Trub or no trub

[cwb124]

Trying to determine if having trub, or the amount of trub in your primary makes a difference, and if it does, what that difference is.

My first batch was a Red Ale, I poured the entire contents into the primary, trub and all. I siphoned most of it out during movement to secondary, but there was still some. From secondary to bottling bucket I left 99% of the trub behind and bottled. Tasted good and smelled good so I think I'll have a decent product.

I brewed an Oktoberfest yesterday, and I used a strainer when I dumped the wort into the primary. Looks like I pulled most of the trub out with the strainer, and then topped off the fermenter and sealed her up.

Which is the recommended practice? How will the beer sitting on the trub for a week be affected tastewise? Will I lose anything with the beer not sitting on the trub?

 

[Richard]

Trubby or not trubby...vat is the question.

 

[Orfy]

Is that from Richard the Turd?

 

[Richard]

Yea...yeah, that's it.

 

[olllllo]

Oh how I could drink hot wort...

 

[ayrton]

I've done both and had success both ways. I lost my strainer that fits into my funnel (and for the life of me, I have no idea where the hell it went), so with my last batch, I just poured it all in and will rely on siphoning to get rid of the trub.

 

[Blender]

I don't have all that much experience but everything that I read from others indicates that it will not matter. That being said I think most people strain out what they can before fermentation. It makes for easier and cleaner siphoning as you progress towards bottling or kegging.

 

[BllShter]

I just siphoned an IPA into the secondary, not two hours ago, and for the last two weeks this stuff has been sitting on it. Thia was the first time I haven't strained and their were some considerablt strong, bitter hops in the recipe, anyway, all through fermentaion the air lock never made a peep? Halfway through I threw another whack of the same strain in and still nothing. I took a gravity and the number did go way down, but you'd never know it with the way this thing didn't seem to blow off anything. Anyone else come accross this phenomenon when letting it so ak?

 

[cweston]

I don't have all that much experience but everything that I read from others indicates that it will not matter. That being said I think most people strain out what they can before fermentation. It makes for easier and cleaner siphoning as you progress towards bottling or kegging.

Agree--it's really an aesthetic issue more than anything: you don't want to proudly serve one of your beers to a friend and see that it has salad floating in it.

I always mark the last 3-4 bottles of each batch, since they're the ones most likely to end up with some trub in them. I open these first, when the beer probably isn't at its prime yet, anyway.

 

[McCall St. Brewer]

I think a lot of people don't strain the wort at all, but just dump everything in the primary. Then, siphon off as much clear beer as you can into the secondary.

 

[boo boo]

I try to keep all the trub out I can. It makes for a cleaner beer come bottling/kegging time.

 

[Evan!]

I always always always strain my wort. While it's not absolutely essential to making good beer, it's a factor that I can control, and it does help improve the beer IMHO. It gives it a cleaner flavor profile, more succinct, more delineated. Plus, it helps the clarity of the finished product if you get rid of as much of the break mat'l as possible. Not to mention the fact that hops and all that gunk tend to clog my siphon quite easily, meaning that I have to stop my siphon at a higher level, meaning I leave more perfectly good beer behind in the secondary.

And last but certainly not least, if you have all that hop gunk and break material sitting in your trub once primary fermentation is done, it pretty much eliminates the possibility of harvesting the yeast.

My method is twofold. First, I pour my cooled wort into my MLT w/ false bottom. Then, I drain the wort from the MLT through the spigot into a funnel with a fine screen strainer in it, which sits in the neck of my primary fermenter. Depending on my final volume after the initial runoff, I may also sparge the "hopback" gunk in the MLT if I have room.

Here's what Palmer says in How To Brew:

"There will be a considerable amount of hot break, cold break and hops in the bottom of the boiling pot after cooling. It is a good idea to remove the hot break (or the break in general) from the wort before fermenting. The hot break consists of various proteins and fatty acids which can cause off-flavors, although a moderate amount of hot break can go unnoticed in most beers. The cold break is not considered to be much of a problem, in fact a small amount of cold break in the fermenter is good because it can provide the yeast with needed nutrients. The hops do not matter at all except that they take up room.

"In general however, removal of most of the break, either by careful pouring from the pot or by racking to another fermenter, is necessary to achieve the cleanest tasting beer. If you are trying to make a very pale beer such as Pilsener style lager, the removal of most of the hot and cold break can make a significant difference."

and also:

"Off flavors associated with sitting on the trub typically take a couple weeks to develop. Although removal of the trub from the fermentation is not critical, it is a factor to keep in mind in your quest for the perfect batch."

 

[Torchiest]

Agree--it's really an aesthetic issue more than anything: you don't want to proudly serve one of your beers to a friend and see that it has salad floating in it.

I always mark the last 3-4 bottles of each batch, since they're the ones most likely to end up with some trub in them. I open these first, when the beer probably isn't at its prime yet, anyway.

I do the exact same thing! I figure, they're not going to be great, so get them out of the way during the testing/sampling phase, and save the good ones for prime time.

As for the trub, I've done it a few different ways. Some have had almost none, some have had quite a bit, and some have had moderate amounts. I haven't seen it have any adverse effect on the flavor either way, so far, but pretty much all my beers have been big and/or dark.

 

[cweston]

I siphon from my keggle with a dip tube and SS screen, so I get very little (essentially zero) trub in the fermenter.

The only issue I really have with trub is dry hopping: Getting hops in the carboy in a hops bag is just about impossible with whole hops (it is barely possible with pellet hops), and using a filtering screen when siphoning out of the secondary makes siphoning painfully slow.