I'm leaving a LOT of beer in the brew kettle--help

[BetterSense]

I tried to take some pictures. All I had was my phone and I had to use a flashlight to be able to see, but hopefully you can see the way the wort separates out into crystal clear and cloudy globules. The cloudy globules are made of powder and are very easy to stir back up if you disturb them. You couldn't filter it. The rest of the wort is perfectly clear. Do other people see this kind of separation or is it from my BIAB/no stir chill method?

This time I just siphoned everything. It looked very cloudy in the fermenter, but after sitting a while it is starting to settle out.

 

[afr0byte]

Holy crap, that's a lot of trub.

 

[Malticulous]

Holy **** man...make a MLT.

 

[daksin]

how long was that sitting? I always rack everything to primary, but after a few days, the huge amount of cold break material I have compacts nicely into a largeish cake. Bigger than most, but I I'm willing to bet that if you leave that for 24-48 hours in your fermenter, it'll settle out completely and make a nice cake. It's obviously heavier than the solution, or else it wouldn't separate at all. Rack it all and wait, I say.

 

[BetterSense]

The picture with the wort separated in the fermenter was taken only maybe 20 minutes or so after pitching and shaking. I haven't looked at in since.

 

[iijakii]

Yeah when I did BIAB it was cloudy as hell like that. I always pitched and then never looked at it again, so not sure if it was anywhere near that big though! Take a picture of it the next day and let us know.

 

[robcj]

The picture with the wort separated in the fermenter was taken only maybe 20 minutes or so after pitching and shaking. I haven't looked at in since.

My friend and I BIAB - your photos look pretty normal to me. I suggest you transfer as much as you can to the fermenter - in my experience it will always settle out and become compacted by the time fermentation is complete.

We did eventually install a valve and hop filter made out of fine mesh screen, but that was to keep whole hops out of the valve. We've never worried about the trub - it doesn't make it to the bottles.

 

[KIAKillerXJ]

Looks like my BiAb. That will all settle to an inch or less in the bottom if the fermenter and leave u nice and clear beer

 

[bigbeergeek]

Let's see a pic of it in 2 days. The trub will be a measly half inch.

 

[bigbeergeek]

If clarity is a concern, I have one word and one word only: gelatin.

 

[Cellarbrau]

That is a metric ass ton of trub you have there!

When I start siphoning trub out of my kettle I stop, pour the last bit into a mason jars (it's around 2-4 litres usually) and let that settle in the fridge for a gravity reading. Those final dregs are only slightly more trub laden than your entire batch.

What is the base malt you use? Do you use whirlfloc or irish moss? Is your boil very vigorous?

 

[meat803]

I did an experiment one time where I made two batches at the same time. One was trub and all. Nasty looking. The other was filtered through pantyhose making crystal clear wort in the primary.

The end result was both beers came out crystal clear in the glass. I used whirlfloc, secondary with dry whole leaf hops, and kegged.

I have a method where I use a funnel, strainer and cheap .99$ pantyhose from walmart. Pantyhose will grab all of the hops and 90% of the break. Just slip it over the outlet of your hose.

 

[BeerG0ggles]

slip it over the outlet of your hose.

Do you mean inlet [of your siphon hose]? Are the nylons sterile out of the pack? No off flavors? In your comparison, did both taste the same? Crystal clear beer is not my primary concern (and I am not OP), but off flavors are. I use whirl floc AND have tons of inseperable trub in the dregs of my kettle. If I can get away without siphoning and/or filtering and just dump it all in the fermenter, it would cut considerable time off the brew day.

Sent from my iPad using HB Talk

 

[BetterSense]

This beer was a slightly higher gravity version of Edwort's Haus Pale Ale. I used Whirlfloc for the first time with this beer. I always do a nice rolling boil.

I checked the beer this morning and it had settled out to about 2 inches in the bottom, which makes me feel better. This is my first time using a glass carboy instead of a bucket.

