Barm Deck

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Bribie G

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When I ferment Ales I don't use an airlock for the first few days, just cover the grommet with a crown seal (or in the case of lagers I just clingwrap and rubber band)

With my latest 1469 brew it behaved just like the old Stone Square system (which is in its nature). The Yeast Trough in the diagram is also referred to a a Barm Deck (sounds more cryptic - I like it B) )
The round thing in the middle of the top of the square is a manhole and the yeast rises to the top and crowds through the hole up onto the barm deck, then wort is pumped up from square onto the barm deck via the organ pipe to wash the yeast back down into the square. (edit: I'm not completely clear on this, I assume the yeasty wort mix goes BACK down the organ pipe to the bottom of the brew) If you get a bottle of Sam Smiths Nut Brown etc there's a photo on the back of the bottle showing them doing it, with a spray of wort fountaining onto the Barm Deck. These yeasts are so flocculent this is the best way to get the yeast back into the beer to keep it fermenting. On a small scale, thrashing the wort also does more or less the same.

Yorkshire_square_barm_deck.jpg

Last night I checked the brew and the yeast had treated the grommet hole as their familiar manhole, and masses of lovely lovely 1469 the texture of Cream Cheese had filled the dips in the fermenter lid. You could pick up lumps of it almost like playdough. Sadly, couldn't trust it to be sterile and it nearly broke my heart to clean off the lid and replace. There was still heaps of yeast on the brew so I gave it a good thrashing and it's settled down now.

So I've decided to build a simple Barm Deck.

yorkshire_my_barm_deck.JPG

So as the yummy creamy stuff oozes into the upper chamber ( round Tupperware thingo communicating with the fermenter via two grommets and a bit of tube) I can collect and store the excess. Then as necessary for the first couple of days of fermentation I can simply run off a couple of litres of wort out of the tap with the fermenter seal 'cracked' a bit to avoid sucking yeast back down, then seal fermenter up tight again and mix wort with yeast (barm) and let it flow back down into the lower vessel.

Of course the key to the whole thing is sanitise sanitise sanitise, Looking forward to this project. :)

Edit: might have to put in an organ pipe as well to ensure better mixing of the yeast into the wort. Shouldn't be difficult with an extra couple of grommets and some tube.
 
I can see this evolving into the fermenting equivalent of a RIMS or HERMS or whatever.
 
Every yeast is sacred

seriously though, that is really neat, looking forward to seeing if it works :p
 
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