Recirculate wort until desired clarity reached = slow trickle

[iambeer]

I love my unconverted 5 gallon cooler with a vinyl mesh inside. I used it to learn all grain brewing and I get good efficiency out of it. Today I brewed my first Trappist dubbel (pretty excited about it) and I was paying attention to the clarity of the wort more than ever.

I thought to myself that this time I was not going to tug the mesh or move it in any way, which speeds up the flow of the wort (but allows tiny bits through). I told myself I was going to let the grain bed filter out the fine bits of grain. The only problem is it takes a long time. A really long time.

Will a false bottom and a plumbing hose filter thing help speed this up? If so this will be my next upgrade as it will probably cut an hour from the brewing process.

 

[RM-MN]

What might help the most is to stop worrying about getting clear wort. You aren't putting that wort into somebody's glass to impress them with how clear you made it, you're putting it into a fermenter where the yeast will make it cloudy anyway. Let the yeast have time to complete their job and the bits of grain you were worried about will be buried in the yeast cake. You'll never see them again.

 

[acidrain]

I love my unconverted 5 gallon cooler with a nylon mesh inside.

Fixed it for ya...

 

[FATC1TY]

What does it matter? You will boil it, add hops, and then add yeast that will make it cloudy and whatnot.

A good rest, solid fermentation, and a cold crashing be that in bottles or kegs, will clear the beer 10 fold anyways if you goal is a really clear beer..

 

[FATC1TY]

Save an hour and drain your tun like you would anyways. You will have cloudy wort to an extent anyways. Boil, add hops and yeast, and it'll be a cloudy mess.

If you get big chunks of grain normally then look to filter better from the tun anyways then, but past that.. Speed it up where you are comfortable, and let it rip. A bit of time to clear in bottles or kegs in fine with a little cold conditioning if you did all the steps properly.

 

[iambeer]

Seems like the general consensus here is the added effort is not worth the benefit. Are there any benefits to a clearer wort?

I was assuming that those bits that get through, which amount to a fair amount of material, would impart some flavors during the boil. Flavors like astringency in the same way mashing in too high temperature.

 

[RM-MN]

Seems like the general consensus here is the added effort is not worth the benefit. Are there any benefits to a clearer wort?

I was assuming that those bits that get through, which amount to a fair amount of material, would impart some flavors during the boil. Flavors like astringency in the same way mashing in too high temperature.

To get the astringency you have to have a high pH (above 6.0, unlikely for most mash scenarios) along with high temperatures. Those who do a decoction mash bring part of the mash to the boiling point and add it back to bring the mash temperature up and they don't get off flavors.