Trub this!

[feffer]

Only brewed a few batches, but still confused about the "trub." My extract beer kits say, "don't strain the wort while pouring it into the fermenter." John Palmer says it's OK to strain, or whirl up the wort and decant it off the "trub." There seems to be a LOT of stuff in the wort. Decanting just the clear liquid would leave a big portion of "stuff filled liquid" discarded.

I tried using a kitchen strainer on one batch; everything except the hop matter (and even some of that) went right through the strainer. On another batch, I tried a paint strainer bag. That caught so much stuff that it clogged the mesh and captured a gallon or more of liquid wort. I had to squeeze it out. I have no idea if I'm doing this right...if I'm filtering too much, too little or even the right stuff. How SHOULD I be doing this?

 

[AkTom]

I'd let it all go into your carboy/bucket/utility sink... what ever you are using as a fermenter. It will all settle to the bottom in a lovely nice layer in the bottom ah whichever container you chose. Wait a couple of weeks and it'll no doubt be ready to bottle.
Tom

 

[Scriv]

Don't worry about filtering out the trub, it'll settle out during primary, just be careful when you rack to keg/bottling bucket and you can leave it in the fermenter.

 

[CGVT]

Don't worry about the trub. Siphon or dump everything that you can into your fermentation vessel and then rack off of it into your bottling bucket (or secondary if you are using one). It will form into a pretty stable "cake" at the bottom of your fermentation vessel.
If you are concerned about having batches of specific volume you will need to adjust your water pre-boil to make up for the loss at the end.

 

[lazzlo]

Ill give this one a shot the rest of you feel free to correct anything I get wrong.

Trub is the stuff at the bottom of the fermenter after your beer has finished primary fermentation. In wine/ mead making it is called lees.

The stuff in your kettle after the boil is a combination of hop material and coagulated protein.
Neither one will cause major issues in the short term (1-2 months).

If you are going to leave the beer to bulk age longer than that you might want to consider racking it to a secondary after it has finished fermenting ( 2-3 gravity readings over the course of a few days without a drop in gravity).

TL/DR: It is ugly but wont cause any major issues, RDWHAHB.

 

[snow16]

There are different schools of thought on this, but a lot of people (myself included) dump everything into the fermenter and don't give it a second thought. I used to go crazy trying to strain everything, but not doing it has had absolutely no detrimental effect on the flavor of my beer. Mind you, none of my beers spend more than 4-5 weeks in primary (usually less time than that), so I can't speak for what would happen if you left it there for an extended period.

Now, I'm sure that people will say that I am wrong. And that's fine. But I don't think it has an impact on flavor and I choose to focus my brewer's worry elsewhere.

 

[ChelisHubby]

The trub is not a problem worry about your fermentation tempature instead!

 

[HB_in_Subic]

The trub is not a problem worry about your fermentation tempature instead!

I agree.. Temperature control is the 1st best way to improve your brews. http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/

 

[eber1988]

everything I have read states that a lot of hot break material is bad and can cause off flavors. Cold break is not as big of a deal but I believe cause chill hazing. So I guess if you care about the cosmetic look of your beer and want to limit the chance of any type of off flavors (even though probably not a huge risk) I would attempt to leave as much trub in the kettle as possible. I usually just dump it into the fermentor but attempt to leave as much trub on the bottom of the kettle as possible.

 

[menerdari]

Do it however you want I always rack into my fermenter so not much of the trub from the boil makes it out of the brew pot.
I am happy with my brews.

 

[unionrdr]

I like to use a dual layer, fine mesh strainer like this one; http://www.midwestsupplies.com/stainless-steel-strainer-10-1-4-diameter.html It not only gets most of the gunk out, but helps aerate the wort as well. I just prefer to have less gunk/trub losses from the get-go. Come time to rack to the bottling bucket, there's less loss, less gunk to clean later. But that's just my preference.

 

[johngaltsmotor]

Over the years of seeing posts like this I have to wonder if this is another carryover from larger scale brewing that home brewers don't have to worry about (kinda like yeast autolysis is highly dependent on fermenter vessel depth). I long ago quit trying to strain as I was leaving behind good wort which would eventually settle clear.

Does the pressure at the bottom of a commercial fermenter start to break down the trub faster just like it squishes the dead yeast? Or is there a legitimate reason for home brewers to worry about transferring trub?

 

[unionrdr]

Good question. A fellow member did a side-by-side comparison of beers with one fermented from strained wort, the other with trub & all added. Some liked the trub one better, some preferred the strained one. Seems to me more liked the with trub one. But in my opinion, it could well be the style of beer as well.

 

[unviewtiful]

Does the pressure at the bottom of a commercial fermenter start to break down the trub faster just like it squishes the dead yeast? Or is there a legitimate reason for home brewers to worry about transferring trub?

I took a tour of a local brewery not too long ago, and the impression I got was that trub can very easily compact and harden, thus clogging the drain port on the fermenter. They said that they drain off whatever trub they have within 24 hours of transferring to the fermenter to prevent any clogs.