3 pints lost to loam

[jonstewartstwin]

I just transferred an oatmeal stout to the secondary...the bottom was so loamy/thick, it wouldn't siphon anymore... i ended up losing 3 pints... i topped off the secondary w/3 pints of distilled water.

1. how do i avoid so much 'trub/glop' to begin with (i used a grain bag, AND a hops bag).
2. was it a good or bad idea to top off the secondary and why?

thanks!

 

[IffyG]

A lot of that is yeast and there isn't much you can do about it other than use stuff that flocculates like a brick (US04 comes to mind immediately). You will always loose some and my method of compensating is doing a 5.25 gallon.

As far as topping off in secondary, I wouldn't do it, but I don't think you would really hurt it unless you really sloshed it in there (aeration).

 

[wailingguitar]

IffyG is right, you are ALWAYS going to have stuff in the bottom of the ferm, it is the nature of the beast. I calculate my hombrew recipes for 5.5 gallon primary to make sure I have close to 5 gallons by the time it hits the keg, when working in a pub situation I would always try to shoot for 1bbl over the final volume I needed and work the recipe accordingly. I also agree that topping up at that point isn't a great idea, not terrible, just not needed... you probably didn't hurt the beer in the sense of introducing contamination or oxidation, but it would have diluted it a little which might or might not be noticeable. SO, accept that there WILL be stuff left behind, volume loss, etc. if you want the max volume when finished, formulate your recipes to make a larger volume in the primary... and, as always, RDWHAHB

 

[Dynachrome]

I wouldn't top off. Let nature take it's course. I've had more trub than that.

Laissez-faire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

...and I misspronounced it for ears and got scolded recently at my LHBS

Trub - Home Brewing Wiki

 

[day_trippr]

I always tune recipes to end up with 5.5 gallons (or even more, like for imperial stouts) going into primary fermentation to expect to end up kegging a corny right to the lid. My recipes range from 6% to 11% abv so a half gallon combined loss to yeast and trub during primary and from sunken hop pellet mush in secondary is expected...

Cheers!

 

[jonstewartstwin]

thx for feedback... it's my 3rd time making this recipe, and it's never been this viscous...usually the trub is pretty 'seperate' from the beer... i've never been so far off my 5 gallon mark before....it was a very vigorous fermentation... blew out my airlock!

 

[day_trippr]

You didn't say how long the young beer had been sitting in primary. Usually if you give the young beer a couple of weeks or more the yeast and trub have had plenty of time to settle and compress into a fairly tight layer...

Cheers!

 

[jonstewartstwin]

new years eve brew...so just shy of 2 weels...

 

[sheeshomatic]

new years eve brew...so just shy of 2 weels...

Oh, yeah - WAIT longer. That trub will compact much more over another week or two. You could also cold crash it if you have the capability. That will help to settle a lot of things out too.