Deadspace is Ok!

[m3taL]

So iv seen some talk about the places on "Dead Space" in brewing systems, and i come across the same issue myself in the last brew i done.

Deadspace in your Boil Kettle is classed as the volume left after your pickup tube stops picking up. Now in Systems like the robo brew or Braumeister are up around 3.5lt, This is not a bad thing for the cost of making that extra 3.5lt of wort over all is minimal but allows all of your Protiens, trub and hop matter to stay in the bottom of the kettle not into the fermenter. So if you find your pulling a lot of Trub through your chiller or into the fermeneter Raise your pickup a bit higher and utilize some more deadspace.

Mashtun Deadspace is the vol of liquid again left in the mash tun after the pickup stops picking up. In my Keggle and False bottom this is pretty much 0 as my pickup is 4mm off the bottom of the lowest point of the keggle. but if you have it work out what it is and allow for it.

then i come to Fermenter deadspace.....I brew to fill a keg usually so i allow for 22lt into fermeneter that way if i end up a bit short its all good, this allows me to cold crash in the fermenter and have all my shitty matter in the bottom un disturbed and then leaves about a lt on top for dry hop floating matter to stay in there also.

The end product is going to clear your beers up.... less chance of off flavor.

 

[verysupple]

Good post. I'm not sure why there's so much negativity around dead space. Yes there are some homebrewers pumping out batches of 100's of litres and at that scale it would start to become a bit expensive, but for most of us I think it's an easy way to get a nice clear wort in to the FV and then package a nice clear beer.

I do pretty similar to the OP. I leave a fair amount behind in the kettle, some in the cube, and a fair amount in the FV. I get ~78 % eff. in to the kettle and after all those losses my brewhouse eff. is ~66 %. I'm OK with that - the beer is good.

 

[Bribie G]

If you are buying grain in bulk, the cost of deadspace is only going to be around the price of a midi (pot) if that.

In any case, my trub and fermenter slurry goes into my compost system anyway along with spent hops and grain, and it comes back to me in the form of tomatoes and eggplants.

 

[verysupple]

In any case, my trub and fermenter slurry goes into my compost system anyway along with spent hops and grain, and it comes back to me in the form of tomatoes and eggplants.

Now that's efficient. A different kind of efficiency, but efficient nonetheless.

 

[buckerooni]

If you are buying grain in bulk, the cost of deadspace is only going to be around the price of a midi (pot) if that.

In any case, my trub and fermenter slurry goes into my compost system anyway along with spent hops and grain, and it comes back to me in the form of tomatoes and eggplants.

interesting I like this approach, what kind of compost system do you have? I've only got a single 220L tumbler which I presume would get pretty funky (and drip onto the surrounding ground) if it's got trub/slurry in it.

 

[real_beer]

Probably the name itself has a lot to do with it. If there was a physical piece of equipment you put in the dead-space and called it a wort clarifier, sediment collector, or trub trap etc. everyone would jump through hopes to have one and just see the loss as part of the process.

I suppose it's another piece of the extra 1% of effort that people who look to win competitions can make good use of to keep their brews up in the winning circle more often, quality above quantity so to speak. I wont be surprised if this topic takes off in a big way m3tal

 

[Jrrj]

I use MLT excess wort in bread. Sourdough starters love it, which is not surprising given the quality of yeast nutrients from an AG brew. At first I wondered about astringency in the final runnings, but it isn't bad enough to come through in the flavour of finished bread.

Similar to Bribie G I've also noticed the veggie garden loves my spent grains poured over it as mulch.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

The sugars left in the grain would fire up the bacteria and keep them busy, and the worms.Cheaper than buying a molasses based activator.

 

[Killer Brew]

Mashed grains to the chooks. Trub & residue from the hop bag into the compost (closed tightly to keep the border collie out). Nothing goes to waste.

 

[Bribie G]

Seeing as this is turning into a gardening thread

A bit hard to see due to the afternoon sun but:



1. 150L compost bin. bin gets lifted and turned every week. When it's full and fairly mature after a month I just lift it up, put it in a new spot and leave a "tower of compost" standing there.

