Did I burn my wort?

[jybingbrew]

Brewed an IPA today with a eBIAB setup. I did 2 things different - i didnt use a hop bag and kust put them in the wort directly and I used a new mash bag that has much finer holes.

My element had a lot of black on it, it looked burnt. I didn't smell anything during the boil, but as it is settling there is a very clear band darker than the rest of the beer.

Would hops burn if exposed directly to an element?

Does this picture look normal? I've nevery seen wort settle out like this before. It looks a lot darker in person than the pic shows... more like a brown ale wort than ipa wort.

 

[jybingbrew]

And sorry, I haven't been able to figure out how to rotate the pic!

 

[Resonator]

That's a lot of trub! It could be particles settling or the light not reflecting off the trub

And sorry, I haven't been able to figure out how to rotate the pic!

Here you go
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1443395790.602596.jpg

 

[jybingbrew]

Yeah, it is a lot! Hoping it settles quite a bit. It was about 2 oz of hops for a 2.5 gal batch, so way more than I was expecting!

 

[barnaclebob]

Your crush might be a bit too fine with that much trub... or is there some other reason for it?

 

[jybingbrew]

It is a fine crush, but practically nothing is getting through the biab bag -- it has really fine holes. Would that still affect trub?

It has condensed a lot. It's at the 1/2 gal mark, of a 2.5 gal batch. Still more than I would think, but not nearly what the pic shows.

 

[barnaclebob]

If your trub is much above the bottom rib of that carboy then I would think its too much.

 

[m00ps]

does it look any more compacted yet?

 

[jybingbrew]

Yeah, it's compacted to almost normal now. Probably about .40 gal or so.

Still not sure if Im going to have a burnt taster or not, and still can't figure out how I had scorching on my element after at least 8 sessions with this system with no issues.

I did squeeze the bag a lot more than usual after the mash ... maybe I got too much flour in and it stuck to the element and burned?

 

[jybingbrew]

Just following up on this. The beer was indeed burnt.

Couldn't even remotely pass it off as "smoked".

I have since been more careful to stir while bringing to a boil and haven't yet tried to throw hops directly in the kettle without a hop bag since then.

I also haven't used that specific BIAB bag since I'm worried my extreme squeezing brought even more flour than usual into the wort (hence the extreme trub). I'm trying the recipe again now... it's two weeks into the fermenter and coming along much nicer!