Residue at bottom of kettle - add to fermentor or not?

[DJL531]

All grain after 60 minutes of boiling and cooling and my pale ale looks nice and clear. Solids have settled to the bottom and since I use a fine mesh hop bag I get very little hop residue in there. I've read to just drain everything into the fermentor including this at the bottom of the kettle. I know it will settle out there with the dead yeast as it has done in the past.

So, should I add it or not? It was about a gallon left when the siphon had finished with the clear stuff.

Beer mentioned above is a pale ale I made 3 days ago. 50/50 Pale Ale Malt and Vienna. I only used 3/4 oz magnum for bittering and will dry hop for the flavors.

 

[wsmith1625]

These are just proteins from the grain, hot and cold break material. I add it to the fermenter and let it settle out after fermentation completes.

 

[hotbeer]

If I get a good cold break and I can get enough wort into the FV at the OG I'm looking for, then I leave the break material in the bottom of the kettle.

If I don't have the desired volume in the FV and diluting with water will mean a lower OG than desired, then I'll put whatever amount of the less clean wort is needed in the FV. Realizing of course that most of it will soon be trub. So more of the less clean wort will be needed to produce the same volume of beer when all is finished and ready for bottling or kegging.

Though break material gets mentioned as a problem for cloudy beers, I haven't seen any issues or differences as to whether I get a clean or cloudy beer from using all of the kettle wort or just the clear stuff from a good cold break.

 

[odie]

if you are leaving it in the kettle and still getting your target volume and OG...then you are wasting grain & hops and throwing a lot of good beer away as you are basically brewing about 5.5-6 gallons of wort but leaving several pints in the kettle with the trub.

adjust your grain bill and water down and dump it all in the fermenter. it will pack down tight during fermentation and rack 5 gallons of beer when you bottle/keg.

Or you can do like I do...after the kettle settles down, you can run about 4 gallons out the spigot and into a strainer. then dump the last gallon of sludge into the strainer and let the clean wort drip thru. all the wort makes it into the fermenter and all the trub stays out. Nothing lost.

 

[Miraculix]

It brings in additional fatty acids that can kill the foam of your beer. It can also kind of "clog" the yeasts surface with it's proteins which the yeast reacts to by creating protein degrading enzymes, which on the long run also kill your foam.

I had problems with foam not being stable, did the research, limited the trub amount significantly, lost a few pints of beer per batch, but now have reliably a stable head retention on all of my beers.

 

[wsmith1625]

Most side by side experiments with clear wort vs. wort with trub conclude that the wort with trub produced clearer and more flavorful beer. Regardless, you may find the differences so minute that the efforts to transfer just the clear wort aren't worth the effort. I suggest you try both methods and then form your own opinion.

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

 

[Beermeister32]

I posted this picture on another similar thread last week, so apologies - best method I’ve found is to up the final volume from 5 to 6 gallons. Run off the clearer first five gallons of wort into the carboy. Run the final gallon of trub and sludge into a 2 gallon jug.

Ferment both, the jug will give you about 5 bottles. It is usually hop sharp, sometimes OK, fun for experiments. It usually finishes faster and clearer too.

 

[Miraculix]

I posted this picture on another similar thread last week, so apologies - best method I’ve found is to up the final volume from 5 to 6 gallons. Run off the clearer first five gallons of wort into the carboy. Run the final gallon of trub and sludge into a 2 gallon jug.

Ferment both, the jug will give you about 5 bottles. It is usually hop sharp, sometimes OK, fun for experiments. It usually finishes faster and clearer too.
View attachment 791851

That is a great idea! Witnessed any foam differences between the two batches?

 

[Beermeister32]

I’m sure there is, but wasn’t something I really was paying attention to on the trubby batch. The main batch works fine!

 

[odie]

I've heard that there is "stuff" in the trub that is beneficial to the yeast. Extra nutrients or something that helps boost them.

But I harvest and reuse the yeast cakes so I screen all the trub out as the wort is drained into the fermentor. Thus I have a clean, trub free yeast cake at the end.

The taste difference between trubby and no-trub fermentation is likely negligible.