First All Grain Mini Batch

Did 3 gal of a wheat beer in a paint strainer bag on my stove in my 5 gal kettle that I use for extract brews to try out all grain. Everything seemed to go pretty fine.
After pitching yeast it looks like the picture attached. It seems like a huge amount of trub.

Is this normal for AG? Is it because I used a paint strainer? Is this going to pack down over time?

I poured the wort through a strainer in a funnel into the fermenter to remove a lot prior to this photo. Not sure how there are so many solids.

Grain bill is mostly pale malt and wheat with some flaked oats.

 

It looks like break material, which does usually compact quite a lot by the end of fermentation. Very normal, not due to your paint strainer, and - you can't stop it from getting in there without very time-consuming filtration methods. Don't worry about it!

 

Looks normal to me. I would say relax, open a beer and start planning the next brew.

 

You get a lot of trub doing BIAB. I usually increase my volume to account for it.

 

I have never used a paint strainer, but I'm told polyester voile fabric will result in less trub due to being a much finer weave and filter than a paint strainer.

Still a bit more trub than using my MT but it all settles out either way resulting in nice clear brew.

 

I also just did my first all grain / BIAB 2.5 gallon batch. That night I was a bit alarmed at the amount of dediment compared to previous extract batches. Within a day it had packed down a LOT, and now, after a week in the fermenter, it appears to be a little more than extract, but, not too much. I'm betting it will be just fine.

 

Thanks! It's already compacted quite a bit. Thanks for helping me not panic

 

Break material is a puffy mass of very fine particles, so it looks like a huge pillow at first... As soon as you rack from kettle to fermenter, you can watch it start descending. It eventually compacts tightly into almost nothing from a volume perspective.

Note that break volume has nothing to do with the mash/lauter process; it occurs during the boiling and cooling steps as proteins become insoluble at different temperatures. You can't stop it - nor would you want to, because this dissolution helps stabilize your final product - and you can't really filter it out without a lot of hassle.

The only trub I bother to remove is hop debris, which is easy if you use a hop sock during the boil. From that point, I just dump the entire kettle into my fermenter after chilling.