Dumping Trub in the Catalyst Fermentation System

www.brew-dudes.com
This is a quick follow up video. Last week I brewed and filled the Catalyst Fermentation system from Craft A Brew. This week I show what it looks like to dump the trub after I chilled the wort for 24hours in the fridge. Plenty of cold break and I collect it down in the sanitized jar.
Next time I might try and collect come yeast in the jar. However I am skeptical about sending a big bubble of air from the jar up and through the a completely fermented beer. So I may skip that part.
Stay tuned.
BREW ON!

[@iBradWatson]

You could have opened the valve before putting the wort in the fermenter and all of the trub would have already been in the jar without the air “blub”

[@BrewDudes]

Yes, true. Mike is trying out one method this time around. - John

[@Monkee7779]

@iBradWatson, as the creators intended! :)

[@mikemotta9754]

when i brew with my Catalyst, I attach a 32oz jar and leave the valve open, once the trub collects at the bottom i close the valve and remove the jar. But I've found that pitching from the bottom works really well. Add the yeast to the jar and then open the valve. this way you can also avoid opening the top up to add yeast.

[@BrewDudes]

Thanks Mike. We'll try this method next time. - John

[@clintlmartin]

Shoulda closed the valve before pitching. Probably not a big deal.

[@viper29ca]

Fast ferment is the same principle, and I always ferment with the valve open.

[@BrewDudes]

If you look in the photos at the end of the video you'll see that I did close the valve at some point after I shot the video. The beer fermented great, so what yeast may have settled to the jar in that time was mininal. The jar was filled with trub at the point so it could't settle to deep into the jar. At the time of posting the vide there is plenty of yeast in the cone at this point too. -Mike

[@philipclarke3215]

For yeast collection after fermentation; if you were to use a sterilized pressure-canned jar of wort instead of an empty jar, you'd be able to minimize (or eliminate) the glug of oxygen passing through the finished beer. It may kick up fermentation a little for a day or two after it's mixed with the main batch, but that's about it.

[@BrewDudes]

Thanks for the tip! - John

[@apenutz987]

Maybe fill the jar with co2. It is heavier than air so it should stay in there while you screw it on.

[@BrewDudes]

I'll pass that one on to Mike. - John

[@b.e.d.brewing3909]

Leaking doesn’t sound “interesting” it sounds problematic .... but hey it was a good video :-)

[@BrewDudes]

Its a feature not a bug. Kidding. Maybe I didn't have the jar on tight enough. Who knows. Nice piece of equipment, just needs more use to become more experienced with best practices for it. Cheers! -Mike

[@ducknorris9715]

can too much trub in the bottles cause a gushing beer? I use 625 liter speidel fermenters, it's pretty much impossible to get the trub out because of the shape. I rack the beer to a secondary cooling tank before bottling (cold crashing) but i still can't get it to clear up before bottling. We've had a couple complaints about our beers gushing out of the bottle when opened...

[@BrewDudes]

Beer gushing is typically based on having an infection in your bottles rather than too much trub in the bottles. Sounds like you are doing a lot to leave the trub behind in the fermentor. Make sure you clean and sanitize your bottles well using Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW) to clean them and Star San to sanitize them. - John

[@mrdespizeme]

About the only work around I could think of to avoid the air, is maybe using a small chunk of dry ice with the jar loose enough to push the air out.

[@BrewDudes]

But dry ice is often very dirty. If you've ever seen the bottom of a bin or container it comes in its often filthy. I work in an environment where I get a lot of dry ice deliveries. I have also been on a tour where dry ice is made. Its simply not something I'd put in or around my beer. Its a great idea but seems a bit risky contamination wise. -Mike

[@homebrewthepartialmashway5207]

looks like that air bubble also sent cold break through the wort cause the color of the wort changed before your pitch

[@BrewDudes]

Interesting observation - John

[@casey4412]

Is the purpose of this to harvest the yeast eventually or to get rid of the trub? If its the latter, why not just rack it off the trub into a keg or secondary? Sorry, this might be a silly question.

[@BrewDudes]

Not a silly question. I think it's set up to do both...I also Mike is playing around and seeing the practicality of either purpose. - John

[@chuckhogan7625]

The point is you don’t have to rack. Leave valve open to catch turn before pitch. Dump then pitch leaving valve open until primary is complete. Capture or dump spent yeast and leave value open again to catch sediment from secondary. Dump and go right to keg or bottle.

[@promeshogh5698]

PLEASE READ!! hello, so basically i'm in a country where alcoholic drinks are banned and you can't get your hands on any sort of alcohol grade yeast or turbo yeast, i'm trying to brew my own drinks because moonshiners here aren't really good,, i mean their stuff will KILL YOU!! not clean at all, you can compare it to pruno AKA prison wine. can you give me a way to make my own drinks using bakers yeast or something like that+ what to use as a vessel and what to use for sanitation of the vessel, will bleach work?

[@promeshogh5698]

large glass containers are very hard to get, the cleaning agent used for brewing vessels is not available, i mean only bleach and normal dish soap is pretty much all there is..

[@kewlbns69]

bleach is a bad idea. it works but you have to be super careful about the dilution ratios cuz bleach can also kill you. if you can't get starsan just look around on the internet for "food grade sanitizers" bakers yeast is absolutely fine for brewing but it generally won't ferment passed 12% if you're really lucky. you could try ginger beer by way of making a "ginger bug" which is a natural fermentation process that technically doesn't require any commercial yeast product. i've heard around that using the right recipe you could potentially turn kombucha alcoholic. they're trying to make it illegal to sell in the states as a regular beverage because there's like ~1% alcohol in it lol. btw i've brewed cider straight from containers of apple juice sold at the store. good luck!

[@BrewDudes]

I'd try and naturally fermenting some unpasteurized fruit juice like cider or look into making mead and use wild yeasts off of grapes to ferment. Cheers! -Mike

[@viper29ca]

Fast Ferment is the same design, air bubble going up through during or after fermentation isn't an issue, plenty of CO2 in there to push out any air.

[@BrewDudes]

Thanks Scott!

[@blackbogbrewing3186]

Depends on the style whether this will ruin your beer. With NEIPAS you probably would want to avoid this method due to the volatile hop oils and aroma.

[@viper29ca]

@@blackbogbrewing3186 Have made plenty NEIPAs this way, never been an issue. But congrats on digging up a 3yr old comment.

[@Maineicefishingenthusiast]

👍

[@BrewDudes]

Thanks!