Dealing with hop sludge and cold break....

[RockfordWhite]

Anybody have any tips for dealing with hop sludge/coldbreak? I have a Blichmann 10 gallon system, and I just can't seem to avoid my first .5-1g being filled with hop sludge/cold break... After that, it is crystal clear until the last .5 i leave behind usually...

I do the whirlpool and everything, but I just can't seem to beat those first runnings... Would treating it like the mash work, recirculating till clear? Should I dump it? Should I ignore it? I'm not a big fan of the hop bags, but if that's the only solution, especially when i make hoppier beers, I guess I will oblige

Any tips would be appreciated

 

[jtratcliff]

Ignore it and let it settle out in the fermenter

 

[DonH]

like already stated, Ignore that crap and let it settle

 

[HumulusHead]

I usually let it sit in the fermenter.

My last brew I did try to filter it out. I took a hop bag and put the end of the vinyl tube coming out of my kettle into it and strained into my bucket. I definitely worked but it was a pain in my ass due to having to empty the bag a few times to keep the flow going thru the bag. I'm honestly not sure if it was worth it.


Sent from myPhone

 

[Watzee]

http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/

Check that website out. Hes on HBT too. He did an experiemt with the same beer split into 2 batches, one with lots of trub and one with barely any trub. The result are surprising... the one with more trub came out more clear in the end. Good article, have a read.

 

[MindenMan]

If I am making a 5 gallon batch, and I calculate the O.G. and F.G numbers to where I want them, what happens to my trub/hot break loss brings me up short? After removing most of the BK sludge, I have lost over a 1/2 gallon before it gets into the fermenter, and then racking out of the fermenter to the bottling bucket, how much more trub do I lose?
Am I supposed to have sufficient grain to make a regular strength 6.5 gallon batch that will end up after racking twice to end up as 5 gallons?
If after racking from the BK, into my fermenter, and racking again into my bottling bucket, what do I do when my bottling bucket has 4.2 gallons in it, and I need 5? Do I top off with boiled water to get back to my 5 gallon volume? At that point, my wort should be significantly thinner, right? So what do I do now to get back to my required O.G. at my desired volume?
I have a great way to eliminate large trub losses. I cool my BK as fast and as low as I can to separate the wort from the trub. I then rack my wort through two 5 gallon paint strainers into my fermenter. The stacked paint strainers, catch 80+% of the trub, so minus a cup of liquid or less racks into the fermenter which gets to produce a small amount of yeast trub itself. When ready to to rack from the fermenter into the bottling bucket, cold crashing first is really needed to keep the bottling bucket clean. So I most always get the right amount needed to bottle at the desired S.G. So, now the question comes up; was I supposed to be at the correct O.G. before I start any racking?
My way is straight forward: strain the wort from the BK into the fermenter using paint strainers. This method gets 80+ % of the trub out of the stream going into the fermenter, thereby reducing the total amount of loss going in the bottling bucket, and eventually keeping all but a few grains of trub left in the serving bottles.

 

[blizz81]

What's not to like about the hop bags? I love the fine mesh nylon bags.

 

[wyowolf]

I have wondered about this too, IF using a boil Kettle screen how do you whirlpool? or do you? I currently use an IC but am thinking about using a plate chiller when I get my pump/hoses.

 

[madscientist451]

I did a trub experiment with my last brew. I took 2 quarts of trub and put it in 2 glass quart size mason jars. There was some more trub that got tossed, but I didn't measure it, probably less than a quart. Anyway, the 2 jars of trub went into the fridge and settled down by about half. I decanted about a quart of wort. I put 1 quart of trub back in the fridge and after a few days, settled down to about 3/4 of the volume , leaving about 1 cup.
I used the wort for a starter, but other than that its probably not worth worrying about.
I've heard of big breweries using a centrifuge to recover wort from trub.

 

[grathan]

Another option to bags is a stainless mesh spider. I use one on hoppier beers sometimes.

 

[wyowolf]

Another option to bags is a stainless mesh spider. I use one on hoppier beers sometimes.

how well does it contain pellet hops? can you run it through a plate chiller?

 

[grathan]

how well does it contain pellet hops? can you run it through a plate chiller?

