skimming before boil. anyone do it?

thethirstyweasel said:

Try it. Very likely on an amber ale of normal gravity you won't find any difference what so ever. I don't really understand what you mean minus the hops though?

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I meant leave the hops out of the fermenter but let all hot/col break go in there. I was doing this in the early stages of my brewing, but I was gettin a slight of flavou always attributed it to the break material but I also changed my setup a batch later too. Mayb , and worth giving a try again.

Shawn_Brewin said:

I meant leave the hops out of the fermenter but let all hot/col break go in there. I was doing this in the early stages of my brewing, but I was gettin a slight of flavou always attributed it to the break material but I also changed my setup a batch later too. Mayb , and worth giving a try again.

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I'm not really advocating putting all the trub in there. I'm not advocating my style of brewing either. I have in the past dumped the kettle straight to the carboy everything in, but I don't think that's good. I rack from kettle to carboy
and I generally leave behind any where from a pint to a quart of trub break material whatever. IMHO there is plenty of break material still dissolved in the wort unless you are cooling to near freezing. Do you use hop socks are just through your hops straight in?

thethirstyweasel said:

I'm not really advocating putting all the trub in there. I'm not advocating my style of brewing either. I have in the past dumped the kettle straight to the carboy everything in, but I don't think that's good. I rack from kettle to carboy
and I generally leave behind any where from a pint to a quart of trub break material whatever. IMHO there is plenty of break material still dissolved in the wort unless you are cooling to near freezing. Do you use hop socks are just through your hops straight in?

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Any organic material you leave in the beer is going to contribute to the flavor. Anything organic is going to decompose over time. It may not be significant alone but added to other small factors in the process I believe it all adds up. I personally am slowly improving my process to leave as much hops and break material behind as possible. There will still be plenty of proteins left in solution for the yeast to utilize. My latest improvement was a pump and whirlpool arm in the kettle and as you can see in the photo, quite a bit was piled up in the center. I just racked the beer from the photo and except for small swirls of darker material the bottom of the carboy it was all bright tan colored yeast.

that's pretty cool! I agree anything that is organic is going to decompose and that is certainly going to create off flavors. I think it makes big difference in what you are doing and what your end goals are. There is a lot science describing the pros and cons of many things pertaining to brewing and much of the findings are somewhat inconsistent, and have changed even in the last few years. I am by no means an expert, I have been a home brewer on an off again for 21 years. Really all I have to go on is my experience, and much of what I have learned came from doing things wrong! I think brewing and life in general is about balance, and having fun too. I will generalize what I think about trub in the fermentor. If ones goal is to produce really light, crisp, clean, beers or beers that are going to be aged for very long periods of time, then I would say one should be rather fastidious about trub removal. If that's not the case then I tend to think its much less important. That is what great about this hobby, every brew is an experiment. I also think that is what is so awesome about this website is we can communicate and discuss our results with like minded people, and maybe help some new guys come along. There was no one to help me in 1994 when the glass grenades started going off at 2 o'clock in the morning

thethirstyweasel said:

I'm not really advocating putting all the trub in there. I'm not advocating my style of brewing either. I have in the past dumped the kettle straight to the carboy everything in, but I don't think that's good. I rack from kettle to carboy
and I generally leave behind any where from a pint to a quart of trub break material whatever. IMHO there is plenty of break material still dissolved in the wort unless you are cooling to near freezing. Do you use hop socks are just through your hops straight in?

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I do not use the hop socks anymore, just found them to be a pain and just make a mess. I wish I could go to a whirlpool system but the SWMBO put the gears to me after a 600$ pot / burner setup show up at at door... so I I to cool it for for bit on th spending. Especially since making beer was "suppost to s u money" hahaha. I just compensate for a gallon of trub waste a ajust m numbers. numbers. I can harvest a little more great . O not no big deal

I skim.

I do full volume BIAB in a 9 gallon kettle so until the hot break I have to watch it like a mofo anyhow so why not? Haven't had a boil over yet but I no longer brew in flip flops ;-)

Flip flops are always bad news when brewing! Rubber boots the whole way! Hahaha. Brewed today and tried not to skim the pot just to try it out for the first unintentional time... couldn't do it, ran inside and grabbed the faithful spoon and bowl and skimmed my heart out. Felt too wrong not to.

Good man Shawn, good man.

I skim mostly to ensure that cat hair stays out of my carboys.

Stupid cat hair. Gets everywhere.