Trub city!

So I did my second AG batch today and everything seemed to be going very well. I actually got about 80% BH efficiency, hit my preboil volume, and started brewing. It was all good until I got to rack to the fermentor. I had an absolutely inordinate amount of trub and ended up having to siphon through a lot of it just to get about 4 gallons of wort instead of the 5.25 I had tried to shoot for. And the fermentor looks like it is full of diluted oatmeal... Very thick and gritty looking.

I had to drop my friend off back at his house while I waited for the wort to chill and by the time I got back it was at 62 deg F. Dunno if that was related to why I had so much trub.

PS - Will I be fine to just let what I siphoned into the fermentor settle and maybe do a secondary in about a week or two to clear it out?

Anyways, here is the recipe I brewed:

Mash Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
10 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 2 80.0 %
1 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 3 8.0 %
8.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.0 %
8.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 5 4.0 %

Mash Steps
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 16.00 qt of water at 163.7 F 152.0 F 60 min
Mash Out Add 8.40 qt of water at 200.7 F 168.0 F 10 min
Fly sparge with 2.15 gal water at 168.0 F


Boil Wort
Add water to achieve boil volume of 5.75 gal
Estimated pre-boil gravity is 1.054 SG

Boil Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
First Wort Hops
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.20 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 6 14.4 IBUs

8.0 oz Brown Sugar, Dark (50.0 SRM)
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.90 %] - Boil 60.0 min
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)
2.00 oz Fuggles [4.20 %] - Boil 15.0 min
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.90 %] - Boil 0.0 min

Here's a picture:



^ That isn't right... We're talkin about 3 inches or so of trub settled in the fermentor after 20 minutes.

It'll compact over time after fermentation finishes knocking stuff around. You might end up losing half a gallon or so to trub. Lately I've been trying to limit the amount going to the carboy because it takes up space beer could be in. Last beer I neglected to and lost a little more than 1 gallon to trub and hop sludge from dry hopping.

I have had batches that look like that when I use oatmeal. but it will compact down when the yeast falls out.

FWIW, I've begun scaling my batches to 6gal to account for about a gallon of kettle trub loss, chill shrinkage, and fermenter trub loss. That way I actually yield 5gal to keg and/ or bottles!

I have seen many threads contributing all of that trub to the whirlfloc. I only have an 8 gal kettle so I skip the whirlfloc and sacrifice some clarity so I can maintain my volumes.

Nice looking batch of break material. I've gotten some that looked like that. I use a bucket fermenter and dump it all in. In a week you won't know it was ever there.:rockin:

Yep...that'll settle to an inch or so, plus the yeast. As others have said, I adjusted my recipes(boil) to about 5.5 to 5.75 Gal to assure a 5 gal end result.

That's nothing man. This is what my ipa looked like. After that I immediately built a hop spider. It will settle to at least half that size.

That just means you got a good cold-break. That's a feature not a bug--nice job for your second AG batch.

Piratwolf has the right idea, plan for 5.5 to 6 gallons into the fermenter depending on the amount of hops you're using.

Thanks for the responses. I guess I should've just relaxed. Haven't seen trub like that since I brewed a 1.10 OG Imperial Stout and this was nowhere near that much malt/hops.

Just had the same thing happen. Not worried at all but was planing on racking my next beer on top of it's cake. Is that ok or not?

piratwolf said:

fwiw, i've begun scaling my batches to 6gal to account for about a gallon of kettle trub loss, chill shrinkage, and fermenter trub loss. That way i actually yield 5gal to keg and/ or bottles!

Click to expand...

+1

sivdrinks said:

Just had the same thing happen. Not worried at all but was planing on racking my next beer on top of it's cake. Is that ok or not?

Click to expand...

That shouldn't be a problem although some have suggested to only use 1/4 of the cake. You would have similar amounts of proteins from any similar batch but sometimes it seems to coagulate and look curdled while other times is is more dispersed.

RM-MN said:

That shouldn't be a problem although some have suggested to only use 1/4 of the cake. You would have similar amounts of proteins from any similar batch but sometimes it seems to coagulate and look curdled while other times is is more dispersed.

Click to expand...

It's in a carboy, how would I quarter it? I really need a conical.

sivdrinks said:

It's in a carboy, how would I quarter it? I really need a conical.

Click to expand...

