TRUB, AND IT'S ELIMINATION

[Grande69]

OK, so some of us have bought the fancy Sanke fermenter kit. We worry about not dipping the racking cane too far into the beer for fear of sucking up trub. If we are forcing beer out under pressure, why not just plunge the cane to the bottom, and blow out the trub first, then capture the clear beer? I realize that not ALL of the trub will come out, but this makes more sense to me than avoiding the trub.

Any ideas? Is the trub thick enuf to plug the cane?

[maltbarley]

I would think that you'd end up clouding your beer. When I transfer from my fermenter, I dip the tube slowly until I see a little haze in the line then go up slightly. Doesn't seem to be a problem.

[JonW]

Ditto what Tim says. Don't force air into the tube!

Before having any beer in the sanke, push your tube all the way down until it bottoms out and then mark it so you know where the bottom of the keg is. During fermentation, I have mine pulled up about 2 inches so it isn't sitting near the trub. When I start kegging, I'll push the tube down until it is about 1" from the bottom (unless dry hopped and cold crashed, then about 2 inches). I'll keg until it starts pushing some CO2 out the tube and then I'll slowly push the cane down until I see some trub or hop material.

[brahn]

I do it just like Jon and Tim. I did leave the racking cane pushed all the way down during fermentation once and it clogged the tube.

If I'm re-using the yeast I will swirl the fermenter around after I'm done filling my kegs and then push out the yeast and trub into other containers. If there's not much beer left at this point the yeast sludge will be really thick and it can be tough to push it out. I've had to crank up the pressure on the co2 to get it moving before.