how to filter trub?

Hey guys,

Today I brewed an all grain blonde. Everything went great.

Everything... EXCEPT the transfer to the fermentation bucket. I chilled the wort and got a great cold break. I siphoned down to about the last gallon of wort. At this point I started to pick up the trub. I didn't want this in my bucket. But I only had about 4 gallons and I didn't want to dilute it anymore than absolutely necessary.

In previous batches I've tried a mesh screen which clogged. I've tried putting a copper pot scrubber over the siphon. It clogged too.

What do you guys suggest?

Whirlpool. Stir it up till it's going really fast, and there is a nice cyclone going down the middle. Cover and wait 15 minutes or so for it to settle, and everything will be in a cone in the middle of the kettle, just siphon from the side and don't disturb the settiment.

I always have the same problem that you are experiencing. It doesn't seem to matter if I whirlpool and wait for 5 minutes, or 30, the last couple gallons are thick with trub. (I brew 10 gallon batches). I have also had a lot of problems trying to strain it out through my spigot. About a year ago I started whirlpooling, waiting 5 minutes for the hops to settle, then siphoning from close to the bottom of my keggle. The break material isn't settled out by then, so it is evenly distributed to my two carboys. I haven't noticed any difference in the quality of my beer, but I also don't participate in competitions.

It is a shame to waste all of that good wort in the bottom of the keggle. It settles out to a 3/4" layer in about a day in the primary, and I just rack it off when fermentation is complete.

I drain it all to the fermenter (s). The beer is great every time because it is only in the primary 14 days at most and then is transferred to kegs or bottles leaving the trub behind. I used to worry about that but finally I just gave up trying to whirlpool at all.

Wables said:

I always have the same problem that you are experiencing. It doesn't seem to matter if I whirlpool and wait for 5 minutes, or 30, the last couple gallons are thick with trub.

Click to expand...

Have you thrown whirlfloc tabs at it? The 'floc seems to make the light stuff clump up and drop out for me. And has the side benefit of making your carboy look like an alien life form for the part of fermentation.

i always get trub in my fermenter. Im not saying its a good brewing practice but i dont know what with in reason will keep it out. So i leave it in and my beer comes out fine.

i use a nylon hop/grain bag and syphon all the wert and trub through it and then let it drip into my funnel w/ a scrim into the fermentor. it works flawlessly and aerates very well. If you are into salvaging every last drop it also allows you to press the bag dry, use some sterilized tongs.

I just started making 5.5 gallon batches so I could get 5 gals of wort in the fermentor without picking up a bunch of trub. I really don't mind some though, it seems to settle faster than the yeast and when the yeast flocculate it covers it up and is pretty easy to avoid while racking to secondary (or bottling bucket).

I've never stressed about getting cold break in the fermenter. It's all yeast food, and what they don't need will settle out in primary anyway.

+1
I usually get some trub too, and don't worry about it. The only time I strain my wort is when using whole leaf hops.

I siphon as carefully as I can and on the last gallon or so I drain it into a 3 gallon pail lined with a paint strainer mesh bag. I lift it out of the bucket and let if filter out most of the hops and good amount of trub.

I pour my wort through a strainer which gets out most of the hops...all the trub goes into the fermenter. No problems with bad tasting beer.

+1 on the paint strainer mesh bag. You can buy the 5 gallons bags at any home improvement store and they are worth the $3 a bag. Just dump the whole thing into the fermenter and lift the mesh bag out and it strains everything. You can even clean and reuse them if you want but I usually just pitch them because at the end of a 4 hour brewday, I don't feel like cleaning it...

I use the mesh paint strainers too but it's mostly for the straining of hops. Trub just goes in with the rest of the wort.

I will say that if you're doing a pumpkin ale the bags are more trouble then they are worth.

I have done what others have done by whirl pooling and it never works for me no matter what I try. Now I have added this pick up which leaves one gallon behind. I plan all my recipes for 6.5 gallons after the boil which will give me 5.5 gallons into the conical. This work extremely well no more hop bags ever and no more trub into the fermentor.

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