Filtering trub between BK and fermenter

[johnodon]

Do any of you line your fermenter with your BIAB bag to do this? I was always fearful that removing too much trub could hurt the character of the beer but the mroe I read I am finding that is not the case.

I know some of you will say that you don't want the extra work or that you don't care if the beer is somewhat cloudy. I really just want to know if it will hurt the character of the final product if you do filter. Personally, I want my beer clear as possible with the least amount of work/expense.

John

 

[dogslapbrewery]

I don't fear the trub...it all goes in even my hop slug!

 

[johnodon]

I don't fear the trub...it all goes in even my hop slug!

Not a matter of fear. But lining the fermenter seems like an easy enough thing to do if it makes the beer even just a little clearer.

 

[plankbr]

I do this:

 

[johnodon]

Plank, I tried that in the past when I did tradiitonal AG and found it to be painful for recipes with loads of hops. Anyway, would the mesh of a BIAB bag do a better job also? Line the bucket, dump the BK, lift the bag and let it drain (much like BIAB mashing).

Actually, in your case I would just sit the bag in the strainer and let it drip.

John

 

[peterj]

I think most of the time people ask the opposite question. If it will hurt the beer if you DO transfer all of the boil trub and leave the hops and such in contact with the beer. I don't really think it has an effect either way, but I also don't think it will make your beer any clearer either. It will all settle out in the primary. Straining it through a bag is not really the same as putting it through an actual filter (like one that's measured in microns). When you get into actual filtering is when people start to worry about stripping flavor from the beer (though I'm not sure how much truth is in that either).

 

[kcmobrewer]

I use a hop spider. Keeps out 90% of it. Although I found out about 9 oz is it's limit.

 

[johnodon]

The reason I asked is that I just watched Conrad's video here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f244/biab-brew-video-grain-glass-472107/

Jump ahead to 4:10 and look at all that trub he is pulling out.

I agree it will mostly settle out but if straining it helps even a little bit (and not hurt the end product), hell, I'll do it.

 

[billl]

The paint straining bags you can get at Home Depot do a great job of this. They even have elastic to hold them around the lip of the bucket.

It doesn't seem to have much/any impact on the beer, but if you want to harvest yeast, minimizing the trub streamlines the process a bit.

 

[mlafnitzegger]

I too had issues about what to do about trub. I had a dip tube with ss mesh but found that it was a slow transfer from bk to fermenter. What I ended up doing is making a hop spider, removing the ss mesh from my dip tube, and recirculating into the hop spider. I would run it through the filter bag for 3 minutes or so. After done filtering through hop spider then cool my wort and drain into fermenter with a muslin bag around the end of a hose which I connect to the bk drain. I do use a pump as it would be hard to recirculate without. I end up with 1 to 2 inches of trub. If that seems like a lot to you then you can siphon wort off trub into another fermenter. My beer is crystal clear after conditioning.

 

[johnodon]

It doesn't seem to have much/any impact on the beer, but if you want to harvest yeast, minimizing the trub streamlines the process a bit.

This was another reason I wanted to remove as much trub as possible.

But, back to the question at hand: removing the trub does not present any ill effects, correct? You will not lose a certain flavor profile if you do this? I'm primarily thinking of 5 min and flameout hop additions.

 

[kombat]

I'd be worried about all the bacteria crawling all over your BIAB bag. After all, it's main job is to hold several pounds of milled grain, which is notoriously contaminated with all sorts of foreign bacteria. I'd want to keep that as far away from my cold-side wort/beer as possible. I suppose maybe if you bought a second grain bag and only ever used it for straining cooled wort, it might be an option, but honestly if your goal is clear beer, this is overkill. I get crystal clear beer every time using the following tools and techniques:

• Recirculate the mash for the last 10 minutes using a pump and grant to filter the wort
• Vigorous boil (at least for the first few minutes) to establish a good hot break
• Hop screen (cylindrical stainless mesh) to contain hop additions
• Hop Stopper (frisbee-shaped stainless mesh encasing pickup tube on kettle outlet) to filter out most trub
• 1/2 tsp Irish moss with 10 minutes left in the boil
• Quick chill (5 minutes w/ plate chiller) to establish a good cold break
• 3 week ferment
• 1 day cold crash, then add gelatin and wait 3 more days
• Careful siphoning to leave behind all the yeast and trub that are fairly well compacted by this point

Any remaining cloudiness is either intentional (wheat beers), or a product of dry hopping (produces a little bit of hop haze, depending on how many hops were added).

