Too much trub loss...what can I do?

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Pyro

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When I made my chocolate stout 2 weeks ago, I did'nt add any irish moss to the boil. When I racked it from primary, I found that I had a lot more trub waste than normal. I normally have about 2 inches or less of compacted trub with beers that I add irish moss to...but this time, I had about 4-5 inches of waste. Keep in mind I gave it about 11 days in the primary. I also added more cocoa to the secondary.

I know people are saying not to use irish moss because of head retension, but I think at this point, I would trade the loss of head for an extra 6-8 beers or so. It might even wind up being more loss when I rack out of the secondary to tertiary or bottling bucket.

Is there anything I can add to the secondary at this point to help w/ trub coagulation, or is the general concensus still not to add anything once the boil is done?
 
I've never had a problem with head retention in the batches with Irish moss.

Anything you add post-ferment (finings) will increase the trub.

Cocoa adds to the trub, regardless of when you add it.
 
david_42 said:
I've never had a problem with head retention in the batches with Irish moss.

Anything you add post-ferment (finings) will increase the trub.

Cocoa adds to the trub, regardless of when you add it.

ditto everything that David said except cocoa doesn't just add to trub, it adds A LOT to trub layer. :D
 
There are a dozen different clarifiers you could add helping different things coagulate into the trub. I don't know where this irish moss head retention thing came from but I use it in every beer and have never had an issue. If you are asking if there is anything you can do to compensate for waste in the fermentation process (as well as whirlpool, etc.) the answer is YES. Plan for slightly larger batches knowing some will be lost. That's what I do.
 

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