IPA attempt - take 2

[Ridire]

My first attempt at an IPA was an unqualified disaster. I gave it another shot today (my other beers have been relatively good).

I am again concerned about the IPA and here's why:

I thought I'd try straining the trub as I put it in the fermenter. I lined the fermenter with a paint strainer and dumped the wort into the strainer bag.

Of the nearly 6 gallons of wort, more than 50% was trub.

What gives?

I poured all of the wort, trub and all, into the fermenter and am going to let it ride but why so much trub?

5oz of hops went into the boil.

 

[ImNoExpert]

I find that the trub (cold break, hop residue, etc.) will settle down to much less that the volume of three gallons. Give it some time. +1 to you for not tossing the whole thing. It's probably going to be great.

One other thing, I always give my IPAs extra time to age and condition. Usually for me it's eight weeks minimum from brew day to good consumption.

 

[Ridire]

I find that the trub (cold break, hop residue, etc.) will settle down to much less that the volume of three gallons. Give it some time. +1 to you for not tossing the whole thing. It's probably going to be great.

One other thing, I always give my IPAs extra time to age and condition. Usually for me it's eight weeks minimum from brew day to good consumption.

I never dump. My first IPA was horrible (PM recipe in which I made 100+ mistakes). That swill is still in the fridge and I force one down from time to time. This one just concerns me because I thought I did just about everything right (other than the mill accident that put some grains on the floor), did AG and have high expectations. I love IPA, I'm going to be a bit irked if I can't find a way to make a good one.

 

[unionrdr]

I use hop socks in the boil & when dry hopping. No way an I letting all that trub into the fermenter. I use a dual layer fine mesh strainer. I wind up with 3/8" of trub usually by bottling day.

 

[ImNoExpert]

I love IPA, I'm going to be a bit irked if I can't find a way to make a good one.

I thought the same thing until I let it age more. For me, pale ales and IPAs fully realize the law of "Your last bottle is the best."

 

[bzwyatt]

I've heard that IPAs are best fresh because hop characteristics fade faster than other flavors.

 

[ImNoExpert]

I've heard that IPAs are best fresh because hop characteristics fade faster than other flavors.

You may be right. Maybe I don't like the fresh hop tastes and prefer what I get after 8 weeks. I suppose it's up to the tastes of whomever is doing the tasting.

 

[mtodd22]

Am I reading that correctly? Are you saying after a 6 gallon post-boil, you have more than 3 gallons of trub after chilling the brew?

Trub is what is found after fermentation has happened. At what point, exactly, are you referring to? Usually at the end of the boil/chill there is just hop and a bit of boil proteins left over, which would be easily filtered by your pain strainer.

I do mostly IPAs and have never experienced anything like that. I'd be interested in hearing more about what you're doing before this point.

Sounds like you have the right idea, though. When in doubt... let it rest, although you will lose some hop aroma for a heavily hopped IPA if you let it sit in the bottle for an extended amount of time.

 

[Ridire]

Am I reading that correctly? Are you saying after a 6 gallon post-boil, you have more than 3 gallons of trub after chilling the brew?

Trub is what is found after fermentation has happened. At what point, exactly, are you referring to? Usually at the end of the boil/chill there is just hop and a bit of boil proteins left over, which would be easily filtered by your pain strainer.

I do mostly IPAs and have never experienced anything like that. I'd be interested in hearing more about what you're doing before this point.

Sounds like you have the right idea, though. When in doubt... let it rest, although you will lose some hop aroma for a heavily hopped IPA if you let it sit in the bottle for an extended amount of time.

This is immediately after chilling the wort. I lifted the paint strainer and had, at most, 3 gallons of wort left in the bucket. Granted, there was a lot of liquid trapped inside the bag by the hop and cold break, but that's crazy, right? Maybe I should find something with coarser mesh for straining this next time to see how much wart passes through. Paint strainer is pretty fine.

Grain bill was about 13 lbs, mashed via BIAB. 60 min boil with 5 oz of hops going in (a mix of centennial and Amarillo - all pellet). Only other addition was a whirlfloc at 15 minutes. Cooled to 70 degrees in about 40 minutes via continuously overflowing water bath.

Think of how much crap I'm going to have in there after krausen falls.

 

[Ridire]

Also, I've made other AG beers using this method (slightly smaller beers with an oz of hop pellet) and had no issues. But I did not think to strain those. I just dumped everything in the fermenter.

 

[zacster]

I would just let the trub settle out, especially since you used whirlfloc, and then siphon. Your recipe is similar to mine, and I also do BIAB, and it looks bad at first but it will settle. Sometimes I think whirlfloc isn't such a good thing. I left it out of my last batch by accident, but then found my beer clarified a lot when I put the keg in my new fridge and stopped moving it around and stirring up the remaining sediment.

 

[Ridire]

I would just let the trub settle out, especially since you used whirlfloc, and then siphon. Your recipe is similar to mine, and I also do BIAB, and it looks bad at first but it will settle. Sometimes I think whirlfloc isn't such a good thing. I left it out of my last batch by accident, but then found my beer clarified a lot when I put the keg in my new fridge and stopped moving it around and stirring up the remaining sediment.

Yeah, that's why I put trub and all in the fermenter. I'm hoping it compresses down (and I'm certainly doing a cold crash). I just hope I don't end up with only 24 bottles of beer out of this...I even upped my volumes to get 6 gallons in the fermenter because I anticipated more trub loss than normal.

 

[unionrdr]

I guess that's why it turns out to be a good thing that I do partial boils of 3.5 gallons. Strain out the gunk & top off to recipe volume. I use super moss in mine,but with the new grain mill,I get a bit less grainy floury gunk in the strainer. My OG's have actually been a few points higher as a result. So equipment mods to my process have helped even things out in the end.

 

[Ridire]

I'll say this - the farts coming out of the airlock today smell so good I want to stick a straw in there and start sampling right now.