This break material could not be filtered out with pantyhose. I have tried. Once it gets stirred into the wort again, it's basically just cloudy wort. It's possible that something like a coffee filter could filter it out, but that would take forever.

 

[RM-MN]

This beer was a slightly higher gravity version of Edwort's Haus Pale Ale. I used Whirlfloc for the first time with this beer. I always do a nice rolling boil.

I checked the beer this morning and it had settled out to about 2 inches in the bottom, which makes me feel better. This is my first time using a glass carboy instead of a bucket.

This break material could not be filtered out with pantyhose. I have tried. Once it gets stirred into the wort again, it's basically just cloudy wort. It's possible that something like a coffee filter could filter it out, but that would take forever.

That should teach you to quit using the clear carboys to ferment in. Had you just dumped it all into a plastic bucket you would never have seen the pile of trub and not worried a bit.

Of course the rest of us wouldn't have seen it either and I think this thread has been a good learning experience.

 

[BetterSense]

That should teach you to quit using the clear carboys to ferment in. Had you just dumped it all into a plastic bucket you would never have seen the pile of trub and not worried a bit

That's not correct; I have always used buckets and was using buckets when I started this thread. I was always worried about dumping all the break material into the fermenter. Now that I am using a glass fermenter and I can see that it all seems to settle out, I'm more comfortable just siphoning all but the 'real' trub on the very bottom of the kettle into the fermenter, which means I will get another 10-15 bottles per batch.

 

[stux]

This beer was a slightly higher gravity version of Edwort's Haus Pale Ale. I used Whirlfloc for the first time with this beer. I always do a nice rolling boil.

I checked the beer this morning and it had settled out to about 2 inches in the bottom, which makes me feel better. This is my first time using a glass carboy instead of a bucket.

This break material could not be filtered out with pantyhose. I have tried. Once it gets stirred into the wort again, it's basically just cloudy wort. It's possible that something like a coffee filter could filter it out, but that would take forever.

How much Whirlfloc did you use?

Its possible to use too much in which case you get funny floating alien globules in your fermenter

 

[howabouttheiris]

I suspect you need to remove your 30 minute cottage cheese addition. Once I did that my wort looked much clearer. LOL.

I BIAB. I have a thru-wall valve and I let all but the last pint or so drain off. This captures the absolute heaviest of material only. Everything else always drops to < 1" in the bucket by the time I keg.

If you really do not want the turb making it into your final product, then do a secondary after 5 days or so. I suspect this will cut your loss to < 1/4 of what you are seeing and have the same (or better) result.

 

[BetterSense]

Well I just bottled the beer that was in the pictures above. It's probably the clearest beer at bottling time that I have ever made. This was the first batch that I used Whirlfloc. I did use gelatin, but I've used gelatin before. So, the lesson hear is that if you BIAB and have a bunch of cloudy break material, it will settle out in the primary and not affect your final clarity, so there is no need to worry about when you are siphoning from the brew kettle.

 

[Grinnan5150]

I noticed you say you brew in an aluminum kettle. Just my two cents.......aluminum can impart a lot of undesirable flavors in your beer. I would recommend brewing and mashing in 100 percent stainless steel.

 

[RM-MN]

I noticed you say you brew in an aluminum kettle. Just my two cents.......aluminum can impart a lot of undesirable flavors in your beer. I would recommend brewing and mashing in 100 percent stainless steel.

I call bull! A properly conditioned aluminum kettle imparts no flavor.

 

[Malticulous]

Myths never die.

 

[BetterSense]

What does properly conditioned mean?

 

[Grinnan5150]

I would like to know how you condition an aluminum kettle also. I brewed in one once and my beer tasted like I was drinking metal

 

[Malticulous]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/faq-aluminum-pots-boil-kettles-49449/

 

[bigbeergeek]

Deleted. Redundant.

 

[frailn]

I brew with the BIAB method in an aluminum turkey fryer pot. It's simple, cheap and effective. I don't worry about trub. Here is what I do.

