Removing Hot/Cold break material before fermentation

[brewerrabbit]

I use the bazooka filter in the kettle as well as a filter in my funnel to remove the trub going into the fermenter. I filter so fine that the filter clogs a few times during the drain and I have to rinse it out in starsan. I find it makes for cleaner tasting beers in the long run that are also clearer.

plus remember the deeper that bed in the fermenter when you rack it off, the more beer you leave behind.

That sounds like a good filtering strategy. Has your filter removed any unconverted starch that you know of? I'm having problems with starch after steeping. I'm interested in removing starch from the wort either before or after the boil.

 

[BiotinX]

All -

Thank you all so much for your input. This forum has added a fullness to my brewing education!!!

I just wanted to let everyone know that the wort trub that I left in my fermenter compressed down pretty well. The krausen has subsided and the specific gravity hasn't been changing, so I went ahead and racked the beer into the secondary fermenter (a 5-gal glass carboy). I had minimal loss, but I can see how my loses would have been less had I not transferred so much wort trub.

I pulled a sample to test. If this beer gets better with age it's going to be amazing! As of today it has a wonderful hop aroma with a polite hop taste (I'm not a huge fan - yet - of very bitter beers) with a refreshing after taste.

Thank you all! I'm sure I'll be back with more questions in the future.

 

[Jwin]

All -

Thank you all so much for your input. This forum has added a fullness to my brewing education!!!

I just wanted to let everyone know that the wort trub that I left in my fermenter compressed down pretty well. The krausen has subsided and the specific gravity hasn't been changing, so I went ahead and racked the beer into the secondary fermenter (a 5-gal glass carboy). I had minimal loss, but I can see how my loses would have been less had I not transferred so much wort trub.

I pulled a sample to test. If this beer gets better with age it's going to be amazing! As of today it has a wonderful hop aroma with a polite hop taste (I'm not a huge fan - yet - of very bitter beers) with a refreshing after taste.

Thank you all! I'm sure I'll be back with more questions in the future.

A)there's no need to do a secondary on a regular gravity beer, unless you are adding fruit or something, which can be done in primary if you like.
B)it's not a secondary if fermentation is completed already. I suppose one could call it a bright tank... If you use a secondary, you want to do it early, before fermentation is complete. That way, the co2 coming out of the beer will flush the headspace and the remaining fermentation will hopefully scrub the added oxygen exposure.

Not trying to nitpick here or anything, but I am going to guess you will see very diminished hop profile from the added cold side O2 exposure from this. There is truly no reason to transfer a standard gravity pale ale to secondary. It just isn't common practice anymore. I would advise being way less worried about the trub and significantly more worried about coldside O2.

Happy brewing!

 

[Jim311]

Yep, for pale ales and IPAs you are doing yourself a disservice. Transferring to a secondary will only waste those valuable hop aromas and expose it to additional oxygen and oxygen is bad. Still, it's gonna make a fine beer. There is almost never a need to use a secondary IMO.

 

[z-bob]

Yep, for pale ales and IPAs you are doing yourself a disservice. Transferring to a secondary will only waste those valuable hop aromas and expose it to additional oxygen and oxygen is bad. Still, it's gonna make a fine beer. There is almost never a need to use a secondary IMO.

I'm fermenting in a bucket for the first time; just a lid sitting on top w/o an airlock. I pitched Sunday morning.

The beer is still covered with a thick layer of Krausen but should be about done (I haven't wanted to disturb it to take a gravity sample.) Shouldn't I transfer to a carboy pretty soon?

 

[kh54s10]

I'm fermenting in a bucket for the first time; just a lid sitting on top w/o an airlock. I pitched Sunday morning.

The beer is still covered with a thick layer of Krausen but should be about done (I haven't wanted to disturb it to take a gravity sample.) Shouldn't I transfer to a carboy pretty soon?

Leave it alone to 10-14 days after your fermentation started then check the gravity. If it is stable for 36 hours, the same number, bottle it. There is no need to transfer to a carboy at all, unless you are adding something that you don't want in the primary. Long aging is the only time I use a secondary.

 

[z-bob]

I'm gonna move this to a new thread so I don't hijack this one.
Can I bottle it straight from the bucket?? (that's what I do when I primary in a carboy; I prime the bottles with sugar) I was planning to fine this with gelatin but not cold-crash it.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=7992180#post7992180

(sorry about that)

 

[Jim311]

Nah whatever. A bucket with a lid but no airlock is not ideal. Do you have a local brew shop? You can probably just drill that lid you have an install a rubber grommet that will accept an airlock. Total cost 4 dollars. I highly recommend this approach. If you're priming the bottles individually with sugar you *can* bottle from the bucket, but it's not easy unless the bucket has a spigot. What I like to do though is mix up all that sugar you're going to prime with in like 8 ounces of water and bring the sugar/water mix to a boil on the stove top. Then I pour the sugar water mix into my bottling bucket, and then I transfer the beer with a siphon from my fermenting vessel to the bottling bucket. That way the sugar solution gets WELL mixed into the beer. It's less work and more consistent than priming each bottle individually.