If vorlaufing is so unnecessary, why do people still do it so much?

[Dolmetscher007]

I have read a bajillion articles and seen a ton of YouTube videos on home brewing... and in every article/video/book they run through vorlauf'ing. I do not understand vorlaufing, as it is so easy to set up a chinois strainer (china-cap) with a paper conical "deep fryer filter" and strain your wort from the Mash tun into the brew kettle. Sure, you can do a little vorlauf'ing just to keep any huge particles from clogging up the filter, but I recently watched a really cool Brewing TV (on YouTube) video where they were brewing a huge all-grain hoppy monster of an IPA, and they had all this clever sparging pumps and hose attachments... and they were very proud of how with all that equipment there was no need to vorlauf or strain the wort going into the kettle. However... when the camera showed the kettle coming up to a boil, it looked like they had all kinds of debris in the mix. I mean, it literally looked like they were boiling several paper towels that had disintegrated into the wort.

Am I missing something? Is there something about a simple straining set up that is bad for the beer that a vourlauf'ed brew is better at?

 

[smurfjuice]

No, it's for the love of beer ...

 

[Dolmetscher007]

Boiling in debris and cereal husks is for the love of beer?

 

[angrybits]

The grain bed will act as a filter, so I can't see a need to have a separate filter -- hence the vorlauf phase.

For my brewhouse, I use continuous recirculation, so I get clear wort from the very beginnings of the lauter/sparge.

 

[Dolmetscher007]

Does recirculating the wort back over the grain have any advantage other than settling the grain bed so the work will run off clear? Ive always wondered if the recirculation somehow extracted more sugar from the grain, or if it was just to allow the grains to settle to the bottom nicely.

 

[day_trippr]

link?
I run a herms thus I don't actually "vorlauf". Or maybe I'm continuously "vorlaufing", pick one.
Either way what hits the boil is pretty darned bright, definitely no paper products involved

Cheers!

 

[angrybits]

Personally, I would say you are continuously vorlaufing.

 

[khannon]

Vourlaf is one of me favorite words to say... I always vourlaf, there are probably ways to filter, but none that let me say fun words..

That aside, it's not that much work, doesn't require cleaning a filter. Don't see why you would skip that step and end up with more trub or losses in the boil kettle.

 

[mongoose33]

I did the vorlauf thing for my first, oh, 15 batches or so. Then I had a revelation: I could tie a hop sock over the torpedo screen in my mash tun, and guess what? Much faster.

Now I BIAB, so the bag is the vorlauf. So to speak.

 

[Dolmetscher007]

Vourlaf is one of me favorite words to say... I always vourlaf, there are probably ways to filter, but none that let me say fun words..

That aside, it's not that much work, doesn't require cleaning a filter. Don't see why you would skip that step and end up with more trub or losses in the boil kettle.

No... I'm not suggesting that one should skip the vorlauf step. I am suggestion that one improve the vorlauf step. What I mean is... whether you do a recirculating sparge, or a more simple sparging process... when it gets time to transfer the wort from the mash tun to the kettle... do all the vorlaufing that you want... but still run it all through a filter on the way into the boil kettle. That was you are sure than no debris will be boiled in with your final wort, and you will have an ultimately cleaner final beer.

I was a chef for many years, so I come from a food background. I think I look at brewing as just another cooking procedure. And if I wanted a cleared chicken stock... I would always strain it.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

No... I'm not suggesting that one should skip the vorlauf step. I am suggestion that one improve the vorlauf step. What I mean is... whether you do a recirculating sparge, or a more simple sparging process... when it gets time to transfer the wort from the mash tun to the kettle... do all the vorlaufing that you want... but still run it all through a filter on the way into the boil kettle. That was you are sure than no debris will be boiled in with your final wort, and you will have an ultimately cleaner final beer.

I was a chef for many years, so I come from a food background. I think I look at brewing as just another cooking procedure. And if I wanted a cleared chicken stock... I would always strain it.

Well IMO, the mash bed is the strainer, and as a former chef as well, mad about stock (and wort) clarity, so I traditionally recirc'ed to total clarity. Not only were there never bits of debris, but it was exceedingly bright, always. That was a long time ago and alot has happened in brewing I need to catch up on - people talking about starting transfer to BK only when "the big bits" are filtered out. But I'll keep on going traditionally, though now that I have a Spike setup with a top side-pickup tube in the MLT for both vorlauf and sparge, I'll try continuous recirc'ing as well, like many here. Looking forward to it.

 

[SleepyCreekBrews]

I use the vorlauf step to clear the underside of the false bottom of any stray grain that may've gotten under there during dough-in. I want to prevent a bunch of grain from going through the pump and RIMS tube.

 

[Beerswimmer]

I used to do it. I though it would improve the beer/eliminate some flaws. It really doesn't. Now I open the valve on my mash tun to full and whatever gets into the kettle gets in. "Yeast nutrients"

 

[chikincoop]

Without seeing the video, was the look of paper towel the hot break from the boil floating on the surface? Other than some loose grain that sneaks through on most setups, ive never seen that much debris in the wort.

 

[MapleGroveAleworks]

I dunno, I just do it. Not like it takes long.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Without seeing the video, was the look of paper towel the hot break from the boil floating on the surface? Other than some loose grain that sneaks through on most setups, ive never seen that much debris in the wort.

