Huge trub in Hefeweizen

[moors]

My Hefeweizen has a huge trub. Photo attached.

Process: 1.5 lbs grain 30 minutes slowly drifting temperature from 155°F to 160°F. 6 lbs of Briess DME. 2oz Hallertau in steel mesh hop basket. Good hot break during boil and cold break afterwards to 70°F using immersion coil with ~55°F cooling water. Oxygenated using pure O2 and diffuser stone. Imperial Yeast G01 Stefon. Fermentation at 68°F for 2 weeks then warmed to 80°F. Photo taken after ramping fermentation temperature in thermal chamber to 80°F after a few days.

History: Visible fermentation activity started about 18 hours after pitching. After a few days of aggressive fermentation, the trub settled to occupy approximately 30% of the carboy. After about 1.5 weeks, I agitated the carboy a bit to encourage further settling, but the trub returned to occupy the same place without further compacting.

I'm a few days away from racking time, there's a lot of gunk down there. I hate to waste the gallons of beer mixed in with the trub. Any ideas to get the trub to fall out of suspension better?

 

[wilserbrewer]

Cold crashing may help to compact the trub and yeast cake.

 

[Lefou]

Cold crashing may help to compact the trub and yeast cake.

Yes, this works as long as you have space in a refrigerator or temp-controlled freezer. A refrigerator or freezer with an adjustable thermostat is my next major home brew investment. I tend toward the German-style wheat beers and getting a stand-alone refrigerator would allow branching out to lagered schwarzbiers.
Using the refrigerator allowed me to drop Safale yeasts faster and clarify gallon-sized ciders and meads, so I assume the same basic approach will work with beer.

 

[BowAholic]

that's amazing... I just bottle my first hefeweisen yesterday at 1 month in the primary. I do pour my kettle through a filter as it goes into the fermentor and I used WY 3068 yeast... I only had about 3/4" of yeast/trub in the bottom of the ferm. bucket. I just took it straight out of a 68* ferm. chamber with no cold crash.

 

[Lefou]

The guy who sold me my first smack pack of German Hefeweizen yeast also sold me a blow-off tube and advised me the ferment would be "vigorous". He was right, I needed the blow-off setup within 12 hours, but after a few brews now, I have yet to see wine lees or beer trub like this one!

 

[moors]

I have a brew fridge presently at bout 36°F. I'll toss the carboy in the chamber for a cold-crash. I'm not optimistic. I stirred the trub a bit again, and it's settling down exactly the same.

I do pour my kettle through a filter as it goes into the fermentor

What type of filter do you use? A steel mesh? Or something more sophisticated?

 

[BowAholic]

I have a brew fridge presently at bout 36°F. I'll toss the carboy in the chamber for a cold-crash. I'm not optimistic. I stirred the trub a bit again, and it's settling down exactly the same.



What type of filter do you use? A steel mesh? Or something more sophisticated?

I use a plastic "bucket strainer" that you can buy on ebay. They come in a bunch of different sizes and it seems like I'm using a 200 micron...fits right on top of the fermentation bucket and they are easy to clean... run about $10.

 

[McKnuckle]

I hate to waste the gallons of beer mixed in with the trub.

Doesn't look like there is any beer in that sediment. From the bottom up, it's hops, break (proteins), and a thin layer of settled yeast. Looks done to me.

 

[moors]

Doesn't look like there is any beer in that sediment. From the bottom up, it's hops, break (proteins), and a thin layer of settled yeast. Looks done to me.

There's plenty of beer down there. Usually by the end of week 2, the trub is a compacted cake at the bottom an inch or two thick.

In contrast, this trub is a delicate floating cloud in suspension. Compacted, it may only be an inch or two.

During normal fermenting process, what mechanisms contribute to compacting the trub? The hops settle first along with the break. How do these normally get compacted? Why did it not compact this time?

 

[moors]

Doesn't look like there is any beer in that sediment. From the bottom up, it's hops, break (proteins), and a thin layer of settled yeast. Looks done to me.

Hops: I only used 2 oz of hops in a mesh hop basket. Only a tiny portion of the overall hop mass made it into the fermenter. Besides, I've done 9 oz hop brews, tossing them straight into the kettle (before I bought the mesh basket), and it was more compact than this.

Proteins: I used 1.5 lbs of grain in a muslin bag. It couldn't generate this much break.

I still don't understand what happened with this brew. When I transferred it into the fermenter, I took special note of disposing of the trub. It was gelatinous. Not the normal thick cake, but a block of gel. I could not identify infection by inspection (smell, look, taste) or microscope (up to 400x, stained with methylene blue), and I'm pretty good at spotting bacteria. The beer is very good. I taste ("consume") a lot of local and commercial Hefeweizen during my trips to Germany, and this beer matches the local style nicely.