After the boil, but before pitching....

[TasunkaWitko]

I generally run my wort through a mesh strainer on its way into the fermenter to catch the largest portion of "stuff" after the boil, but have been noticing an incredible amount of trub that is affecting my yield (1-gallon batches).

As an alternative, would running it through a layer (or two) of cheesecloth be good, bad or about the same? Surely someone has tried it....

Thanks in advance ~

Ron

 

[whiskeyjack]

It bugged me while doing BIAB I would get a huge amount of trub in my fermenter. What I do now is I have another bag that I use strictly for cold side. When the boil is done I place the sanitized bag slowly into the wort, lining the brew pot. Then I place my wort chiller on top to kind of hold it in. Then I syphon out of the center of the chiller. It leaves a nice compact amount of trub on the bottom. I think its harder for the trub and hops to be pulled up through the mesh bag then it is to be pulled down from gravity if you strain it normally.

 

[slym2none]

If it's multiple layers of cheesecloth, I'd imagine you'd catch more "stuff", but IDK how that would affect your yield.

 

[mrgrimm101]

A guy at my LHBS sold me a large, mesh bag (similar to a BIAB bag) that is large enough to line a 6.5 gallon bucket and hang over the edges (to grab onto later). I only used it for 1 batch last year, but what I did was I dumped the whole kettle into the bag-lined bucket, and then I pulled the bag up and let the wort drain out of it into the bucket.

The problem I had doing this was it was with a DIPA so there was a ton of hop break. I felt like I lost too much wort that didn't drain fully out of the bag.

Now, what I do is just siphon from the kettle through a metal mesh strainer. It catches most of the hop break material. It does let through a decent amount of trub, but when I use whirlfloc this all clumps together and settles out. I try to top up closer to 5.5 gallons so I don't lose that much yield.