Lots of trub: help me figure out why

So here's the deal. When I siphoned the cooled wort into the fermenter, I got about 3.5 gallons in the fermenter before I ran into some serious trub at the bottom of the kettle. About 2 gallons of wort remained in the kettle that I didn't siphone because it was so inundated with trub.

Here's the recipe (American Red Ale):
--
7lbs ultra light malt extract
1lbs Crystal 40L
2oz Black roasted
--
1 oz Magnum hops (bittering)
1 oz Hallertaur hops (flavoring)
2 oz Santiam Hops (aroma)

I also added a Whirfloc tablet 20 minutes before the end of the boil. I cooled the wort by adding 7/8 lbs of ice & immersing the kettle in an ice bath, bringing the wort from 212 to 80 degrees in approximately 30 minutes.

I figure there are two reasons for more trub:
- more hops than I've used in the past (this is only my 3rd brew)
- used Whirfloc this time

Would the Whirfloc really cause that much trub to fall out of solution?

I'm not really worried about there being trub, I just hate to waste all of that wort. Any ideas on what I shoulda/coulda done?

4 oz of hops = plenty 'o trub

Your steeping grain could also contribute to trub depending..

Did you use a bag for your steeping grains and hops? If not you might want to buy some hop sacks and steeping bags for your next brew.

Other hop containers inclulde a herb ball or you can make you own. Some folk use old socks or panty hose.

I made a hop ball out of 2 each stainless steel sink strainers wired them together with copper wire at what would become the bottome and on the other end used a long piece of copper wire to hold the top of the hop ball together and hang it off the side of my boil pot.

Try pouring the remaining 2 gal. thur a strainer.

I've always poured all my wort through a strainer. When my strainer gets full of hops, I fling it all on my garden and repeat until every last drop of the wort goes through the strainer. Is there some reason to not do this. I really don't care if my ales are clear or not. Seems like it should clear out in fermenter

I agree, get a big strainer and a funnel if necessary.

You can also filter the wort out of trub using paper towels into mason jars for canning.

I save this wort for starters/gyle. Just be sure to reboil it before canning to sterilize.

You can see what I'm talking about here, in the last picture: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=44572

Willy Boner said:

I've always poured all my wort through a strainer. When my strainer gets full of hops, I fling it all on my garden and repeat until every last drop of the wort goes through the strainer. Is there some reason to not do this. I really don't care if my ales are clear or not. Seems like it should clear out in fermenter

Click to expand...

It must be an Oregon thing because I do it the same way. The hops aren't keeping any of my bubbly goodness.

Thanks guys.

From what I've read, the trade off of straining is possible contamination problems. Have any of you had this problem? I'm sure the risk can be mitigated with proper sanitation practices, or for the super paranoid: reboil the strained wort for a couple minutes (any one do this? is this overly paranoid? possible problems?).

I strain my wort into the primary for two reasons:

1. Help reduce trub amounts.
2. Helps aerate the wort.

I sanitize my strainer before I use it and have had no problems with contamination.

No trouble with straining here either.

Sanatize strainer as you would a carboy or anything else that comes into contact with cooled wort. If your carboy doesn't cause contamination, your strainer shouldn't either.

+1 on strainers helping airate