A lot of wasted wort after transfering to fermertor ( hop trub )... any tip out there ?

[Garage12brewing]

Hi guys,

Last night I brewed a Double IPA and after I transfered the wort in the fermenter I ended up with at least 8-10L of hops mixed with the wort. ( I brew 45L batch )

I would like to know if there is any technique to filter the last 5-10L wort after the transfer tothe fermenter to get the most beer possible ! Especialy when brewing beer with lots of hops...

Its not the first time that it is happening but I want to to figure out a way to improve that.

Thanks a lot !

 

[bucketnative]

Personally, I dump the whole of the boil kettle into the fermenter through a sanitized stainless steel sieve. This keeps a good fraction of the trub out of the fermenter. Irish moss helps agglomerate the trub into some sizeable chunks that get trapped by the sieve.

Hop bags are another option to keep most of the hop particles out of the fermenter.

Others will dump the whole thing, trub and all into the fermenter.

 

[lump42]

Place a 5-gal paint strainer bag into the fermentor. Then transfer every thing to the fermentor and lift the strainer bag. It's the BIAB version of trub removal.

 

[Dland]

My technique is similar, but also brewing appox 45L (11.5 gallon) batches; I gravity feed from BK though fine mesh SS hop spider in 4th vessel(sort of a hop back), which is actually just my mash tun after dumping and rinsing grist. This is also an opportunity to add post boil hops. I find whole leaf hops clog less and may even help filter.

Whirlpooling and torpedo screen leaves most of trub in BK, the hop spider gets in 4th vessel, the rest. If you have a center drain BK, there is a product called trub trapper(looks like round car air cleaner) might work.

I used to use strainer bags, which work fine, but are more of a pain in my opinion.

 

[Beer666]

I end up with about 4l of wort left in my kettle which i pour into jugs. Once its settled i decant and dilute to 1040 for starter wort. There is no hop trub as i use nylon nut milk bags for all my hops.

 

[SundayBrewer]

I place a screen inside the kettle which catches a bunch of junk then filter into a hop spider inside the fermentor.

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[odie]

you got 2 options...

1. dump everything in the ferm and let it all settle out. But you have a nasty yeast trub cake to deal with if you want to harvest the yeast.

2. filter somehow (multiple methods above) before the fermenter. You get a nice clean yeast cake at the end.

I do the second...my method...

1. I let the kettle settle a while.
2. then drain valve opened into a fine screened funnel into the fermenter. about 4.5 gal clean wort is recovered and the funnel screen becomes a filter bed of trub.
3. Funnel is moved to a sterile wide mouth jar with a wide stable base to keep dripping.
4. what's left in the kettle below the valve goes into sterilized quart jars.
5. Ferm goes into ferm chamber to finish cooling to pitching temps.
6. when the jars settle about 1/3-1/2 clear wort they get decanted to the fermenter.
7. The remaining "sludge" in the jars get added to the screened funnel and drips out very slowly as seriously clean wort.
8. the next day I have a couple quarts of super clean wort to top the fermenter off with.

I end up with about 2 quarts of solid, hard packed trub for the compost pile. All the rest from the kettle is very clean wort in the fermenter.

 

[Garage12brewing]

Nice ! Thanks for all these good ideas ! I do have an hop spider that I use for beer that are using less hops.... I try to use it to filter my wort next time... I now feel bad that I wasted so much good beer last night lol...

 

[odie]

wasted? maybe....

I think most recipes are unclear on this issue. Most don't clearly, if at all, state if the whole kettle goes in the ferm or if only the clear top wort goes in. It could affect your target end boil volume or grain bill adjustment if your methods were different.

If your a "kettle dumper" or "kettle filterer" then pretty much all the wort in the kettle makes it to the end of the process as harvestable beer.

If you are just racking off the clear wort from the kettle and leaving the liquidy kettle trub/sludge, then you are loosing the beer that gets tossed with that slurry. To achieve the same end product you would have to slightly boost your grain bill and water to account for that which is tossed with the slurry.

Trub filtering take time...I'm not a beer factory so I don't have a time table...I have time...and then clean yeast

 

[bracconiere]

I ended up with at least 8-10L of hops mixed with the wort. ( I brew 45L batch )

hop bags?

 

[odie]

I’m off doing something more fun than watching trub drip clean wort.

 

[Garage12brewing]

Yeah it must take patience lol

 

[Carolina_Matt]

I used to dump everything into the fermenter and just siphon from the top. But when I started fermenting in a bottling bucket, I would get so much trub that the spigot would clog. I tried lining the fermenter with a Wilser bag, then lifting it up to strain out all of the junk. That was way too fine though, and it wouldn't strain. Maybe a painter bag is less fine and would work better, but I haven't tried it.

Then I bought a colander to go over the fermenter, and it helped quite a bit. It doesn't get all of the tiny particles, but it gets rid of pretty much all of the pellet hops. Sometimes I need to rinse it off halfway through transferring, because it gets full.

