I'm leaving a LOT of beer in the brew kettle--help

[eastoak]

So let me ask this:

Does wort generally look clear or cloudy when people put it in the fermenter? When people use false-bottoms, stainless-hose cooler tuns, whirlpooling, counterflow chillers, etc...does the resulting wort look clear or does it look cloudy? Does anyone even notice or care at that point?

Right now, I can get crystal clear (as clear as finished beer) wort using my method, but I leave behind at least a gallon of beer with the break material.

clear wort does not automatically mean clear beer in the glass. the finished beer at cold temps could get very hazy from proteins left in the beer that are visible only at colder temperatures. sometimes chill haze can be permanent other times cold crashing it for a period of time will clear it up. trub will not negatively affect your beer. period. choosing not to add it to the fermenter is also fine but you are not really avoiding anything bad. if you consider that the trub provides nutrition for the yeast you might say that you are avoiding a good thing but that's a minor point IHMO.

 

[rycov]

In Honest My Opinion?

 

[Bobby_M]

No matter what gets into the fermenter, it will eventually clear out without enough time especially in the cold. My Belgian wits turn into crystalweisse after a month in the keg.

 

[eastoak]

In Honest My Opinion?

funny. and i thought i proof read that post.

 

[rycov]

its cool. when i was scrolling back down just know i read what i wrote as in my honest opinion. and thought "****, i'm trying to pick on this guy and i spell the same thing wrong"

 

[rycov]

*now

damnit

 

[soup67]

My Belgian wits turn into crystalweisse after a month in the keg.

ditto

 

[Jazman]

Personally, I wouldn't worry about siphoning that into your fermenter. It will settle out and be left behind when you rack later.

But, since it does concern you and you didn't specifically mention it, I'm guessing you pitch your hops right into your kettle. This will significantly increase the amount of break material left behind. Get a fine mesh bag and put your hops into it. I usually use a small clamp or metal clip to attach it to the side of my kettle while the bag hangs in it. You will get slightly less utilization (10% max) but you can account for that if you're concerned. Not only will it give you more clear wort, it will make your clean-up alot easier since you just pull the bag with the hops in it. Dump the bag in the garbage and rinse it out until clean.

Jaz

That's not going to help me at all.

I'm trying to explain.

Due to my stand-chilling technique, my beer separates into crystal clear bits and cloudy bits. I siphon away all the crystal clear sweet wort but when I leave behind the cloudy stuff, I leave a lot of beer behind with it.

I don't know what other people do. Apparently, people don't worry about getting the cloudy stuff in the fermenter? Do you just dump it all in and figure it settles out in the fermenter? Can you filter it?

 

[wolverinebrewer]

Just get yourself one of those 10" wire strainers from any brew store. Sanitize it and set it over the top of your bucket and pour the kettle through it. If it's loaded with hops and gunk when you are done, hose it off, re-sanitize, and set it across your boil kettle and pour from the bucket back into the kettle. Then spray off the strainer and sanitize once more. Add yeast starter to the bucket and pour back into this from the kettle. I then pour twice more. This mixes up the yeast and aerates the wort. I usually have a full bucket of foam and wort when I'm done. Put on the top, add airlock, and put away for 4 weeks.
There is no way in hell I would ever leave even a drop of beer behind. With this method, you will have no beer wasted.

 

[BetterSense]

But, since it does concern you and you didn't specifically mention it, I'm guessing you pitch your hops right into your kettle.

No, I always use fine hop socks. I have very little solid material left in the kettle, it's mostly very fine fluffy stuff.

 

[BetterSense]

I tried to take some pictures. All I had was my phone and I had to use a flashlight to be able to see, but hopefully you can see the way the wort separates out into crystal clear and cloudy globules. The cloudy globules are made of powder and are very easy to stir back up if you disturb them. You couldn't filter it. The rest of the wort is perfectly clear. Do other people see this kind of separation or is it from my BIAB/no stir chill method?

This time I just siphoned everything. It looked very cloudy in the fermenter, but after sitting a while it is starting to settle out.

 

[afr0byte]

Holy crap, that's a lot of trub.

 

[Malticulous]

Holy **** man...make a MLT.

 

[daksin]

how long was that sitting? I always rack everything to primary, but after a few days, the huge amount of cold break material I have compacts nicely into a largeish cake. Bigger than most, but I I'm willing to bet that if you leave that for 24-48 hours in your fermenter, it'll settle out completely and make a nice cake. It's obviously heavier than the solution, or else it wouldn't separate at all. Rack it all and wait, I say.

 

[BetterSense]

The picture with the wort separated in the fermenter was taken only maybe 20 minutes or so after pitching and shaking. I haven't looked at in since.

 

[iijakii]

Yeah when I did BIAB it was cloudy as hell like that. I always pitched and then never looked at it again, so not sure if it was anywhere near that big though! Take a picture of it the next day and let us know.

 

[robcj]

The picture with the wort separated in the fermenter was taken only maybe 20 minutes or so after pitching and shaking. I haven't looked at in since.

My friend and I BIAB - your photos look pretty normal to me. I suggest you transfer as much as you can to the fermenter - in my experience it will always settle out and become compacted by the time fermentation is complete.

