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Lots Of Crap In Kettle

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wobdee

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Anyone filter or vorloff after pulling the bag? There seems to be a lot of crap in the kettle after I pull my basket. I took a strainer and scooped around while I was coming up to a boil and was pretty surprised at how much crud was in there. I know it all settles out later in the fermenter but wouldn't boiling the fine particals and flour leave some undesirables in there? I crush pretty fine, maybe I'll adjust my mill up a bit but I also don't want to lose too much efficiency.
 
I assume your doing biab.

It's the same for me. I Have a 15 galling pot which I brew in and from the bottom of the pot to the spigot it holds 1 gallon. I make 6 gallon batches so that I can leave behind all the trub in the pot.

I have in the past poured out almost all of the content of the pot and the beer turned out pretty clear. I had to leave it cold crash a bit longer than usual but the end results were good. The only problem I see with pouring everything in your fermented is that when the beer is done fermenting your are minus about .5 - .75 gallons because of the thick cake at the bottom. Again I counter this by brewing extra so that you are left with 5 gallons going into the keg or bottles. I also use a strainer to catch as much of the thick stuff when transferring to my fermenter.

I hope this helps!


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1 more thing. I get my grains milled at the HBS. I have had them crush really fine and it does produce a lot more flour. I have found that by using their normal crush setting but running the grains thru 2 times gives me the best results.


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Yeah, I BIAB 3gl Batches. Just seems like there's a lot of crap in the boil kettle right after I pull the basket. I just did a Pilsner today and took a strainer and scooped all the crud out before the boil and after seeing how much stuff was in there I think I will keep doing it . There's just too much gunk in there with the fine BIAB crush. I guess I could crush a little finer but this no sparge Pilsner BIAB just gave me 85% mash efficiency so I don't want to kill that.
 
You need a finer mesh bag (voil) or consider recirculating. I continuously recirc with a more open mesh bag
and the wort is crystal clear. I adjust my crush for ~75 percent efficiency. Just turn the PID and pump on
and have a pint.
 
I have a 400 micon s/s basket so it's much finer than an bag, I hope. I just got 85% efficiency for this Pils brew and I scooped out all the gunk before the boil so we shall see if there's a difference.
 
I use a 5 gal paint strainer bag from the local hardware store with no problems... maybe double your bag?
 
I have a 400 micon s/s basket so it's much finer than an bag, I hope. I just got 85% efficiency for this Pils brew and I scooped out all the gunk before the boil so we shall see if there's a difference.


Where did you pick that up? Expensive?


Cheers!
 
I've been dealing with this issue since I started brewing (just brewed my 4th and 5th 5-gallon batches yesterday). I'm wondering if I'm not cooling quick enough to achieve a good cold break. I'm using a homemade IC from 1/2" copper. It takes 15-20 minutes to come from boil to 75*F. I siphon from kettle to primary. But I do have a valve on my kettle that I haven't used yet.

Any ideas?

On my next batch I'm going to use a finer bag (that I use for hops) to filter the wort coming from the kettle.

I'm also toying with the idea of attaching a SS filter to the valve inside my kettle.
 
Recircing is going to be your #1 fix. You could also have the wort outlet go into a mesh bag as you recirc back on top....sort of a double filter.

Then there's making sure you get a good hot break (skim the sludge) and cold break. Be sure to use whirlfloc right at the very end (not last 15 mins)....whirlpool and chill....then WAIT. a good 15 mins allows the whirlfloc to do its job....the wort should go into the fermenter crystal clear.
 

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