I recently started fermenting in a keg, and the colander is way too big for that. So now I do a two-step process. I use the colander to strain it into a bottling bucket, then I lift up the bottling bucket and drain it directly into the keg. I could probably try putting a hop spider in the keg and using that as a secondary strainer, but I haven't gone that route yet.

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[RPh_Guy]

you got 2 options...

1. dump everything in the ferm and let it all settle out. But you have a nasty yeast trub cake to deal with if you want to harvest the yeast.

2. filter somehow (multiple methods above) before the fermenter. You get a nice clean yeast cake at the end.

3. Whirlpool and then let everything settle before transferring only the clear wort. This is definitely the cleanest method because it also potentially avoids the hot and cold break material.

 

[odie]

with method 3 you are still going to have wort remaining in the kettle that gets wasted...the OP's original issue.

 

[lump42]

I still think filtering is going to do the most to remove the hops and break material (assuming you get good breaks with large floccs). Strainer, bag, spider, or even something like the hops stopper 2.0 would do a good job. If someone is trying to get the clearest wort without leave much behind, you're probably looking at implementing multiple stages (good whirlpool, time to settle, kettle screen/filter, and fermentor filter)

 

[odie]

I recovered damn near 3 qts of clean wort from the kettle trub below the spigot

 

[IslandLizard]

I recovered damn near 3 qts of clean wort from the kettle trub below the spigot

Like you, I'm in the "No wort left behind" camp.

I use a slightly different method.

1. Yes, the large funnel, but without the strainer in it (I never got one).
2. Instead, I use a large doubled-up fine mesh hop bag and pour the trubby wort in it.
3. I also stick a large tablespoon, upside down, round side up, underneath the bag to ease draining.
4. The wort drains into a gallon container, let it sit for a few hours and pour the clear wort off the top into a pot, leaving the fine trub that made it through behind, especially when I squeezed the bag to speed things up.
5. I prefer to pasteurize the reclaimed wort for 10' at 150F, before adding it to the fermenter. Or a second, smaller fermenter (gallon jug) if I need to leave more headspace.
6. It can also be used as Speise, or for making sugar syrups.

Oh, I keep the funnel covered while draining.

Now I know a lot of you are shaking your head: "So much effort for such little wort, suck it up, waste it's part of the process..."
But it really doesn't take much time or effort at all given the whole brewing process, and I reclaim 2-3 quarts easily from a 5.5 gallon batch.

Think of it this way, that's 10% or more to add to your brewhouse efficiency. Net! 75% becomes 85%, or more.

 

[odie]

Covered like this?

 

[IslandLizard]

View attachment 654223
Covered like this?

Yes, smaller lid, though.

 

[odie]

I sometimes use deep fryer strainer cones from my old turkey fryer. Has more filter area and is considerably faster with the same clear results

 

[Jag75]

Your going to have some wort left in the bottom . That's the whole part of calculating your water amount .

 

[seatazzz]

Use muslin bags (super cheap) for adding your hops instead of dumping them straight in the boil. I know there are different schools of thought on this; using bags might lessen the flavor/aroma from your late additions, but I've never had an issue. To get the most out of them, I recirculate after boil for about ten minutes letting the hose go right over the hop bag clipped to the side of the keggle; then once the draining starts, squish the heck out of the bag with my sanitized stainless spoon. Since I use a pump I can't have hop gunk in the keggle as it immediately clogs the pump; this method works best for me for both leaf and pellet hops.

edit: After reading again I see you're mostly concerned about trub; do you use a fining agent (whirlfloc, irish moss) in your boil? Added 15 minutes to end of boil, by the time you start chilling most of the gunk is sitting at the bottom of your BK.

 

[Garage12brewing]

Use muslin bags (super cheap) for adding your hops instead of dumping them straight in the boil. I know there are different schools of thought on this; using bags might lessen the flavor/aroma from your late additions, but I've never had an issue. To get the most out of them, I recirculate after boil for about ten minutes letting the hose go right over the hop bag clipped to the side of the keggle; then once the draining starts, squish the heck out of the bag with my sanitized stainless spoon. Since I use a pump I can't have hop gunk in the keggle as it immediately clogs the pump; this method works best for me for both leaf and pellet hops.

edit: After reading again I see you're mostly concerned about trub; do you use a fining agent (whirlfloc, irish moss) in your boil? Added 15 minutes to end of boil, by the time you start chilling most of the gunk is sitting at the bottom of your BK.

I stopped using Irish Moss when doing ''hazy'' beer... I dont know if it really help or not to be honnest but all my NEIPA have been awesome without using it. I should try it on my next IPA brew....

 

[Jag75]

I stopped using Irish Moss when doing ''hazy'' beer... I dont know if it really help or not to be honnest but all my NEIPA have been awesome without using it. I should try it on my next IPA brew....