We did eventually install a valve and hop filter made out of fine mesh screen, but that was to keep whole hops out of the valve. We've never worried about the trub - it doesn't make it to the bottles.

 

[KIAKillerXJ]

Looks like my BiAb. That will all settle to an inch or less in the bottom if the fermenter and leave u nice and clear beer

 

[bigbeergeek]

Let's see a pic of it in 2 days. The trub will be a measly half inch.

 

[bigbeergeek]

If clarity is a concern, I have one word and one word only: gelatin.

 

[Cellarbrau]

That is a metric ass ton of trub you have there!

When I start siphoning trub out of my kettle I stop, pour the last bit into a mason jars (it's around 2-4 litres usually) and let that settle in the fridge for a gravity reading. Those final dregs are only slightly more trub laden than your entire batch.

What is the base malt you use? Do you use whirlfloc or irish moss? Is your boil very vigorous?

 

[meat803]

I did an experiment one time where I made two batches at the same time. One was trub and all. Nasty looking. The other was filtered through pantyhose making crystal clear wort in the primary.

The end result was both beers came out crystal clear in the glass. I used whirlfloc, secondary with dry whole leaf hops, and kegged.

I have a method where I use a funnel, strainer and cheap .99$ pantyhose from walmart. Pantyhose will grab all of the hops and 90% of the break. Just slip it over the outlet of your hose.

 

[BeerG0ggles]

slip it over the outlet of your hose.

Do you mean inlet [of your siphon hose]? Are the nylons sterile out of the pack? No off flavors? In your comparison, did both taste the same? Crystal clear beer is not my primary concern (and I am not OP), but off flavors are. I use whirl floc AND have tons of inseperable trub in the dregs of my kettle. If I can get away without siphoning and/or filtering and just dump it all in the fermenter, it would cut considerable time off the brew day.

Sent from my iPad using HB Talk

 

[BetterSense]

This beer was a slightly higher gravity version of Edwort's Haus Pale Ale. I used Whirlfloc for the first time with this beer. I always do a nice rolling boil.

I checked the beer this morning and it had settled out to about 2 inches in the bottom, which makes me feel better. This is my first time using a glass carboy instead of a bucket.

This break material could not be filtered out with pantyhose. I have tried. Once it gets stirred into the wort again, it's basically just cloudy wort. It's possible that something like a coffee filter could filter it out, but that would take forever.

 

[RM-MN]

This beer was a slightly higher gravity version of Edwort's Haus Pale Ale. I used Whirlfloc for the first time with this beer. I always do a nice rolling boil.

I checked the beer this morning and it had settled out to about 2 inches in the bottom, which makes me feel better. This is my first time using a glass carboy instead of a bucket.

This break material could not be filtered out with pantyhose. I have tried. Once it gets stirred into the wort again, it's basically just cloudy wort. It's possible that something like a coffee filter could filter it out, but that would take forever.

That should teach you to quit using the clear carboys to ferment in. Had you just dumped it all into a plastic bucket you would never have seen the pile of trub and not worried a bit.

Of course the rest of us wouldn't have seen it either and I think this thread has been a good learning experience.

 

[BetterSense]

That should teach you to quit using the clear carboys to ferment in. Had you just dumped it all into a plastic bucket you would never have seen the pile of trub and not worried a bit

That's not correct; I have always used buckets and was using buckets when I started this thread. I was always worried about dumping all the break material into the fermenter. Now that I am using a glass fermenter and I can see that it all seems to settle out, I'm more comfortable just siphoning all but the 'real' trub on the very bottom of the kettle into the fermenter, which means I will get another 10-15 bottles per batch.

 

[stux]

This beer was a slightly higher gravity version of Edwort's Haus Pale Ale. I used Whirlfloc for the first time with this beer. I always do a nice rolling boil.

I checked the beer this morning and it had settled out to about 2 inches in the bottom, which makes me feel better. This is my first time using a glass carboy instead of a bucket.

This break material could not be filtered out with pantyhose. I have tried. Once it gets stirred into the wort again, it's basically just cloudy wort. It's possible that something like a coffee filter could filter it out, but that would take forever.

How much Whirlfloc did you use?

Its possible to use too much in which case you get funny floating alien globules in your fermenter

 

[howabouttheiris]

I suspect you need to remove your 30 minute cottage cheese addition. Once I did that my wort looked much clearer. LOL.

I BIAB. I have a thru-wall valve and I let all but the last pint or so drain off. This captures the absolute heaviest of material only. Everything else always drops to < 1" in the bucket by the time I keg.

If you really do not want the turb making it into your final product, then do a secondary after 5 days or so. I suspect this will cut your loss to < 1/4 of what you are seeing and have the same (or better) result.

 

[BetterSense]

Well I just bottled the beer that was in the pictures above. It's probably the clearest beer at bottling time that I have ever made. This was the first batch that I used Whirlfloc. I did use gelatin, but I've used gelatin before. So, the lesson hear is that if you BIAB and have a bunch of cloudy break material, it will settle out in the primary and not affect your final clarity, so there is no need to worry about when you are siphoning from the brew kettle.

 

[Grinnan5150]

I noticed you say you brew in an aluminum kettle. Just my two cents.......aluminum can impart a lot of undesirable flavors in your beer. I would recommend brewing and mashing in 100 percent stainless steel.