Sure, some people do. check out this thread.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/new-way-control-pellet-hop-gunk-352293/

 

[rekoob]

A great question.
I whirpool also but my BK pickup tube is pretty low in the Keggle and I still pickup most of the trub.
I don't worry about it and just let it settle out in the fermenter.
Once the beer is clear I rack to a keg or bottle bucket, really not enough picked up to worry about.

 

[eric19312]

Am I supposed to have sufficient grain to make a regular strength 6.5 gallon batch that will end up after racking twice to end up as 5 gallons?

Yes - my recipes are normally designed to yield 12 gallons in the kettle at the end of boil at my intended OG. I transfer 10.5-11 gallons of this into my fermenters, which after fermentation will yield 10+ gallons fermented beer into my kegs.

If after racking from the BK, into my fermenter, and racking again into my bottling bucket, what do I do when my bottling bucket has 4.2 gallons in it, and I need 5? Do I top off with boiled water to get back to my 5 gallon volume? At that point, my wort should be significantly thinner, right? So what do I do now to get back to my required O.G. at my desired volume?

See above. You need to plan for losses along the way so you don't end up with only 4.2 gal in your bottling bucket if you wanted to end up with 5 gal in there. But since you are bottling if this happens, just bottle what you ended up with don't top with water unless you actually want to thin down your beer. Use a priming sugar calculator that understands you are only priming 4.2 gallons instead of 5.0 gallons.

 

[eric19312]

I circulate boiling wort through my counterflow chiller back to the kettle to sanitize the CFC. When the wort returning to the kettle is about 190+ I assume the CFC is sanitized.

To clear hops I run the return wort through a fine mesh strainer. I can't catch the break but pellet hop junk is removed.

Once I start chilling I keep my pump running the wort through the CFC full open back into the kettle until the wort coming out of the CFC is at pitching temp. This cools the bulk of the wort down and takes 10-15 min. I believe I capture 90% or more of the hop junk during this step and then flow wort and trub into the fermenter.

The last gallon in the kettle is pretty thick and I dump that out. Sometimes it piles up into a cone but mostly it is just a gooey puddle. I am comforted by the research suggesting trub is not bad in the primary fermentor and live with it. I've also not had any difficulty collecting this trub alone with the yeast and repitching. I slide the bar on the Mr Malty calculator to the low end for % yeast...

I think there is some benefit to getting the hop gunk out mainly in order to preserve the option to harvest the yeast.

 

[MindenMan]

eric19312, I appreciate your response. My point was to help any noobs that may have had the same questions regarding trub loss, etc. I knew something had to be wrong when I had 3.5 gallons in my bottling bucket instead of almost 5. I have developed a system to control trub loss that works for me, so I wanted to put that out there too.

 

[LizardRuss]

One thing I always forget to do is to transfer *slowly* from the kettle to fermenter. Depending on how your kettle is configured, you could be kicking up the settled trub instead of leaving it behind by draining it too quickly. I don't see that mentioned too often, so maybe it'll help someone.

 

[catalanotte]

I have settled on a muslin bag stretched over a colander which rests on a large funnel. After the beer is cooled, I pour right out of the kettle into the primary carboy through the bag/strainer. This gets most of it. Just wash and sanitize everything well.

This approach gives me zero loss out of the pot except for solids and saturated hops. It also results in less trub in the primary therefore less losses when transferring. I target 5.5 gal in the kettle and transfer from kettle to primary to secondary to keg with less than 1/2 gal of total loss.

 

[MindenMan]

I have settled on a muslin bag stretched over a colander which rests on a large funnel. After the beer is cooled, I pour right out of the kettle into the primary carboy through the bag/strainer. This gets most of it. Just wash and sanitize everything well.

This approach gives me zero loss out of the pot except for solids and saturated hops. It also results in less trub in the primary therefore less losses when transferring. I target 5.5 gal in the kettle and transfer from kettle to primary to secondary to keg with less than 1/2 gal of total loss.

Thank you for your post. I knew I wasn't the only person pre-filtering from the BK into their primary.

 

[jcorn]

I split a 10.5 all grain no top off water gallon batch 3 weeks ago into two seperate buckets. The first bucket I poured into tastes amazing. Ths second one tastes good not anywhere near as clean as the first poured bucket. I will always seperate that stuff from now on.