 

[johnodon]

I'd be worried about all the bacteria crawling all over your BIAB bag.

After the mash I would dump the grains, wash the bag thoroughly and soak it in Star San.

 

[billl]

"removing the trub does not present any ill effects, correct?"

Correct. Pretty much every commercial beer you've ever drank was fermented without significant trub from the kettle. They whirlpool to collect it all in the middle and avoid transferring it. Of course, that is a practical response to the scale they are dealing with. On homebrew scale, it doesn't really matter if we lose 5% fermenter capacity to trub.

 

[dogslapbrewery]

I always tyred to remove all my trub and hops but couldn't deal with parting with last gallon of beer. I cold crash my brew last week in primary then gelatin for a crystal clear brew!

 

[RM-MN]

The paint straining bags you can get at Home Depot do a great job of this. They even have elastic to hold them around the lip of the bucket.

I've heard that bags made from Swiss voille are even finer mesh. They may remove even more trub if that is your goal. I believe that Wilserbrewer bags are made of material like this.

I'd be worried about all the bacteria crawling all over your BIAB bag. After all, it's main job is to hold several pounds of milled grain, which is notoriously contaminated with all sorts of foreign bacteria. I'd want to keep that as far away from my cold-side wort/beer as possible.

The paint strainer bags from Home Depot come 2 per package. It should be easy to have one for the mash and a different one for straining.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Go ahead and try and strain the hops and trub till your hearts desire. You can't really filter the small proteins, some haven't even coagulated yet and are still in solution.

Cloudy beer to the fermenter does not mean cloudy beer in the glass.

Concentrate your effort post ferment by cold crashing and cold storage, not by straining pre ferment.

Best not to mix equipment pre and post boil. I would not advocate using your mash bag to strain boiled wort, just not a good idea IMHO for several reasons.




Wilserbrewer
Biabags.webs.com

 

[petrolSpice]

I wrap my immersion wort chiller in a 5 gal paint strainer bag and place it into the wort at the end of the boil. When it's done cooling, I siphon the wort out from the center of the chiller. Works well to keep out hop material, and the large surface area prevent clogging.

 

[C-Rider]

I brew small batches in 2 gallon paint buckets from HD. I try to get about 1.9 gallons into the bucket to give me approx. 1.75 gal in the bottling bucket which fills 3 six packs.

So I strain from the BK to the fermenter to make sure there is enough room for the liquid.

Paint supply stores should carry strainers like this that fit perfectly into a 5 or 6.5 gallon plastic bucket. No need for extra clips as it's designed to fit these buckets. It's easy to sanitize them before use.

[url=https://www.homebrewtalk.com/photo/paint-strainer-60936.html] [/URL]

 

[hopkincr]

I've recently used a second paint strainer bag for this very purpose. I soak it in Star San and then pour the cooled wort in, let it strain and ferment. I only do this if I'm not going to do a secondary fermentation. If its going into a secondary, then it's overkill. But I have seen a difference in clarity transferring to the bottling bucket using the bag as a strainer. I used to use a plastic funnel with strainer, but it was a pain because it would easily clog.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[Gixxer]

I use 5 gallon bucket top strainers, got em from a beekeeping supply shop... 600 micron gets the big hop chunks, the 400 gets the fine hop bits, and the 200 gets the hop dust...

However, the one prob is if you brew an IPA, you will fill your strainers with trub probably three times over. turned into a huge PITA for me... The strainers are not that expensive, I could use a second set so as they get filled, I can just yank one and throw in another... takes less time than cleaning out the full one and putting it back.

