Transferring, and Trub

[Razorback_Jack]

When transferring my 5 gallon batches, I find myself leaving behind a lot of trub and thick stuff in the boil kettle, and end up with about 4 gallons of beer in the fermenter sometimes. I feel like I’m leaving behind too much, but don’t want all the white proteins in my ferm. Should I transfer more of it into the fermenter, but leave it behind when I keg? I’m contemplating getting the auto siphon filter:

http://arborfab.com/AutoSiphonFilter

It says it’s 300 micron. I’ve heard that is pretty small holes and that 300 micron hop spiders clog, but I’m not using as hop spider.... using it to filter what I siphon. What do y’all think?

Jackson

 

[McKnuckle]

Break material from the boil is pretty much impossible to effectively filter. I have 200 micron and 75 micron bucket filters. It passes right through the 200, and clogs the 75. I think the auto siphon filter will clog right up with hop matter, and stop flow of your wort.

These proteins start out fluffy, but compact down very firmly in the fermenter to almost nothing. They have nutrients that apparently benefit yeast, and they also arguably improve final beer clarity. Finally, a decent amount of perfectly fine wort is lost when trying to leave break material behind by eyeballing it.

So... don't bother trying to filter it! Definitely keep hop trub out of the fermenter if you can, because it's thick and gross and adds nothing, but ignore the break proteins. I use either the 200 micron filter or a stainless sieve to strain wort on its way to the fermenter. Either that, or I filter hops in the kettle and just transfer all of the wort.

 

[day_trippr]

I agree with ^that^ conclusion.

On the upside, the cost to definitely find out isn't punitive and one might find other uses for it, but there's so little surface area, and my 6"dx20"h 400 micron spider can get plugged up from the outside by proteins - especially when I'm using lots of wheat and/or oats - I can't imagine that little guy would provide anything but a frustrating post-chill lautering experience.

While lots of folks advocate dumping everything in the kettle into the fermentor (which certainly makes lautering easier ) those that try to leave break and hop material behind are likely succeeding using whirlpooling with side pickup tubes and leaving the pile of debris in the middle of the kettle.

But that also means accounting for kettle losses in the recipe. Missing fermentor volume presumably by 20% would suggest that isn't being done. Any good brew session calculator would be helpful in that regard, and the loss cost is typically smaller than the aggravation of fighting the loss down to zero

Cheers!

 

[IslandLizard]

Use Irish Moss or another kettle fining agent in the boil.
Whirlpool or let it rest for an hour (or 2) after chilling, the trub will sink. Then transfer the clear wort off the top to the fermenter.

You can filter/strain the leftover trub through a large fine mesh nylon hop bag in a large funnel with a large spoon upside down under the bag to provide a vent for better drainage. If you can't do this in a sanitary enough fashion, pasteurize the captured wort before adding to your fermenter. I usually salvage 2-3 quarts in a 5.5 gallon batch, so I end up with 5.5 gallon in the fermenter. I pasteurize the filtered wort for 10' at 150F, just in case.

 

[shetc]

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

 

[balrog]

I have that and tried it. Twice. It gets clogged, and the siphon dutifully sucks the inside dry and pull in air through the open top. Since the sides are plugged and the top is above the liquid, there is nothing else it can do as no liquid is coming in through the plugged sides.

I believe it *would* work installed inside a keg, and *might* still suffer clogging, but then the top is venting internal keg CO2 not air. Others have used this successfully in NEIPA kegs for serving, but transfer would still be frightfully annoying I should think. I don't make NEIPAs. But I also pour everything from kettle to bucket.

 

[odie]

either dump everything into the fermenter and let it settle out if you are not interested in harvesting the yeast. Or run it all thru a filter screen of some type if you want to harvest a nice clean yeast cake.

either method will net you the most possible finished beer.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

Or another option:
Overbuild your beer (say 6.5 gallons post-boil), let it settle for a half hour or so after chilling, and rack 5+ gallons of clear wort into your fermenter, leaving all the trub you can behind.
I do this and typically leave behind about a gallon of trub/wort. Yes, it is wasteful, but there are advantages to it, especially if you plan to harvest your yeast.
The extra pound or two of grain I need to overbuild my recipe is worth it to me for my purposes. Your priorities may be different, and some people hate wasting even a drop of wort, so YMMV. To each his own.

 

[JReasoner]

I'm curious, as I'm currently fighting a similar issue and have pretty much decided to just start dumping everything into the fermentor. I currently use Irish moss, but if I'm going to dump everything into the kettle anyway and give up on separating the break, is there any reason to continue or discontinue the use of the Irish moss?

 

[kh54s10]

I tried straining going into the fermenter ONCE.... After that I started calculating for 5.25 gallons and transferring 5 gallons to the fermenter. I bag my hops and usually only have to leave a quart or less of the thickest trub in the kettle. I also drain the kettle from the ball valve. I don't worry about trub or proteins etc getting into the fermenter they all pack down in the end and I siphon from above that.

I would not suggest trying to filter with an attachment on an autosiphon, too much trouble for little gain.

 

[Alex4mula]

I use a hop spider. I also use irish moss pills. I transfer all except the thickest stuff only because it will take a lot longer to clean my plate chiller. I cold crash and all settles to a packed pancake at the bottom. This process doesn’t prevents me at all to get crystal clear beer and never had any off flavors.