Keeping the trub where it belongs!

[Bobb25]

I would like to call upon the combined wisdom of the experienced brewers on this forum to give some direction to this continuing obsession in home brewing. I have noticed that the first two batches with my conical fermentor have resulted in dams of trub at the bottom of the cone. As much as I like the conical, these dams are worrisome at best. Thinking on this, I decided that the best place for the trub is in the boil kettle. The problem is how do I leave it there? My kettle is a good quality 7 gallon triple bottom stainless steel kettle without a tap. Following an immersion cooling coil, I attempt to whirlpool with a spoon, and then syphon from the outer edge. How do I leave the trub there without leaving a gallon of the good stuff with it ? I guess one option would be to spring for a larger ( 15 gal ) kettle with a spigot and get one of those new fangled trub dams, and probably one of those electric drill powered whirlpool paddles. Are there any other ideas for keeping the trub where it belongs?

 

[kev211]

Since trub has a ton of hop gunk you can always get a hop spider and use that to cut down on trub. Other than that, I think a new fangled trub dam would be a good option

 

[CJ-3]

Correct me if I'm wrong but even if you leave 100% of the trub in the boil pot would you not still have a large pile of goo in your fermenter from the yeast setteling out and the krausen dropping?

 

[ba-brewer]

After chilling I let my wort sit in the kettle or bucket for an hour or so to settle then siphon off the clear wort. I used to give the wort a good stir before letting it settle to bring the hops to the center but I found it easier to siphon if I let everything settle into a single level.

 

[Sourz4life]

The best answer is to get a pot with a valve and use a false bottom or a bazooka screen of some sort. Since it sounds like you want to stick with the siphon method I'd suggest just getting the siphon screens that will block the trub from going into the siphon. Its basically a box screen that goes around the siphon head.

 

[brick_haus]

What is worrying you about the trub in the fermentor?

 

[wobdee]

I've tried many different things but it just seemed easier to adjust my recipe a little larger to account trub loss. I brew 3.5 gal and 3 gal goes in the fermenter pretty much trub free after a 30 min settling time.

 

[madscientist451]

I used to carefully siphon from my kettle to a carboy and leave all the trub in the kettle. After reading numurous blogs and forum posts on the subject I decied to just dump from the brew lettle to the carboy and not worry about it. The beer came out fine, I'm dumping the kettle to the carboy from now on .

 

[govner1]

I use a SS hop basket then I whirlpool while chilling w/a CFC. This eliminates most of the trub from the wort going into my fermentors.

 

[SteveHeff]

I have always passed my wort through a large metal colander, the same style used for BIAB. Since I do not oxygenate my wort, it helps with integrating a little more oxygen back into the post boiled wort.

However, if I lived in a perfect world, I would (should) build a hop spider. Easy to build and it takes care of the problem.

 

[jmadway]

I agree that a Hop spider would help this (very easy to build one of these). But why are you concerned with the trub in the fermenter? It will do no harm.

 

[Chrisl77]

What kind of conical do you have? If you want to get rid of the trub before you pitch the yeast just let the wort sit in the conical for an hour. Then open and close the bottom drain for a second or 2 to clear out the trub that settled out.

 

[Bobb25]

I agree that a Hop spider would help this (very easy to build one of these). But why are you concerned with the trub in the fermenter? It will do no harm.

Thanks for all of the replies. I use a SS hop basket, and my conical is a FastFerment. I find that even with the hop basket, there is plenty of trub in the boil kettle from hot break residue, et. al. If I allow trub to build up in the bottom of the conical, it will plug up. In my second try with the conical, I dumped the yeast container at the bottom twice after three or four hours, before I pitched the yeast, and there was still some trub at the bottom. It's not the end of the world, but I am always looking for process improvements.
Bob