What am i doing wrong ?

[Stevesauer]

Hello all. Stupid question here. I cannot for the life of me achieve the elusive trub cone. I use a mud mixer and a drill, whirlpool for 2 minutes, and allow it to settle for 35-45 minutes. When I siphon the wort, I end up leaving behind about a gallon because I start picking up trub in the siphon. What am I doing wrong ? Am I letting it sit too long and the cone is spreading out? I siphon as close to the edge as possible too. I'm getting tired of low yields, but am unwilling to sacrifice clarity. I adjusted my trub loss figures in beersmith with limited success. I suppose I could pour the remaining gallon or so into a sanitized bucket which contains a 5 gal paint bag and siphon that to the fermenter, but I'd like to keep the process at 1 step. Any thoughts?

 

[ricshayne]

Dump it all in dude you're doing too much work

 

[TheMadKing]

Hello all. Stupid question here. I cannot for the life of me achieve the elusive trub cone. I use a mud mixer and a drill, whirlpool for 2 minutes, and allow it to settle for 35-45 minutes. When I siphon the wort, I end up leaving behind about a gallon because I start picking up trub in the siphon. What am I doing wrong ? Am I letting it sit too long and the cone is spreading out? I siphon as close to the edge as possible too. I'm getting tired of low yields, but am unwilling to sacrifice clarity. I adjusted my trub loss figures in beersmith with limited success. I suppose I could pour the remaining gallon or so into a sanitized bucket which contains a 5 gal paint bag and siphon that to the fermenter, but I'd like to keep the process at 1 step. Any thoughts?

personally, I don't worry about trub too much. Cloudy wort does not make cloudy beer. It always settles out for me.

 

[ricshayne]

this guy. this article. must read.

http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/

 

[Stevesauer]

this guy. this article. must read.

http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/

Well...that settles it! Done wasting time being fanatical about transfering clear wort. I never would have expected that the trub batch produced a cleaner beer. Thanks for the link !

 

[permo]

I throw my entire brew kettle in the conical and dump things after fermentation is complete. I do use a hop spider though. All the hot/cold break is yeast food IMO.

 

[daksin]

Glad some folks here have convinced you to "throw it all in" but just stirring with a spoon may give you a better whirlpool effect by introducing less turbulence. Stir firmly and evenly around the outside of the kettle and once it's up to top speed (should just be a few stirs) just walk away. Do nothing. The more you stir, the more you'll break up the trub which makes forming a cone much harder due to particle size.

 

[Cyclman]

I was thinking the same thing, vigorous mixing might be breaking the trub into smaller bits.

But I don't worry too much about trub in primary, it settles out into a nice cake.

 

[beergolf]

I am in the just dump it sll in camp. You can get a nice clear beer even if you do dump it all in.

This brew was one where I just dumped it all in..

 

[Qhrumphf]

Trub is a double edged sword. It provides yeast nutrition (good) but also provides fatty acids that can accelerate staling (bad). Exactly how much is good or bad doesn't seem to make an impact on the homebrew scale, as everyone seems to be fine doing it either way.

So I normally don't worry about protein trub. I do, however, try to remove hop matter when brewing something highly hopped.

The other complication is when using different chillers like plate/heat exchangers or a CFC, as the trub and hop matter can clog the chiller. However, if you're using an immersion chiller that part's not an issue.

 

[Stevesauer]

Thanks for all the input. Anything that increases my yield and decreases my work is a good thing. I must say that I was surprised to learn that trub had no discernable impact on clarity, which was my main reason for doing it. But, you can't argue with results.

 

[beerkench]

I use a juice strainer for this.


Sent from hell
using Home Brew

 

[TheHopfather]

Dump it all in, beer comes out perfectly clear.

 

[beerkench]

Dump it all in, beer comes out perfectly clear.

I would but I use the spigot to transfer beer into the keg and find that too much trub gets carried over if I let it all go into the fermenter.

 

[TheHopfather]

I would but I use the spigot to transfer beer into the keg and find that too much trub gets carried over if I let it all go into the fermenter.

What do you mean by "too much trub"? That is kind of the point I was making, there isn't such a thing as too much trub in the fermentor. You can dump all of the trub right in and you can still have a clear beer. Unless you've got a space issue?

 

[plankbr]

If yield is what you're looking for, adjust your recipes accordingly. For 5 gallon batches, I plan for 7 gallons pre-boil. 1.5 gallons boil off and .5 gallon for yeast cake. Usually puts me at the 5 gallon camp for packaging. For 10 gallons, I start with 12.5 gallons pre-boil. Same logic as 5 gallons. I hope this helps. I also dump all mine in but I filter it through a mesh strainer.

 

[BrotherBock]

What do you mean by "too much trub"? That is kind of the point I was making, there isn't such a thing as too much trub in the fermentor. You can dump all of the trub right in and you can still have a clear beer. Unless you've got a space issue?

I think he's saying post-fermentation when transferring to the keg. Too much trub in the fermenter would bring the cake up past the spigot line and he'd get trub in the keg.

 

[Psylocide]

Yep... all of the trub goes right into my fermenter. No chill, BIAB.

Clear enough for me (6 oz hops, 3 oz Spruce tips in this brew).

 

[RmikeVT]

I've run the spectrum of trub control. I've brewed batches were I've tried to filter it all out using paint strainer bags, to batches were I just dump it all in the bucket and let it go. I always get some trub into the fermentor, but I really try not to carry over the thickest, heaviest tub. Not for clarity or flavor reasons, but just because its not wort. I do 12.5g batches, I plan on leaving behind a gallon in the kettle and a gallon between 2 fermentors leaving me 10.5g of beer going into my kegs. This is similar to the recipes in Brewing Classic Styles, which plan 6g batches, 0.5g left behind in kettle and 0.5g left behind in fermentor to yield 5g at packaging.

A few of my observations:
1) Final Beer Clarity doesn't have to do with trub. Trub seems to be heavy particulates that settle out on their own. Final beer clarity has to do with getting a good hot break and good cold break and coagulating proteins with irish mosh or whirlfloc. Post fermentation clarity is all about getting the chill haze and yeast to drop out of suspension, whether you cold crash or use gelatin, but this won't replace kettle finings

2) Minimizing trub going into the fermentor does result in a less scummy krausen that is a little easier to clean.

3) I haven't noticed a difference in taste one way or another. I think this should be the last thing that you worry about on your priority list when trying to improve a beer.

 

[Brewenstein]

The only reason that I try to limit the trub into the fermenter is that I like to just scoop out yeast slurry for the next batch. If I am not going to do this, I just dump it all in.