trub - (hot/cold break in the fermenter)

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kjones

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So, I just got done with my brewday and I thought to myself at the end...EVERYTHING WENT RIGHT THIS TIME!!! But, then unfortunately I realized that most all of the break material went into the fermentor.

Does this make my beer ruined? Is it gonna taste bad? Is there anything I can do to help it? secondary?
 
They say beer comes out better if you leave most of the trub out but I always seem to end up with most of the trub IN the fermenter. I think I make some decent beer so I for one don't worry about it.
Your beer will not be ruined at all. :mug:
 
They say beer comes out better if you leave most of the trub out but I always seem to end up with most of the trub IN the fermenter. I think I make some decent beer so I for one don't worry about it.
Your beer will not be ruined at all. :mug:


I sure hope so.. It is just such a bummer in the back of my mind. I hit all my numbers perfect, I did palmers oak butt brown, I only dropped 2 degrees in an hour, I used my brand new wort chiller, turkey fryer, keggle, and son of fermentation chiller, and I just got a fridge and spent alot on keg equipment, plus I even made a yeast starter for the first time ever. Everything is just so perfect except for that, DANG IT!! owell, I will definitley get a scrubby for my dip tube next time, I mean I had good break, i just got to anxious and didnt wait long enough after i whirlpooled
 
I sure hope so.. It is just such a bummer in the back of my mind. I hit all my numbers perfect, I did palmers oak butt brown, I only dropped 2 degrees in an hour, I used my brand new wort chiller, turkey fryer, keggle, and son of fermentation chiller, and I just got a fridge and spent alot on keg equipment, plus I even made a yeast starter for the first time ever. Everything is just so perfect except for that, DANG IT!! owell, I will definitley get a scrubby for my dip tube next time, I mean I had good break, i just got to anxious and didnt wait long enough after i whirlpooled

Trust me on this one. RDWHAHB! :mug: Your beer will be fine.
 
No worries!

I've been just dumping everything into the fermenter for 13 years and never had an issue with it. It'll all settle out.
 
I use my paint-strainer rig for my hops, but I can't seem to come up with a way to keep the cold break out of the fermenter without sacrificing 2/3 gallons of wort. I've tried whirlpooling fast, whirlpooling slow, stainless scrubbies, a funnel filter, etc...nothing works for me. So into the fermenter it goes, and I end up with four inches of fluffy cold break at the bottom! No matter, within a few days it's settled down a lot and by the time the beer is ready to rack there is just a 1/2" or so of tightly packed trub. I just carefully rack above this layer, and usually sacrifice about a pint.

Needless to say, my beer turns out great. So don't sweat the cold break!
 
On several batches I made, I've had loads of cold break end up in the fermenter, and the beer has turned out damn good. RDWHAHB! :mug:
 
As long as you do two-stage fermentation (i.e. rack to a secondary fermenter after a while) it will be perfectly fine. If you were to leave it in the primary for a month then having the trub in there would be a problem. Rest assured that this batch is very normal. :mug:
 
As long as you do two-stage fermentation (i.e. rack to a secondary fermenter after a while) it will be perfectly fine. If you were to leave it in the primary for a month then having the trub in there would be a problem. Rest assured that this batch is very normal. :mug:

The recipe I did (palmers oak butt brown) calls for 2 weeks in primary, maybe I will rack into secondary for a week after that?
 
The recipe I did (palmers oak butt brown) calls for 2 weeks in primary, maybe I will rack into secondary for a week after that?

Rack to a secondary when it's done with the initial (very active) stage of fermentation. Sometimes that takes a couple days, sometimes a couple weeks or more. In most cases you can rack after a week in the primary.
 
update: I just tryed the beer after it has been in the keg for 2 days and it is tasting great (too great really i was just gonna have a sample, but now I am just about hammered) anyway, is it ok to leave the liquid line hooked up to the keg during storage and also do you set the psi back to the carbonation number when you get done?
 
I have the same issue. Mine doesn't seem to whirlpool out, it just stays floating around and goes into the fermenter. Maybe I'll put a grain steeping sack on the syphon (soak it in starsan first) and see if that helps.

I have a new CFC being built for me (brother gets kegs of beer, I get new toys) and I'll probably run the return from that into a grain sack or paint strainer bag to catch the break while recirculating it into the kettle.
 
As long as you do two-stage fermentation (i.e. rack to a secondary fermenter after a while) it will be perfectly fine. If you were to leave it in the primary for a month then having the trub in there would be a problem. Rest assured that this batch is very normal. :mug:

In that case most of my brews would be spoiled. I use whole hops to filter out most of the hot break, but the CFC generates large amounts of cold break that goes straight into the primary, and 90% of them spend 4 - 5 weeks in primary.

-a.
 
What I have been doing to help keep the trub out of the fermenter is to go from the brew kettle into my bottling bucket. Then from the bottling bucket through the spigot into the carboy. It has been working great at leaving most the trub in the bottling bucket. Also helps aerate the wort by going from the spigot, to the funnel, to the carboy and splashing about.
 
I have brewed 4 batches since i posted this and it looks like i will always have trub in the fermentor, but yal are right it doesn't effect the taste. It just seems like no matter how hard i try to whirlpool it never works. My ground water is pretty cold now and I also used a prechiller with my ic and i cooled my wort to 68 in about 20 mins. I took the ic out stirred like hell for about 2 mins covered the pot and waited for 20 mins, then i drained and still nothing. I thought for sure i had it this time. It does seem like the cold break will appear in clumps in my carboy after like and hour or so though and then it all just dances around with fermentation starts.
 
I have brewed 4 batches since i posted this and it looks like i will always have trub in the fermentor, but yal are right it doesn't effect the taste. It just seems like no matter how hard i try to whirlpool it never works. My ground water is pretty cold now and I also used a prechiller with my ic and i cooled my wort to 68 in about 20 mins. I took the ic out stirred like hell for about 2 mins covered the pot and waited for 20 mins, then i drained and still nothing. I thought for sure i had it this time. It does seem like the cold break will appear in clumps in my carboy after like and hour or so though and then it all just dances around with fermentation starts.

How do you know if it hasn't affected the taste unless you make two identical batches and test them(one with trub and one filtered)? If you have a ball valve on your pot, you can effectively strain for $2. go to Lowes and buy a paint strainer.
 
How do you know if it hasn't affected the taste unless you make two identical batches and test them(one with trub and one filtered)? If you have a ball valve on your pot, you can effectively strain for $2. go to Lowes and buy a paint strainer.

Well i haven't compared, i just haven't noticed any bad tastes, but i guess that is true, I wont know until i have one without trub. And i have bought like every kinda paint strainer bag they have and it just goes through it.
 
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