I'm wondering how others brew small batches. What hardware do you use? How do you deal with trub?
I used to use a large coffee percolator as a mash/lauter tun. It was great, I could pre-heat my strike water in it, and then just drop in a false bottom (veggie strainer) and a grain bag, and mash with that. The problem was that it didn't hold temperatures well (even wrapped with several towels), and I needed several pots for strike water, sparging, and vorlauf.
So, from there, I went to full-volume BIAB on the stove top with a 2.5 gal pot. This was buch better for holding mash temps, but I was getting much cloudier wort. Post-boil, I was just getting too much trub in my primary, even after whirpooling. When yiou're only getting 7-10 bottles out a batch, the 10oz of extra trub can make a big difference.
So, I'm now thinking of mashing on the stove top like I did with BIAB, but then transfering BACK to the coffee percolator so I can vorlauf and get clearer wort before I boil.
Do you think this will work? Do any other small-batch brewers have this problem? How did you deal with it?
I used to use a large coffee percolator as a mash/lauter tun. It was great, I could pre-heat my strike water in it, and then just drop in a false bottom (veggie strainer) and a grain bag, and mash with that. The problem was that it didn't hold temperatures well (even wrapped with several towels), and I needed several pots for strike water, sparging, and vorlauf.
So, from there, I went to full-volume BIAB on the stove top with a 2.5 gal pot. This was buch better for holding mash temps, but I was getting much cloudier wort. Post-boil, I was just getting too much trub in my primary, even after whirpooling. When yiou're only getting 7-10 bottles out a batch, the 10oz of extra trub can make a big difference.
So, I'm now thinking of mashing on the stove top like I did with BIAB, but then transfering BACK to the coffee percolator so I can vorlauf and get clearer wort before I boil.
Do you think this will work? Do any other small-batch brewers have this problem? How did you deal with it?