^^ This.

 

[jalc6927]

As with many things in brewing, the. “The right way”, seems to linger

 

[FunkedOut]

A couple thoughts I gave on the subject; more like questions:

I use a brew bag that is basically a 210 micron filter.
I set my mill to a 0.035” gap that ends up crushing really fine. I’d consider it a fair amount of flour.
That flour gets through the bag when I lift it out of the kettle.

- Would a separate vessel with vorlauf filter this out?

- (How) Does this flour in the boil affect the finished product?

It all settles along with the hot/cold break and can be left behind or included into the fermenter.
Just wondering if it’s presence in the boil affects flavor, color or hop utilization (or...).

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I always did it when I had a bazooka filter. Now I use a brew bag in my cooler. When it's time to collect the first runnings, I clip the brew bag to a winch and lift it out of the wort. There's really no chance to vorlauf nor any need.

With a continuously recirculating system like Herms, you're basically vorlaufing the entire time. It's not much work to put clear wort into the kettle and doesn't require extra gear...I see no reason not to boil clear wort for the 5 mins of effort, but to each his own. Just be aware that grain husks can add tannins to your beer if you boil them.

 

[SanPancho]

A couple thoughts I gave on the subject; more like questions:

I use a brew bag that is basically a 210 micron filter.
I set my mill to a 0.035” gap that ends up crushing really fine. I’d consider it a fair amount of flour.
That flour gets through the bag when I lift it out of the kettle.

- Would a separate vessel with vorlauf filter this out?

- (How) Does this flour in the boil affect the finished product?

It all settles along with the hot/cold break and can be left behind or included into the fermenter.
Just wondering if it’s presence in the boil affects flavor, color or hop utilization (or...).

Always wondered same thing. Especially if those particles will bond or adsorb hop oils in the kettle. That would be no bueno.

 

[irontodd]

Was that the episode filmed with Wil Wheaton? I remember that one where theynwere all excited about their shiny new equipment and a big and massively hoppy IPA. I don't however recall seeing bits in the boil, but maybe i wasn't watching closely enough, if that's the right episode...

 

[WBB]

It’s cooler to say you vorlauf in your brewing process when talking about the brewing process with friends and family. If you think about what sounds better?

Yeah, I put some hot water in this thing and then dump this stuff in there for an hour and then I take the liquid and transfer it to a kettle and boil it.
Or...
Yeah, I put some hot water in this thing and then dump this stuff in there for an hour and then I vorlauf and then I take the liquid and transfer it to a kettle and boil it.

Now which sounds cooler?

 

[FunkedOut]

vorlauf, hands down.
i like the fact you kept the remainder of the sentence super basic. otherwise you'd come across way too technical.

 

[motosapiens]

i vorlauf'd (ich habe vorgelaufen?) one time after I built my real mash-tun with hose braid. i observed that in the several cups of of runoff there was no grain or sediment, so I concluded it was a waste of time.

 

[WestMichBrewer]

i vorlauf'd (ich habe vorgelaufen?) one time after I built my real mash-tun with hose braid. i observed that in the several cups of of runoff there was no grain or sediment, so I concluded it was a waste of time.

I've read that, depending on your process, as for clarity of the final product it doesn't really matter much...whirlpooling, gravity filtering and racking off the clearest liquid pre- and post-fermentation end up taking care of most of what could be eliminated though the vorlauf process.
Gelatin at bottling/kegging can take care of the rest.

I do get some particulate matter at first when draining my similarly constructed tun. Few larger particles at first, but also just general cloudiness with very fine particles that lessen as more vorlaufing is done.
Despite the lack of final product difference, I still vorlauf a couple quarts and watch the clarity of the liquid increase quite a bit. It doesn't really take any significant time and feels like it might help clarity even if it has been shown not to do much. At the very least I waste a bit less liquid leaving it behind in the boil kettle when transferring to the fermentor.

 

[motosapiens]

fwiw, i don't use gelatin either, or try very hard to exclude trub. I leave as little liquid as I can in the mash tun, and in the kettle and in the fermenter. beer seems to clear itself just fine, except for hefeweizen and juicy IPA's.

 

[stz]

Just do what works. You can certainly put bitty wort into the kettle if you want, but if you can remove those bits prior to the kettle it saves removing them at a later stage and thus kettle fining will be more effective. I can't see any flavour positive reasons to boil bits of grain husk. When you open the flow from the mash tun usually you initially get some bits, flour etc that have made it through the screen, after that the grain bed filters it. Your enthusiasm for doing this is going to depend on how easy it is as it is a relatively minor detail.

I do it because it is quite easy to take a couple of jugs off the mash tun before connecting my collection hose and pour them back over the grain bed at home. On a bigger kit (1,100L) it is just a few jugs (milky, grainy) prior to allowing flow to the underback then recirculating via a T piece from the underback back to mash tun before opening flow to the kettle and on the even bigger kit (2,400L) I use a large fishnet held over the inlet on the underback for a handful of seconds when I crack the gate.

 

[brick_haus]

I used to zip tie a 1 gal. paint strainer onto the end of my transfer hose to filter the wort.
Now I have a HERMS system, so no filter necessary.