Help fix my first brew mistake - filtering after fermentation

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dieriding

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Hi guys,

So my relatively small homebrewing research before my first batch didn't really cover hop bags, or filtering the hop out of the wort before fermenting. So my first batch has a ton of sludge on the bottom of the carboy which I'm not excited about at all.

I've been thinking about building one of these for my next batch anyway: Build a Hop Filter in 15 minutes

So here's my question:
Everything I read tells me to siphon the carboy into the bottling bucket, but I'm wondering if it would be a bad idea to pour the carboy through my soon-to-be-built filter instead, to try and get rid of the sludge. I would probably boil that filter right before I did it to sanitize it.

If this is a bad idea, my plan B was to tie the Muslin bag that came with my ingredient kit to the bottom of my racking cane. But I'm worried it won't be fine enough to really keep that sludge out. Should I just count on losing the bottom 1/2 gallon of beer to sludge?

Thanks for your help
-Graham
 
I bucket ferment. I did just get a carboy.

I decant to a bottling bucket after fermenting and leave the trub [troob] behind. I do loose a bit, but not that much really. It's mostly solids.

Right now, I don't have any plans to change.
 
dieriding said:
Hi guys,

So my relatively small homebrewing research before my first batch didn't really cover hop bags, or filtering the hop out of the wort before fermenting. So my first batch has a ton of sludge on the bottom of the carboy which I'm not excited about at all.

I've been thinking about building one of these for my next batch anyway: Build a Hop Filter in 15 minutes

So here's my question:
Everything I read tells me to siphon the carboy into the bottling bucket, but I'm wondering if it would be a bad idea to pour the carboy through my soon-to-be-built filter instead, to try and get rid of the sludge. I would probably boil that filter right before I did it to sanitize it.

If this is a bad idea, my plan B was to tie the Muslin bag that came with my ingredient kit to the bottom of my racking cane. But I'm worried it won't be fine enough to really keep that sludge out. Should I just count on losing the bottom 1/2 gallon of beer to sludge?

Thanks for your help
-Graham
Click to expand...

At this point you need to worry about oxidation, so unless you have a proper filtration setup I would say to leave it be. Leave the beer in primary for 4 weeks and if possible cold crash - then you shouldn't have too much sludge when racking to your bottling bucket.
 
Pouring through a filter is about the worst thing you can do.

This is your first brew. Don't worry. After a few weeks the gunk/trub at the bottom of the fermenter will be fairly compact. And if you are careful (and it's not difficult) you will leave all that gunk behind when you transfer to the bottling bucket.

What I do: I put my racking cane in such that it is about half way down, and start the siphon. Once the beer is moving, I carefully lower the cane to the bottom of the fermenter. It sits nicely on top of the cake. Providing I don't move the cane, I don't disturb the cake. I get next to none of the gunk transferring across to the bottling bucket. The only time I ever bother to screen the transfer is when I have used either leaf hops for dry hopping, or fruit in secondary.
 
The gunk "trub" at the bottom of your fermenter is normal it is the results of fermentation dead yeast and other assorted solids racking is the process of moving the liquid off of the gunk to another container. If you bring along some gunk let is settle then rack it off the gunk in the new container.
 
I have only made 6 batches so far, so I'm still pretty new to brewing. I do not filter anything prior to putting in the primary. I have been letting my batches sit in primary for 3-4 weeks then bottling. I haven't had any beer that wasn't clear and the junk just settled to the bottom anyways. Of course, I haven't made beer with anything but pellet hops and the amount of hops hasn't been great either.
 
cold crash... ie drop temp to close to freezing and keep there for a few days. a lot/most will drop out of suspension. if you are still concerned siphon off into a 2nd vessel and let sit with an airlock for a week or more and it should be much clearer if not very clear. trick is try to keep as much trub out of secondary as you can. it will be fine just keep learning and tweaking as you go.

always siphon post ferment though. if oxygen gets at your beer it can turn it into a foul cardboard tasting beer.

worst case you have a bit of trub settled at the bottom of your bottles. no harm. remember this is your first beer, enjoy and have fun.
 

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