The cleaner the liquid entering the fermenter the cleaner and more stable the final product. I go to great lengths to keep trub from carrying over into the fermentation vessel. But, I go to great lengths to produce clean wort as well.
The original idea behind first wort hops was to use an inherent quality in hops which causes hot break to rapidly expand which helps to clean the wort. Hops reduce surface tension, that's why when bittering hops are added the wort level rapidly rises and boils over.
I do this with every batch of beer>The FWH procedure. As soon as the bottom of the boiler is covered with extract it is fired and then, a very small amount of hops are added. As the mixture boils, the hot break that surfaces is skimmed off. Then, more extract is slowly added. The extract is brought back to boiling and the hot break is skimmed off. The process continues; add, boil and skim until the boiler is full. Continue to boil the wort and skim off hot break as it surfaces. Then, after hot break ceases to surface, bittering hops are added. When the hops are added skim off the second break and continue to boil the wort for one hour. Because the wort is clean from the beginning less bittering hops are needed. Basically, FWH allows a larger volume of wort to be ran into the boiler without worrying as much about boil over and that's about it, in my opinion.
An experiment on trub was performed by the IOB many years ago. The experiment was based on yeast reproduction in a batch of beer with trub versus yeast reproduction in beer without trub. What they determined is that there is only a segment in trub that increases yeast reproduction and to filter out the trub to remove the nutrient is cost prohibitive.
When wort lacks nutrients yeast cannibalizes trub to reach the nutrient that it needs for reproduction. Because the yeast used trub for survival an imbalance occurs and basically, yeast becomes senile due to the imbalance. So, when the topic of trub comes up and some brewers add it to the fermenter, it's OK. The wort produced might be lacking in nutrients and the yeast needs the trub for survival. The brewer assumes that the yeast are happy go lucky and cool. If the wort is lacking in nutrients and the trub is removed yeast reproduction suffers. If the wort doesn't lack nutrients and as long as all of the other ducks line up in the wort like sugar balance, pH, protein and the trub is removed the final product will be clean and stable.
The Brul experiment. The final gravity was higher in the trub-less beer because the wort lacked nutrients. Yeast reproduction was negatively impacted. The final gravity would be higher. What occurred is not unusual, krausen would be added when the beer is transferred to the second fermentation vessel. The fresh yeast would finish off the remaining glucose and gravity drops.
I use two stainless conical fermentation vessels. For me, they make things easier and in a way less stressful. I produce beer which requires second fermentation.
I began brewing beer in 1982 and I wish that stainless conical vessels for home brewing were around back them. I would have saved a lot of pain and suffering. In my opinion, they are easy to deal with and they look pretty cool. I have two 42 gallon Blichmann fermenters. The other thing, I am extremely lazy and by nature the lazy will seek out and find the easiest way to accomplish something. Purchasing conical fermenters helped me to achieve the goal.
From an ergonomic stand point, adding leg extensions and wheels saves ones back. Roll'em around. Know kneeling.
From the lazy side of why I use conical tanks; in my opinion they're easier to clean, well not as easy to clean as a bucket but, a bucket is a bucket.
From a brewing stand point the beer is sealed up tight. The vessel can withstand pressure. There is a pressure relief for over pressure protection. I connect a CO2 cylinder to the blow off attachment and use CO2 for purging and during transferring beer to another conical or when kegging to reduce aeration. Basically, they work for me with the way that I brew beer. The other equipment that I used worked too.
Cons: Expensive.
For filtering, I use leaf hops when I brew beer and a hop blocker. After the wort is finished boiling the hops sink to the bottom of the boiler and cover the hop blocker. The wort runs through the hop bed (the chiller pump "pulls" the wort through the bed of hops) and the hops prefilter the wort. The hot wort travels out of the boiler through a Blichmann Hop rocket with three or so ounces of leaf hops in it and into a plate chiller into a pump into a fermenter, chilled. I placed the pump at the end of the line for two reasons. 1. Pressure drop is pressure drop. 2. Chilled wort is going through the pump instead of near boiling wort which keeps the bearings and stuff running cooler.
I purchased the chiller and pump in 2007 and never had any issues with the chiller clogging up or any issues with the pump.
