Oops I forgot the vorlauf on my 1st AG

Apparantly a little too ready to get my boil on. The mash seemed to come out fairly clear. Is not recirculating going to cause me a problem?
I did use whirlflock in my boil, and it's a brown ale, so being crystal clear isn't a huge priority on this one.
Mainly worried about any other problems due to the missing step.

i forgot on my first all grain too, my beer came out fine. just when you pour your finished beer i would recomend pouring all of it in one go so you dont slush the sediment if their is any. if your using a carboy it should all settle out anyways i would think

RDWHAHB

I have forgotten this step plenty of times. It will settle in your bucket/carboy and your beer will taste just fine.

The point of Vorlauf is to clarify beer. If you're not worried about that, you're good. I vorlauf with 1 gal. My LHBS guy says he recirculates his until it is crystal clear... oh well.

I never Vorlauf, use about 1/4 tsp of Supermoss in the last 10 minutes of the boil and I get some exceptionally clear beers.

I don't worry about the vorlauf step at all. I collect my wort in buckets. I pour them slowly into my boil kettle and when I get to the bottom where the grain fines are, I stop and dump those out on the garden. It's like most other things in brewing, don't worry about it, it's not worth it. My beers come out so clear you can read through them.

hehe... it'll be fine, Aussies do BIAB which you can't vorlauf since there is no sparge, I have done this method and the beer is still crystal clear esp. if you use Irish Moss or Whirlfloc.

Welcome to the dark side.

Here's my opinion since nobody asked and I've been drinking...

Vourlof (or however you spell it) is an uneccesary step. After wasting some time making sure 50 particles of grain don't get into your kettle, you dump a million particles of hops in there. It all filters out in the end.

Brew and don't worry. It will be good...

I think you'll be ok.

Not worried about it now, and I may or may not do it on the next batch as well.

I agree you'll be fine, but I thought the worry of getting grain particles in your boil pot was more about the astringency you can get from boiling the grain husks. Not so much because of clarity. Just what My thoughts were on the purpose of Vorlauffing.

The amount of grain that gets past my braid is so miniscule I have been thinking of punting the vorlauf myself. Not that it is that difficult, just doesn't seem all that prductive??

I thought the worry of getting grain particles in your boil pot was more about the astringency you can get from boiling the grain husks. Not so much because of clarity.

This is what I was always taught also.

Perhaps that is the correct reason. Either way, the 40 or so little grain particles that get in there do not seem to be having any negative effect on my brews. I tried using this method for about five batches and noticed no difference whether it be in clarity or astringency.

I have no idea why people are so concerned about astringency from boiling grain husks.

Ever heard of decoction mashing?

RDWHAHB

IrregularPulse said:

I agree you'll be fine, but I thought the worry of getting grain particles in your boil pot was more about the astringency you can get from boiling the grain husks. Not so much because of clarity. Just what My thoughts were on the purpose of Vorlauffing.

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Definitely what I thought too. +1:rockin:

Orangevango said:

I have no idea why people are so concerned about astringency from boiling grain husks.

Ever heard of decoction mashing?

RDWHAHB

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Yes, but we've also heard, don't let your steeping grains get over 170 when doing an extract with grains, Don't mash over 170 and so on.

I feel that the difference between a pound or two of grain steeping or a full mash compared to the ounce that may make it into your boil kettle are fairly significant. If you can taste that difference in a five or ten gallon batch with that ounce of grain present then Vorlauf, if you can't taste it then don't worry about it. I find that some on here are very picky and precise about the hobby. For me it is a release and I try to keep it simple, not complicate it. To me it's a step that does not provide any gain, but others may feel that is a step you can't do with out. Decide for yourself and just enjoy brewing.

Hmmm this is a good question. I spend a lot of time vorlaufing. If astringency is not a problem, i've been wasting a lot of time.

Although i'm so anal I could never bring myself to skip it.

There is no doubt in my mind that forgetting to vorlauf will result in an infection, possibly even HIV, although it may just end up being staph.

The best solution is to dump your beer while humming a dirge.

HopTrap said:

Decide for yourself and just enjoy brewing.

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I agree, but would like the most information I could get to decide.

wildwest450 said:

Hmmm this is a good question. I spend a lot of time vorlaufing. If astringency is not a problem, i've been wasting a lot of time.

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Ditto. If it doesn't make a difference then I'll take the step out gladly. But it's not difficult enough to risk a whole batch tasting bad. i only brew once a month and don't wanna take even a 3% chance of an off taste for the amount of time and effort it takes to Vorluaff without some actual evidence/information.

IrregularPulse said:

Ditto. If it doesn't make a difference then I'll take the step out gladly. But it's not difficult enough to risk a whole batch tasting bad. i only brew once a month and don't wanna take even a 3% chance of an off taste for the amount of time and effort it takes to Vorluaff without some actually evidence/information.

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Yup. The tiny amount of husks I do get in the kettle leaves me shaking uncontrollably for 20 minutes.

I spend a lot of time vorlaufing.

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Really? It takes me a minute or less. Open valve, let it run into my pitcher until it runs clear, then pour pitcher back into MLT.

I think it depends alot on your crush, and your filtering method. I crush pretty fine now, and have a false bottom. If I didn't vorlauf, I'd have a ton of grain particles in my wort! However, I don't worry if there is still some cloudiness or small floaters.

