Recirculating BIAB excessive trub

Does a recirculating mash BIAB aggravate the increased trub issue?

After brewing a few ales on my recirculating electric kettle BIAB setup, I just roll with the increased trub. I pump over to the fermenter until the sludge gets really thick and I am done. But after trying a couple of lagers, I am a little confused.

Yesterday I brewed a 5.5galon batch of pils. After chilling, I had exactly what I expected in the kettle. I whirlpooled and let it sit for about 60 minutes. I drained a quart of crud then ran off 4 gallons of really nice clear wort. When it started to get cloudy, there were still 1.5 gallons left in the kettle. I don't care with an ale, but that much break in a pale lager will have a fermentation/flavor impact right?

Any suggestions? I am using the large bag that Austin Homebrew sells and the standard crush from my Local shop. Also use whirl floc. I am just wondering if pumping the mash so much helps more fine particulate stuff escape the bag.

For what its worth, I BIAB and have a metric ****-ton of trub in my fermentor for every beer. I'd love to find a way to reduce it, but it doesn't seem to affect clarity or flavor, so its not a big concern, even for my lagers.

I once heard that its no big deal if all your cold break ends up in the fermenter, but it IS a big deal to make sure it 'breaks' from the wort. So be sure to get a nice heavy boil, or use some whirlflock/moss etc, whatever.

I'm getting about an inch of trub in my primary from BIAB, but figure its par for the course. I figure there's really only two ways to avoid it: run it through the grain bag after mash out and before boil, or use a mash tun style filter in the boil kettle for draining into a fermenter. Haven't tried either yet, more likely to do the latter, it seems to be a bit easier.

usfmikeb said:

run it through the grain bag after mash out and before boil

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Yeah I already do this, as well as running the batch through another strainer right before I pitch. And I still get a lot of trub.

The trub is, i think, cold break, which isn't going to get filtered out with a bag. Its too fine. However, you shouldn't sweat it too much. Mah beer still drank purty good.

I've started using a SS sponge under my dip tube in my Boil kettle and it has helped tons in keeping the trub in the kettle and out of my carboys. Also keeps 1.2lbs of pellet hops out too!

Gibbnal said:

Any suggestions? I am using the large bag that Austin Homebrew sells and the standard crush from my Local shop. Also use whirl floc. I am just wondering if pumping the mash so much helps more fine particulate stuff escape the bag.

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Voile bag is much finer and will cut down some of the stuff getting into your wort from the mashing. You can also use a second bag in your kettle during the boil which can act as a filter as well. I don't get any additional trub from my BIAB brews over my 3 keggle AG brews.

Have any pics? I bought a SS scrubby and some Copper Scrubbies. The SS is HUGE! I mean, a 3 or 4" diameter ball of SS... The coppers are much smaller and thinner, so I'm leaning toward using that, 2" diameter, flat, about 1/4" thick.

For placement, you just put the scrubby under the diptube? I've got a center draw and since it's copper tube, I can bend it up and then fit it under, then press the tube back down to get some pressure to keep the scrubby in place. Anyone else doing the same?

This is kind of like the ones i have. I get them at a local restaurant supply place. I've found that I can only use them once. B/c after u uses them and clean them they aren't as compact and don't stop the hops as well.

I use a fine mesh filter "bag" (not really much of a bag, only about 6 inches deep with an elastic band that holds it over the bucket) over the top of my primary fermenter (a bucket) that I pour the wort through from my kettle after chilling. This removes pretty much everything, and has the beneficial side effect of seriously aerating the wort. I usually pour through once into the bucket, then dump it back into the kettle (after pouring the leftover break material and other additions out if there is any left), and then pour it back through the strainer again. So, it effectively gets strained and aerated twice.

If you are brewing something with a lot of pellet hops, then the strainer will clog, but you can grab the sides of it and roll the wort back and forth until all the liquid is through and into the fermenter, leaving a large blob of break material and hops that you can easily dump by turning the bag inside out. I usually do this about 2-3 times with a very hoppy beer.

This is definitely a little bit more work, but has extreme benefit in that VERY little trub makes its way into the fermenter (I don't have any more in the fermenter with BIAB than with extract + steeping grains). I usually have 1/2 - 1 inch of trub/yeast cake in the fermenter after primary is finished (and I usually don't secondary), and it is MOSTLY yeast. This also makes yeast washing insanely easy, and you get superbly clean yeast from it.

I got the bag from Midwest Supplies here: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/nylon-brew-bucket-filter-bag-fine-mesh.html. One of the best and simplest investments I've made. The only issue I've had is that the elastic is not strong enough to hold it onto the bucket if you pour a lot of wort on it. To fix this, I either fasten it onto the bucket with sanitized twine or large binder clips (I also use the binder clips to hold my BIAB in place securely).

After raising the grainbag above the kettle, if you recirc through the bag, would it not filter out some crud?