Lag phase flocculation?

[keaner]

Hi all, sorry if there's a thread on this already, couldn't locate one.


I'm brewing an all-grain chimay rouge clone with wyeast 1214 belgian abbey smack pack. I pitched at about 75f with the activated starter pack and gave it the old shake shake for a good while, now I am less than 5 hours in and there is already a sizable layer of sediment in my primary (about 2" at the bottom of my 3gallon better bottle).

The 'don't worry' part of me says this is 'cause my setup ain't great at filtering the wort post-boil (I do use irish moss), but the wyeast pack was oddly sluggish in activating (took 4 hours for any sign of swelling).

Any thoughts? Is that much sediment usual before fermentation even gets going?

Thanks!


Primary- Chimay Rouge

 

[helmingstay]

What's your OG? How old was the package? Summer-shipped?
It's a small batch, so I'm guessing 1 smack-pack of not-stellar yeast won't kill you. Did you aerate your wort post-cooling?

I doubt the sediment is related to the yeast. What adjucts did you use? Flaked? Ive noticed that flaked grains often give a milky layer at the bottom that can compact from 1/4 of the batch height to almost nothing over the period of a week, particularly with things like corn.

 

[daksin]

Is this your first beer or first all-grain? Just asking because it's your first post. I'm almost certain what you're seeing is cold break, or trub. That's coagulated protein and other stuff that clumps up when you chill your wort. Boiling denatures (untangles) proteins, and when you chill it rapidly, they can't get back to their original crazy shapes so they ball up and stick together and make big clumps and fall out of solution because they're not nice and soluble anymore. Later, when your yeast are all done, they'll fall on top of the trub and look lighter- you should be able to see a thin band on top of the stuff you're seeing now.

 

[keaner]

Thanks for the reply, very helpful
This my third all-grain batch (no adjuncts) , and the first time I'd seen so much trub, I had hoped by filtering the cooled wort through a seive into primary, it would take care of the bulk of that cold break.

As an *edit* Once fermentation got going, most of that sediment got kicked up so its swirling around in clumps, kinda funny to watch...

 

[helibrewer]

Thanks for the reply, very helpful
This my third all-grain batch (no adjuncts) , and the first time I'd seen so much trub, I had hoped by filtering the cooled wort through a seive into primary, it would take care of the bulk of that cold break.

As an *edit* Once fermentation got going, most of that sediment got kicked up so its swirling around in clumps, kinda funny to watch...

You can try whirlpooling to reduce that trub. I do it after I use my chiller. Whirlpool the wort for 5 minutes or so then let the wort settle for about 30 minutes. Siphon off the top until you get down to the trub and stop...you will care a lot less trub over this way.