Trub - ack off of or include in fermenter?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

permo

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2009
Messages
2,979
Reaction score
76
Location
North Dakota
Well tonight I brewed my strongest brew to date, a 6 gallon batch of 1.083 old ale. I got a great cold break and as a result there was so much trub and junk at the bottom of my pot that I had to ditch about a gallon of beer. So I had a six gallon recipe but only ended up with 5 gallons in the fermenter.

Does anybody have any ways of dealing with this or being more efficient at racking the beer off of the trub? I already use the autosiphon and swirl all the trub to the middle of the pot.

I am really starting to think I might just dump the whole works into the fermenter..trub and all...I flushed a 12 pack of old ale because of trub...not cool! :(
 
you could either adjust your recipe to end up with the fv you are looking for, or let the wort settle for a period before racking off it or dumping it to fermenting vessel if you are that concerned about it. I wouldn't rack off it as you are just exposing your wort to another medium to pick up unwanted bacteria/yeast. Dumping would be just fine, just go a little slow so you aren't remixing up all the heavy settlings. I chill (chill from boil to pitching temp ~12-15 minutes for 5.25-5.5g), let my wort set for about 15 minutes (covered), then pour into fermenting vessel only leaving only the thickest settlings out. This may be maybe 10-16 ounces at MOST, probably closer to 6-8. From what i hear (think it was a Jamil broadcast), the yeast actually benefit from some hot break/settling materials as there are minerals and proteins in it the yeast utilizes. Do i have scientific data to back that up, no, but it makes sense and i don't worry (anymore, i did at first) about getting only crystal clean wort into the fermenting vessel. Just be conscious of being sanitary if you choose to let it settle for a period first. I have brewed an imperial chocolate stout (og of 1.090) with cocoa powder and racked it into a carboy and let it settle all night before i re-transferred and pitched the next morning. This was to leave a bunch of the cocoa powder gunk behind and it turned out to be one of the best beers I ever made. It just depends on what you are comfortable with.
 
you could either adjust your recipe to end up with the fv you are looking for, or let the wort settle for a period before racking off it or dumping it to fermenting vessel if you are that concerned about it. I wouldn't rack off it as you are just exposing your wort to another medium to pick up unwanted bacteria/yeast. Dumping would be just fine, just go a little slow so you aren't remixing up all the heavy settlings. I chill (chill from boil to pitching temp ~12-15 minutes for 5.25-5.5g), let my wort set for about 15 minutes (covered), then pour into fermenting vessel only leaving only the thickest settlings out. This may be maybe 10-16 ounces at MOST, probably closer to 6-8. From what i hear (think it was a Jamil broadcast), the yeast actually benefit from some hot break/settling materials as there are minerals and proteins in it the yeast utilizes. Do i have scientific data to back that up, no, but it makes sense and i don't worry (anymore, i did at first) about getting only crystal clean wort into the fermenting vessel. Just be conscious of being sanitary if you choose to let it settle for a period first. I have brewed an imperial chocolate stout (og of 1.090) with cocoa powder and racked it into a carboy and let it settle all night before i re-transferred and pitched the next morning. This was to leave a bunch of the cocoa powder gunk behind and it turned out to be one of the best beers I ever made. It just depends on what you are comfortable with.

Well now I feel stupid for all the beer I have dumped over the last few months. I think I might do away with my siphoning procedure and move to dumping into the fermenter and leaving only the cruddiest of the trub behind. This may help me increase my yields.

This all being said, I have no immersion chiller so I let my wort chill in a bathtub full of cold water..usually takes about two hours so that is plenty of settling time...or not?
 
Well tonight I brewed my strongest brew to date, a 6 gallon batch of 1.083 old ale. I got a great cold break and as a result there was so much trub and junk at the bottom of my pot that I had to ditch about a gallon of beer. So I had a six gallon recipe but only ended up with 5 gallons in the fermenter.

Does anybody have any ways of dealing with this or being more efficient at racking the beer off of the trub? I already use the autosiphon and swirl all the trub to the middle of the pot.

I am really starting to think I might just dump the whole works into the fermenter..trub and all...I flushed a 12 pack of old ale because of trub...not cool! :(

No reason to feel stupid. I'm sure you'll find people who still practice the same way you have been doing after many years of brewing and swear by it. In my opinion, it's just a waste of wort for no benefit. You will find others who say different. Something else to consider in this is if you secondary or not. The thing i feel best about is not putting my virgin wort in contact with another surface to potentially pick up bacteria/wild yeast. I star san the sh%t out of all my stuff after cleaning, but you have to remember, it's only a sanitizer, not a disinfector or sterilizer. There's a huge difference and the more shielded i can keep my wort until inoculated with what i want it inoculated with, the better. Listening to http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/469 would help you out with sanitizing terminology.
 
I tried the swirl and settle, rack out of the BK once. I went right back to dumping the whole mess into the fermenter. Its gonna come out sometime.
 
My next big beer I am going to dump it all in the fermenter. There is just too much trub and break left in the pot as a result of the large grainload. Smaller beers I may continue to rack off of the trub..but I just waste to much beer. I am guessing that the trub that isn't consumed by the yeast will just settle down to the bottom with the yeast and be of no concern.

Well, now I just need to formulate a huge grain bill and test this new method out. I have had in my mind the idea for a fuggles/maris otter SMASH of super heavy gravity, like 25 pounds of marris otter and 5-7 ounces of fuggles for a 6 gallon batch. Smash barley wine or strong ale basically. I would boil this hog for 90-120 minutes..get some kettle carmelization going and age it like a barleywine.
 
Another option: get a 1 or 2 gal. food-grade plastic bucket. Rack all your clear wort into your main fermenter. Dump the cloudy wort into the little bucket and ferment it seperately. Then you have your "pretty" beer and also your not-as-pretty-as-her-sister-but-still-very-drinkable beer. ;)
 
question followed by yet another option: Is hop material part of your trub? You can use a hop sock to boil and remove at the end, much reducing your trub levels.
 
I just dump the whole mess in except for the thick sludge at the bottom. I lose at most 16 ounces this way. You lose more beer in the carboy/bucket when you rack off at bottling/kegging/secondary, but it had 3-4 weeks to compact instead of a few minutes.

I can't speak for flavour. I've tasted the trub, or at least the trubby crap at the bottom, on 50% of my batches to get a taste for it and none of that grainy, nasty bitter taste has made it in any of my beers so far.
 
Another vote for dumping the trub. Less equipment to clean, and I cannot tell any difference.
 
Back
Top