excessive amount of trub

[klemms0045]

I ran into a little trouble using doing my first lager (Optimator kit) and was hoping someone might be able to provide a quick easy answer. I have ended up with an excessive amount of trub in my primary fermenter (fermentation has not started yet), about 3-4" of trub. This is my first attempt at a lager, for all the ales I've done I've always just dumped my cooled wort (without siphoning/straining) into the primary fermenter, trub and all, and never ended up with more than an inch of settled out trub. I should also note that I used a whirlflock tab for the first time on this lager.

Are there any quick fixes to this problem? Now that the trub has settled in the primary fermenter (already pitched the yeast) but fermentation has not started, could I siphon the wort into another carboy, dump the trub, then siphon back into my primary fermenter or would that screw things up? IF that is a valid approach, could I at that point fill the primary back up to 5.25 gallons (right now the trub is taking up about a gallon or more of space, hate to lose that much beer...) or would that throw things out of wack? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[FlyGuy]

I think the consensus is going to be to just leave it all in there. In some ways, the trub can be beneficial to the yeast. As long as you don't leave the beer in the primary for more than a month, you really aren't at much danger of developing off flavours associated with dead yeast/trub, particularly at the cooler fermentation temperatures of lagers.

 

[BierMuncher]

I don’t do lagers, but I’ve had tons-o-trub in the past. I find that the loose trub that is now 3-4 inches thick now will eventually get chewed up and spit out and settle down to a much more compact ½ inch.

 

[klemms0045]

Thanks for the quick replies, puts my mind at rest for sure and now I can stop worrying about it and get back to doing another ale tonight : )