I thought I read a memo where IPAs should be clear

 

[fastengine]

I thought I read a memo where IPAs should be clear

NEIPA's are cloudy..

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I recovered damn near 3 qts of clean wort from the kettle trub below the spigot

Ignoring the filtering time and extra cleaning required and risk of contamination (ignoring the sunk cost on equipment)...seems like you are spending more on filters than you are saving by just brewing 3 more qts of beer. Personally I figured out how to get 85% efficiency out of my BAIB process...but just back down to 73% because the effort was not worth a little more grain.

 

[odie]

The filters I’ve had lying around not getting used for anything. But they were very cheap when I bought them. I usually use a old funnel with mesh screen that I got long ago. Just clean the screen every time so zero costs and my time is free in this respect

 

[odie]

$15 bucks a box. 3 for a buck. Money well spent I think. I’m recovering “lost” beer for like 5 cents a pint. It’s nickel beer night

 

[ChaosB]

cold crash. drop your fermentation vessel down to like 38 F for 48 hours. it will clear up then pressure transfer to keg or auto siphon to bottling bucket.

 

[Dgallo]

I have not tried this method yet but a friend of mine will use his word chiller to rappidly drop the temps to 100* then he was transfer everything to a brew pal FV and place it in his keeZer to drop to 50 without pitching any yeast. The next morning when the Break material all has settled to the bottom, he will rack the crystal clear wort onto the yeast in his large mouth carboy.

 

[odie]

I have not tried this method yet but a friend of mine will use his word chiller to rappidly drop the temps to 100* then he was transfer everything to a brew pal FV and place it in his keeZer to drop to 50 without pitching any yeast. The next morning when the Break material all has settled to the bottom, he will rack the crystal clear wort onto the yeast in his large mouth carboy.

That works too. Many ways to get clean wort and no trub

 

[odie]

In the interests of science

Two different filters used. The cone filter is way faster than the screened funnel. Both produce exceptionally clean wort. This is about 25# total fermentables with BIAB. No socks or anything in the boil. Just all tossed in after the mash.

 

[odie]

been actively fermenting since Monday. Can’t even see a trub layer. My last beer racked all but a pint clear beer into the keg. The entire remaining yeast cake/beer filled a pint jar and maybe an extra 1/4 cup max discarded

 

[sicktght311]

I chased this dragon for a while, only to realize i was adding more complication during my brew day to extract a few extra ounces of liquid. I just scale up my brew size if i'm brewing something heavy in hop additions or additions to the fermenter that soak up liquids. Ill target 5.5 gallons if its just a simple clean beer, or 6-6.2gallons if its something ultra hop heavy. That way i can leave a little bit behind in the kettle to avoid trub/hop pickup, and then still have enough in the fermenter to account for losses when it gets to the keg.

The extra pennies in grain to compensate is a trade off for the hassle

 

[ncbrewer]

I pour everything from the kettle into the fermenter. When fermentation is finished, the trub is settled pretty tight, and I rack off of it.

 

[odie]

I’ve dumped everything in the fermenter a couple times. Made clear beer and made cloudy silty beer. If I didn’t want to harvest the yeast I would probably dump it all in every time. But yes, it’s kinda like watching paint dry. And it’s a few pints, not ounces that I consistently recover.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I pour everything from the kettle into the fermenter. When fermentation is finished, the trub is settled pretty tight, and I rack off of it.

I tried a split batch with clear wort in one fermenter and the rest of the trub (including hop material) in the other. The biggest difference was that the one with trub had a compact layer right up to the bottom of the spigot that makes it easy to transfer off, where I had to lift up and tilt the fermenter to get all the beer out.

Actually, the one with all the trub had slight more hop character, but I am sure that was just from the extra hop material that normally I try to leave behind in the kettle. I did not get any off flavors or even flavor differences that I would attribute to break material.

I find that trub takes up a little space in the fermenter which can be an issue depending on fermenter size, and less trub makes for cleaner yeast if you harvest from the fermenter, but the trub does compact down quite nice after fermentation.

 

[odie]

This particular beer I’m not saving the yeast. At well over 10% I don’t think there will be much viable yeast to save. Plus there is already oak chips and cacao nibs freely in the fermenter. I still filtered it all cause it’s really just a habit at this point. And whatever survivors are probably not gonna store for 6+ months until the next RIS or similar beer

 

[odie]

Trying something new on this batch. I found some bucket strainers that I bought years ago when I was making biodiesel. They fit 5 gal buckets and come in several micron sizes. I had a 200 micron one I forgot about. After letting the kettle settle a few hours i ran 4 gallons of clean wort thru it real fast before it dropped below the spigot and then was able to dump the entire 1+ gallons of bottom dregs all at once on top. This should screen the kettle trub pretty quick and keeps the clean wort in the fermenter sealed up nice and tight while it drips every last drop of sweet wort into the bucket. These are cleanable too unlike the fryer oil filter cones I was using. But this is only gonna work for bucket fermenters