Brewing in a bag uses fine mesh, so most of the grain husks stay in there. If you have a braid, you probably don't get much in the way of particles either. Vorlaufing is simply to clear up the first bit of wort, and mine is loaded with particles for the first two quarts or so.

IrregularPulse said:

Ditto. If it doesn't make a difference then I'll take the step out gladly. But it's not difficult enough to risk a whole batch tasting bad. i only brew once a month and don't wanna take even a 3% chance of an off taste for the amount of time and effort it takes to Vorluaff without some actually evidence/information.

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I forgot to vorlauf an IPA - tasted great to me; but in a contest all 3 BJCP judge noted astringency. I couldn't detect it, but they could -- not saying that it was the result of not vorlaufing, but it could have been.

oh, extreme Coleman MLT with SS braid....

It seems to be as fine or finer than any grain bag I have used in the past with partial mashes. That may account for how clear it looked initially.

I've started attaching my funnel with screen insert to the side of a bucket and just putting my mash runnings through that. It catches almost everything. I always hated vorlaufing.

But there is a significant distance for the beer to be falling. Oh Nos! HSA !!!1!

Maybe I'll skip it next time.Probably not. I'm thinking any astringency I may be picking up is more likely from water chemistry since I do currently vorlauff. But at the same time it's kind of fun to vorlauff. And it takes maybe two quarts (1-2 minutes) of vorlauffing to get clear runnings.

i just tie a fine mesh grain bag on the end of my siphon tubing going from the mlt to the kettle. husks and sludge stay in the bag, wort goes in the kettle. it's worked great for me so far.

edit: i do this because i too use a false bottom and even after vorlaufing a gallon or more some grain husks were getting into the kettle. now i circulate a couple pints and rdwhahb.

I mill on the fine side. I would have quite a bit of grain in my pot if I didn't recirculate for a while. I also am afraid of the astringency caused by boiling the grain, although I don't know if this fear is founded in fact.

I have a pump now that I just turn on and come back in 5 minutes and it is running crystal clear. Vorlaufing is easy with a pump.

Well with all this scientific proof im done vorlaufing. I'll throw away my mash tun and mash in the brew kettle. After 60 minutes i'll dump in sparge water and stir.

Then i'll remove the bulk of the grains with a strainer and begin boil.

wildwest450 said:

Well with all this scientific proof im done vorlaufing. I'll throw away my mash tun and mash in the brew kettle. After 60 minutes i'll dump in sparge water and stir.

Then i'll remove the bulk of the grains with a strainer and begin boil.

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why even remove the grains? just boil 'em all

Im just saying, in a traditional decoction mash, you pull a thick portion of the mash and boil it for 20+ minutes, I really doubt that a hand full of husks is going to make any detectable "astringency" in your beer.

AZ_IPA said:

I forgot to vorlauf an IPA - tasted great to me; but in a contest all 3 BJCP judge noted astringency. I couldn't detect it, but they could -- not saying that it was the result of not vorlaufing, but it could have been.

oh, extreme Coleman MLT with SS braid....

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Excellent example of the reason competitions (and clubs with lots of good feedback) are so valuable.

I also think that a lot of people increase their efficiency by recirculating which is essentially the same as a heavy vorlauf.

AZ_IPA said:

why even remove the grains? just boil 'em all

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That way I could really make a meal out of my beer. Texture and Taste, it's what's for dinner!

weirdboy said:

There is no doubt in my mind that forgetting to vorlauf will result in an infection, possibly even HIV, although it may just end up being staph.

The best solution is to dump your beer while humming a dirge.

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I haven't figured out how to hum while dumping 5 gallons of beer down my throat...

Freddy57 said:

I haven't figured out how to hum while dumping 5 gallons of beer down my throat...

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The last time I had a 5 Gallon dump was... oh, wait, that was Scotch, not beer.



I'm wondering if using a wine filter with the 10um ultra-fine filter would work.

Although I've never tried decoction mashing, my understanding is that you remove the thickest part of the mash and boil it. This thickness reduces the danger of removing tannins from the grains as it acts as a buffer. From everything I've read and others have said on here, vorlaufing is not so much to clarify as to prevent tannin extraction. I personally hate this part of the process as I'm terrified of channeling so I end up burning my fingers trying to gently pour the wort back into my mash tun.

joety said:

Although I've never tried decoction mashing, my understanding is that you remove the thickest part of the mash and boil it. This thickness reduces the danger of removing tannins from the grains as it acts as a buffer. From everything I've read and others have said on here, vorlaufing is not so much to clarify as to prevent tannin extraction. I personally hate this part of the process as I'm terrified of channeling so I end up burning my fingers trying to gently pour the wort back into my mash tun.

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Do you pour it with your hands????

I put a plate on the top of the gran bed and gently pour my vorlauf runnings back n top of the plate. The plate surface spreads the liquid out.

IrregularPulse said:

Do you pour it with your hands????

I put a plate on the top of the gran bed and gently pour my vorlauf runnings back n top of the plate. The plate surface spreads the liquid out.

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That's exactly how I do it, except I hold the plate with my hand, thus the burns. If I let go of the plate wouldn't it sink into the mash?