In the Fermentation And Yeast section there is a sticky on "Yeast washing illustrated". Yeast washing is pretty easy and you'll have a supply of yeast that will last you for quite a while.

RM-MN said:

In the Fermentation And Yeast section there is a sticky on "Yeast washing illustrated". Yeast washing is pretty easy and you'll have a supply of yeast that will last you for quite a while.

Click to expand...

I fail at it 9/10 times, the trub and yeast never seem to wanna separate.

So the consensus is that I shouldn't have to rack to secondary to get a clear beer? It is an ESB that I'm wanting to enter into competition at this year's State Fair so per style I would not like it to be cloudy at all. If that's the case then probably let it sit in the fermentor for a month and a half or so?

Thanks for all the help guys!

PhelanKA7 said:

Here's a picture:

Click to expand...

I feel your pain... The tripel I brewed on Saturday had a solid layer of cold break that filled 40% of the kettle. Not a whole lot of hops, so I was stunned. I thought my BIAB bag had broken. I'm contemplating throwing my hops in a bag with my next batch.

piratwolf said:

fwiw, i've begun scaling my batches to 6gal to account for about a gallon of kettle trub loss, chill shrinkage, and fermenter trub loss. That way i actually yield 5gal to keg and/ or bottles!

Click to expand...

^^ +1

sivdrinks said:

I fail at it 9/10 times, the trub and yeast never seem to wanna separate.

Click to expand...

The lighter yeast is just floating around and the heavier trub sinks faster. I decant the liquid leaving all visible stuff and end up with a nice white layer.

As you're chilling, have you tried getting a whirlpool going via stirring and then waiting for a half hour? Much of the cold break will settle out in the boil kettle. Then you can siphon off just the clear wort.

But over all, I don't think it will matter much. Brewing got a lot more fun when I just adjusted volumes for loss. Just plan on losing some and everything gets easier.

PhelanKA7 said:

So the consensus is that I shouldn't have to rack to secondary to get a clear beer? It is an ESB that I'm wanting to enter into competition at this year's State Fair so per style I would not like it to be cloudy at all. If that's the case then probably let it sit in the fermentor for a month and a half or so?

Thanks for all the help guys!

Click to expand...

If you have the capability, cold crash it by dropping the beer to ~33F for 48 hours or so, then bottle as usual. Really helps with clarity without adding anything or waiting forever.

With an ESB--a relatively low alcohol beer--I'd brew about 1 month before competition, cold crash about 2 weeks out, bottle & ship. You want that beer reasonably fresh, I think.

edroberts said:

I feel your pain... The tripel I brewed on Saturday had a solid layer of cold break that filled 40% of the kettle. Not a whole lot of hops, so I was stunned. I thought my BIAB bag had broken. I'm contemplating throwing my hops in a bag with my next batch.

Click to expand...

Has yours settled down at all? Within about 48 hours my trub layer had fallen down to about an inch or an inch and a half. Now that fermentation has kicked off with a vengeance its throwing all kinds of material around the carboy though. Pretty messy looking :cross:

PhelanKA7 said:

Has yours settled down at all? Within about 48 hours my trub layer had fallen down to about an inch or an inch and a half. Now that fermentation has kicked off with a vengeance its throwing all kinds of material around the carboy though. Pretty messy looking :cross:

Click to expand...

All that trube just makes primary fermentation look more cool. My tripel just finished the active part of fermentation so it's still rather cloudy at the moment. With such a good cold break, I don't anticipate it having problems settling out. I doubt you'd have a problem either.

If you read alot of threads in the Yeast/Fermentation area most people are not concerned about any problems with trub, except of course it reduces your space for beer.

I took their advice and did NO secondary fermenting and have had very nice clarity improvement. Leave the beer in the primary for five to seven weeks or more, ON the yeast and let the yeast clean up the beer. My clarity has improved tremendously. On a typical 8 to 10 pound grain bill I sparge until I have an entire ale pail of wort, boil down to 5.5 gallons, whirlpool after cooling and transfer as much clear wort as possible into the fermenter. Today I racked a copper ale directly from the fermenter to the Keg after five weeks in the pail with not even a peek at it in five weeks. Ended up with about 4.5 gallons of very clear, tasty and virgin beer.

My point is...read the other threads about trub and single fermentation, I learned alot and my biggest goal was better clarity and I am thrilled with the three batches since eliminating the secondary.