1. BIAB mash in the kettle with a mesh bag.
2. Pull the bag, drain and squeeze. Then do the boil, add hops directly to the wort, no hop bags or spiders.
3. Chill the wort with an immersion wort chiller.
4. Line my fermenter bucket with a paint strainer bag purchased from the hardware store.
5. Dump the boiled, chilled wort into the fermenter bucket.
6. lift the paint strainer bag to drain. It captures all the hop trub.

Yes, all the grain trub goes into the fermenter bucket!
No, it does not cloud by beer!

The only cloudiness I ever get in the finished product is chill haze and that is because I have been using floor-malted grain like Maris Otter or Golden Promise without a protein rest. Nor have I been cold-crashing or using gelatin. But, I plan on using these methods to get rid of chill haze.

When the finished product is room temp, it's clear as a bell.

So, one last hurdle to clear for the perfect beer for me and this is dealing with chill haze.

I just don't see any reason to leave behind beer in the kettle because of the cold break. It does not seem to affect my final product.

And there are no aluminum off flavors.

 

[BetterSense]

I discovered a way to overcome chill haze: Drink the beer warm. It saves space in the fridge too.

 

[crackhead7]

The one thing I didn't see mentioned was that not only is trub good for your yeast, having that protien in your fermentor helps attract, coagulate, and compact the other fine Protiens floating in your fermentor.

 

[RM-MN]

I discovered a way to overcome chill haze: Drink the beer warm. It saves space in the fridge too.

I drank an oatmeal stout tonight and it had been refrigerated for 3 days. At first it was not bad but as the meal wore on and I continued sipping while visiting, the beer warmed up a bit an WOW! all of a sudden I realized that the beer had a different flavor that had been hidden when the beer was cold.

 

[crackhead7]

Stouts in my book shouldn't be severed any cooler then 50-55 degrees

 

[BetterSense]

Update; the beer in the pictures from the beginning of the thread has been bottled and is drinkable now. It's probably the clearest beer I've brewed. I also didn't do a secondary on this batch, and I didn't use gelatin.

 

[LowNotes]

Awesome, glad it worked out! Thanks for starting this thread and follwoing up, it convinced me to definitely use Whirlfloc in my future BIAB beers as well, which is something I have been very indecisive about.

 

[BetterSense]

Actually I was wrong...this latest super-clear beer is the second beer I have brewed with the "Dump everything in the fermenter" method. For this latest beer, I'll have to check my notes as to whether I used whirlfloc or not, but I definitely didn't use gelatine or secondary.

 

[mcaple1]

That's not correct; I have always used buckets and was using buckets when I started this thread. I was always worried about dumping all the break material into the fermenter. Now that I am using a glass fermenter and I can see that it all seems to settle out, I'm more comfortable just siphoning all but the 'real' trub on the very bottom of the kettle into the fermenter, which means I will get another 10-15 bottles per batch.

I ma really confused when people say that they get more beer when they leave the trub in the kettle. Why would you get more beer than me when I just dump everything in. It's not like trub is a magical black brewing vortex that eats beer inside of your fermenter....it settles out and then you rack your beer off it. Confused confused confused.

 

[iijakii]

Because their siphon technique is subpar.

 

[mcaple1]

That doesn't answer my question at all dood.

 

[iijakii]

Why not?

A lot of people say they get more beer if they leave trub in the kettle because then it's easier to rack from primary. They don't kick up as much trub and can siphon more of the clean beer. Same reason many people are such advocates of hop bags when dry hopping.

 

[mcaple1]

This is a bunch of malarchy....."10-15 bottles per batch"...I dump everything in my fermenter and I never leave behind 10-15 bottles behind when racking. In fact, when I use a super flocc yeast like S-04, that trub/yeast cake is so solid that I can get nearly every last drop of beer out. I'm not sure what kind of yeast/trub cake you guys are dealing with, but I've never had an issue with it. Do not fear the trub..it is your friend.

 

[BetterSense]

Thank you for your input. If you had read the thread, you would see that I came to that conclusion several pages ago.