2. Pile of grass and leaves from lawnmowing that feeds bin and pile 3

3. Normally there's a pile of grass and leaves taken off pile 2 and mixed with the spent hops and spent grain and partially rotted down for a couple of weeks, I used it all up on beds the other day

4. Finished compost from bin, mostly used up.

All food waste goes into the compost bin and is mixed in with grass from pile 2. That's everything, peelings, lamb bones, leftovers, eggshells, stale bread, prawn shells, nothing organic ever goes into the garbage.
Trub and fermenter waste goes into the bin where it wets down the contents. The bin generates a fair amount of heat and sometimes steams in the morning chill.

 

[rude]

When tipping my cube into fermenter sometimes at the end of the pour I see all the cube hops
coming

I say to myself I should stop but don't & chuck the lot in its the miser in me

I usually fill kettle up to 34L boil hard (no miser in me here) then cube with 3 L left in kettle

Last brew started with 30L boiled hard first 30 min then eased off lid had to be half put on
ended up just filling my cube back to 34L less stuffing around

 

[Bribie G]

Provided you have clear wort into the cube, you can empty the entire cube into the FV. The cold break that forms in the cube settles out into a firm layer and any hops get caught up in that and settle out as well.

I did a much posted experiment with two cubes, poured the clear top halves into one FV and the cold break / hop debris bottom halves into another FV and no problems with the fermentation.

I tried the results out at a club meeting with a blind tasting and the cold break beer was voted slightly more tasty than the clear wort beeer.

 

[welly2]

Just out of interest, would this be fairly easily resolved in beersmith by setting batch size to 25L as opposed to 23L, for instance? And then scaling up the recipe? Then I'm making an extra 2L of wort that is my dead space I can forget (or chuck over the veggie plants).

 

[manticle]

Seeing as this is turning into a gardening thread

A bit hard to see due to the afternoon sun but:

compost.jpg

1. 150L compost bin. bin gets lifted and turned every week. When it's full and fairly mature after a month I just lift it up, put it in a new spot and leave a "tower of compost" standing there.

2. Pile of grass and leaves from lawnmowing that feeds bin and pile 3

3. Normally there's a pile of grass and leaves taken off pile 2 and mixed with the spent hops and spent grain and partially rotted down for a couple of weeks, I used it all up on beds the other day

4. Finished compost from bin, mostly used up.

All food waste goes into the compost bin and is mixed in with grass from pile 2. That's everything, peelings, lamb bones, leftovers, eggshells, stale bread, prawn shells, nothing organic ever goes into the garbage.
Trub and fermenter waste goes into the bin where it wets down the contents. The bin generates a fair amount of heat and sometimes steams in the morning chill.

I like the approach and similarly use everything - it all just gets a good turn, regularly.
Only thing different is grass clippings - my lawn has a heap of weeds and I fought them in my garden beds for a long time so grass clippings and lawn related green waste are kept in a separate pile. Once the compost is full (and i generate a lot of spent grain), hot spent grain gets piled in with the clippings in the hope that one day the weed seeds will be smothered to death.

 

[rude]

Heat will kill the weed seeds pile it up with the lawn clippings with moisture (water from hose)

Black is a good absorber of heat compost bin or even plastic sheet plus throw in food scraps animal poo as well youre spent brew stuff
and turn over regular for top mulch

You are in Tassie so will take longer

 

[m3taL]

Hahaha Love it

Spent Grain go's into my compost heap that the chickens spread out and turn over all the time, not really a compost heap more of a place i throw veggies scraps and spent grain for the chooks.... i dig it over every now and then and when i do i spread a bit around the trees etc...

Excess wort/trub go's in there too along with yeast and trub out of my fermenters... Seems to be plenty going on in there worms everywhere etc...

on a side note i sometimes reuse my yeast which works out ok in the Coopers Fermented as the tap is quite high. after i have taken the wort off i will put it back in the fridge and then just before i reuse it i'll tip the last bit of wort off the top and straight from the chiller to the fermenter again.


Clearing Space not Deadspace