Big beers - Big Trub

[jethro55]

My 5th and 6th batches enter into the big beer domain after brewing some kits under 1.040 OG. Thanks to all the information here on HBT, I was able to avoid the blow-off messes for these two new batches using blow-off tubes. That definitely paid off. These big beers act like they can fill your flat car tires when they get going. The OG's of these were 1.065 and 1.075; BB HopNog and BB Holiday Ale respectively.

With no airlock bubbles after the first week, I gave them both a vigorous swirl after initial ferment and they bubbled a bit more for the following few days. So at the two week point, I transferred them to the carboy, anticipating the need for clarification. Both had some scum on the surface that I skimmed before transfer. Both reached 1.010 FG which is lower than spec predictions.

In contrast to the lower OG beers that I have tried, these had a full 1 gallon (3+ inches) of trub on the bottom...something I did not anticipate. The low OG beers had less than 1 inch of tight packed trub. The trub on these was loose and tall. It was settled and not floating - a careful move to secondary let me avoid the bottles of cheesy beer.

Not sure if it is normal, but did think that it was worth a remark to the beginner's forum. These kit yeasts were Safale 05 (HopNog) and Nottingham (Holiday Ale).

All comments are appreciated on this subject. Am learning as I try as everyone in this forum can appreciate.

After 2 months in the hobby, my first four beers are 3 weeks into the bottle...not quite enticing to drink, but getting there.

 

[david_42]

That is normal, but you should have left it in the fermenter a couple more weeks. Bigger beers take longer to settle. The trub level would have gone down a lot and you'd have more beer.

 

[NewBrewB]

Your "vigorous swirl" concerns me. I thought it was really bad to risk oxygenating your beer after pitching/fermemtation has started. A "gentle stir" with a sanitized spoon or spoon handle might be better. Some think it is unnecessary though, since the act of transferring it to a secondary will essentially stir it up. (others say secondary is unnecessary and they only have one extended fermentation before bottling/kegging)

Im definitely no expert though so take my advice with a hop pellet.

 

[Captain Damage]

+1 to david 42's remark. Given another 2 weeks the trub layer will compact quite a lot, meaning the beer that's in it gets squeezed out so you loose less beer. By that time most of the "scum on the surface" you observed will fall to the bottom of your fermenter as well. It's becoming more popular for experienced brewers to leave all beers on primary for 3-4 weeks or more and not transfer to secondary at all except for special instances such as racking on to fruit or extended aging. Many of us even dry hop in the primary nowadays.

 

[jethro55]

OK got it...another lesson learned and thank you both for that.

So at this point, will another 2 weeks in secondary finish it out? Or will it finish out in bottles after clearing in secondary just the same?

NewBrewB - the vigorous swirl was with closed fermenter, so I am hoping oxygen was not a factor, but not really sure. What concerned me here was swirling too hard and dragging the krausen scum from the fermenter walls into the brew.

 

[Captain Damage]

The "krausen scum" is not bad! It's not even scum. It's just yeast, proteins and particulates that rise to the top when things get foamy. Given time the kreusen will fall back into the beer and sink to the bottom of the fermenter.

The active phase of fermentation - the rapid bubbling and churning - is usually complete in just a few days. That's the point where most of the older books used to say to transfer to secondary, the idea being that it was important to get the beer off the yeast cake as soon as possible. In just the past few years we've been learning that the quality and health of the yeast available to us not only makes a quick transfer to secondary unnecessary, but that there are real benefits from leaving beer in the primary fermenter longer as the yeast clean up some of the off-flavor byproducts of fermentation. Additionally, as stated, there's the benefit of leaving less beer behind with the trub.

 

[Gartywood]

You're "vigorous swirl" probably also kicked up sediment from the bottom setting you back on clarification and yeast cake compaction. What were you trying to accomplish with the swirl?

 

[jethro55]

You're "vigorous swirl" probably also kicked up sediment from the bottom setting you back on clarification and yeast cake compaction. What were you trying to accomplish with the swirl?

The swirl was intended to get the bubbling going again after it had stopped. Both of these brews stopped bubbling after 4 days. On the fifth day I gave them a good swirl, and they then bubbled slowly over the next 4 days. After making the move to secondary at the two week point, I guess that I should leave them there for two more weeks.

Thanks for the follow-up. Let me know what you think on the errors here.