 

[smyrnaquince]

After the mash I would dump the grains, wash the bag thoroughly and soak it in Star San.

My method was to dump the grains, rinse the bag well, and spray with sanitizer (Iodophor solution, in my case). I've never had an infection this way, but I've always worried about it.

 

[opiate82]

I wrap my immersion wort chiller in a 5 gal paint strainer bag and place it into the wort at the end of the boil. When it's done cooling, I siphon the wort out from the center of the chiller. Works well to keep out hop material, and the large surface area prevent clogging.

This seems simple and ingenious. Does it work well with pellet hop gunk? Does your bag ever get clogged with hops during the siphoning?

 

[petrolSpice]

This seems simple and ingenious. Does it work well with pellet hop gunk? Does your bag ever get clogged with hops during the siphoning?

No clogging whatsoever. The bag around the chiller makes a huge surface area for wort to pass through. Maybe if you were to pump the wort out at a high rate it may not fill the center of the chiller fast enough. But at the flow rate of an autosiphon it works perfectly.

It keeps out quite a bit of the hop sludge. When I didn't do this method my krausen would be a sewage green color from the hop gunk. When I do this method the krausen is a nice off-white color.

It don't think it will remove the break material and proteins since those things are so small, but it does great to keep hops out of the fermenter.

 

[TexasWine]

Tomorrow will be my first BIAB and I've been thinking about this exact issue. My plan to keep hop gunk out of the primary is to use the same bag set up during the boil as I do in the mash. I've got a steamer basket that will keep the bag off the bottom and prevent scorching. I'll just dump the hops in during the boil, chill, then pull the bag out before I transfer to primary.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I would not use a mash bag in the fermenter. The mash is dirty or pre boil. The fermenter and boiled wort is sanitary. Not a sound practice to mix equipment form the hot side to the cold side of the brewery.

Ok, so you say you will sanitize the bag, still NG IMO.

Rdwhahb

The risk outweighs any perceived benefit.


Wilserbrewer
Http://biabbags.webs.com/

 

[dbkdev]

I would not use a mash bag in the fermenter. The mash is dirty or pre boil. The fermenter and boiled wort is sanitary. Not a sound practice to mix equipment form the hot side to the cold side of the brewery.

Ok, so you say you will sanitize the bag, still NG IMO.

Rdwhahb

The risk outweighs any perceived benefit.


Wilserbrewer
Http://biabbags.webs.com/

I've had some five gallon batches that used 8 oz or more of hops, that had a slight unpleasant grassy taste. I was told this could be from the breakdown of so many hops. I figured reducing the amount of hop trub that went into the primary would help this. Especially since my next five gallon dipa is going to take 12 oz of hops.

 

[dbkdev]

Also how would straining through a bag post boil be any different than using one of your hop socks in the fermentor for dry hopping?

 

[wilserbrewer]

Also how would straining through a bag post boil be any different than using one of your hop socks in the fermentor for dry hopping?

Straining through a bag is fine if it is a clean bag that has not been used to mash grains. My issue is using the same bag for both tasks since there is lactobaccilus and other nasties in the mash!

Best not to mix equipment pre and post boil for sanitary reasons, that's all!

 

[dbkdev]

Straining through a bag is fine if it is a clean bag that has not been used to mash grains. My issue is using the same bag for both tasks since there is lactobaccilus and other nasties in the mash!

Best not to mix equipment pre and post boil for sanitary reasons, that's all!

Awesome. So two separate bags should be ok? If im dumping wort through it I should be able to reuse it for the same purpose in the future if its been washed/sanitized, since its always post boil, correct?

 

[wilserbrewer]

Sounds reasonable to me...


Wilserbrewer
Http://biabbags.webs.com/

 

[dbkdev]

Sounds reasonable to me...


Wilserbrewer
Http://biabbags.webs.com/

Sweet. Just ordered your grand slam deal. Can't wait.