allows convection to occur breaking the stratification.

            If you can cool the top portion of the vessel faster than the cone, then the upper liquid will become more dense and "fall" to the cone causing convection. The mixing will allow the overall tank temperature to drop faster and more evenly. IMHO, the faster the beer crashes, the cleaner the drop of yeast and any protein formations.

            Really only experienced the stratification as an issue in systems with poorly sized glycol chillers, or on tall 120's. Stratification shouldn't be a problem on filling, as fermentation should be active and causing convection. I would cut the flow to about half on my cones for the first day or two of crashing, then open them up again once I felt stratification was avoided. Autolysis was not a problem, but probably because I dump trub very often. Routinely went to 10+ gens without issue.

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