Tannin isn't just a gunslinger from Back To the Future

I just finished my first all-grain batch of beer yesterday but I think that I made a big mistake. I didn't vorlauf enough when catching my second runnings and I ended up letting in a fair amount of very fine grain particulate. Being a first-time all-grain brewer, I didn't realize that cloudy runoff contained actual grain bits, not just hazy protiens.

Well, I didn't realize that my error until after I boiled its for 90 minutes and then cooled it. When taking a gravity reading, I discovered that the foam from aeration was gritty! I am less concerned with the grain bits in my beer ( I can add a clarifying stage to my process) than I am about the almost-certain tannin extration that occured during my long boil.

Has anyone else done this (certainly so)? If so, how did your beer turn out? Should I expect to have to toss this batch and start preparing to start over? Do you have any advice on how to get the grains bits out of the wort? Anything else I should know?

I should post some pics and my brew log on my brewer's weblob in the next few days. http://brewbaron.wordpress.com

Don't worry about it. The tannin is in the husk not the actual grain.
The beer'll be good.

And the husks are stronger than the grain, so they stay in larger particles and in the tun.

So what would be the best way to get the rest of it out. I understand that most of it will settle out, but do you all think that I will need to filter it? I figure I can rig something up to use coffee filters or grain bags.

It depends what type of manifold/strainer you use. If it's effective and you vorlauf then you shouldn't need to filter. I don't think anyone else does.

your grain bed IS your filter.

just vorlauf more. I usually recirculate at least a gallon, and still use a strainer to keep everything that may make it through out of the kettle

I vorlauf about 5 or 6 litres before I start draining, but I wouldn't worry too much. First couple of batches I didnt bother and I've never had any noticeable tannins.

Yes, I understand how the grainbed is supposed to filter out these bits of grain. My question is, now that I do have bits of grain in my wort, has anyone figured out an effective way to get them out beyond just careful syphoning.

it will settle out in the primary and secondary.if need be use a grain bag when you transferto the secondary and the bottleing bucket or keg. the grain will usualy settle out first then be covered by the yeast and held to the bottom of the fermenter.

vasie said:

Yes, I understand how the grainbed is supposed to filter out these bits of grain. My question is, now that I do have bits of grain in my wort, has anyone figured out an effective way to get them out beyond just careful syphoning.

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Vasie, I have a similar situation with cold break trub in my fermenter.

Not sure how it will work but here's my plan:

I went to Lowes and in the paint department bought a 2-pack of "paint strainer" cloths. (about $3.00) I plan on cutting out about a 5 inch patch and shaping it loosely into a balloon-like ball and securing to the end of my racking tube with a hose clamp and racking to my secondary. (All sanitized of course) This should provide enough surface area to avoid it getting clogged but the strainer material (from what I've heard on this forum) should be fine enought to catch most everything you don't want. I'm trying to trap trub, but I'd bet it would certainly catch any particulate like you're describing.

Anyone have any opinions on this idea?

"Careful" racking? Just get a cap for your racking cane. Between racking from primary to secondary, and from secondary to bottling bucket/keg, you'll end up with almost none of the particulate matter of which you speak in your finished product.

KalvinEddie said:

Vasie, I have a similar situation with cold break trub in my fermenter.

Not sure how it will work but here's my plan:

I went to Lowes and in the paint department bought a 2-pack of "paint strainer" cloths. (about $3.00) I plan on cutting out about a 5 inch patch and shaping it loosely into a balloon-like ball and securing to the end of my racking tube with a hose clamp and racking to my secondary. (All sanitized of course) This should provide enough surface area to avoid it getting clogged but the strainer material (from what I've heard on this forum) should be fine enought to catch most everything you don't want. I'm trying to trap trub, but I'd bet it would certainly catch any particulate like you're describing.

Anyone have any opinions on this idea?

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Yeah: it's alot of trouble for, IMHO, nothing.

Evan! said:

Yeah: it's alot of trouble for, IMHO, nothing.

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Understood. Of course brewing your own beer is a lot of trouble...
It all depends on whether you brew for convenience or the quest for something great.

For my money, the 5 minutes to strap a filter on my racking tube will make me feel like I tried anyway.

But like you said, it could be a lot of trouble for nothing.

If you've brewed extract with grain before some of the grain bits and dust have ended up in the boil it'll be the samething.

I figure that my vorlauf mistake probably permitted a good gallon of gritty wort into the brew pot. I am not talking about just "floaties;" After topping off the primary and aerating the wort, I used my (clean) hand to scoop some of the foam away to check the the wort volume level and my hand was covered with fine grain material. So this isn't just a little slip.

In any case, I am not going to worry about this. I am going to try to filter the beer because it would just put my mind at ease. Moreso, I would like to see if such filtering techniques are worth it anyway. This is a learning process and I am willing to put 5-10 minutes to give it a try.

[Off topic] KalvinEddie, your slideshow link doesn't appear to work. I just an "internal error" message from Google.

Edit: Hmm.. never mind. I guess the server was just busy.