What is this precipitate in my beer

[aaronmlong]

Today I was brewing a barleywine with the following recipe

Batch Size 5.5 Gal
Boil Time 120 min

17 lb maris otter
4 lb munich
2lb cara 60
4 oz peat malt

1 oz Challenger (7.2%)
1 oz fuggles (4.5%)
1 oz columbus (13%)
1 oz east kent goldings(6.3%)

I was conducting a single infusion mash for 60 minutes at 150.
I hit my mash temp perfectly and it stayed at 150 for the entire 60 min.

Everything in the brew day was all well and good until I went to transfer from my boil kettle into my primary fermenter (Bucket) I noticed a HUGE amount of .. im not sure what it is, floating around in the kettle. It SEEMS to me that it could be sugar that some how precipitated out of the wort. The reason why I think this is because my hydrometer readings were low, (1.08 when I was shooting for 1.101)


I know its not hop residue because i use leaf hops and have a really good kettle screen.
Does anyone have any clue as to what this is?


I attached a few pictures. I know there sideways but my phone is an ******* and keeps auto rotating.

Thanks

 

[Reno_eNVy]

It's a mixture of break proteins and undissolved hop material

 

[aaronmlong]

I find it hard to believe that this is break proteins. I wish I was using my glass fermenter for this so I could send you a pic, but the sheer amount of it was.. well a little staggering. Im talking about probably 2 inches of the bottom of my 5 gallon bucket was just this goop.

But I could be wrong. I would love to see some documentation on where you got your thoughts from

-=Thanks
aaron

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Yeah, 2 inches happens sometimes. It's normal... chill, or even better, RDWHAHB

 

[aaronmlong]

I guess it was just unusual to see that much. thanks

 

[Reno_eNVy]

No problem. How long has it been in there? You'll probably see it compact quite a bit over time.

 

[eastoak]

there are pictures on here of carboys that look like they are half filled with trub but it all compacts down in the end. it provides good nutrient to the yeast and may even help with head formation/retention.

 

[aaronmlong]

Its only been in there about 24 hours. I Posted those pics about 3 hours after I finished brewing. I guess my next questions are why was my efficiency rating so bad for this batch and what can i do to fix it?

Any ideas? I was thinking of adding some DME to the fermenter in about 2 days.

 

[eastoak]

i would not call 1080 vs 1010 "so low" (1040 or 1030 would be low) and i certainly would not add DME to a fermenting beer.

 

[emjay]

i would not call 1080 vs 1010 "so low" (1040 or 1030 would be low) and i certainly would not add DME to a fermenting beer.

30 points off is certainly low. Heck, even 6 points off is a little low in my book.

And while I don't personally add DME to a beer once it's out of the kettle, it's actually a totally acceptable practice. Some people do it intentionally with big beers like barleywines to make it easier on the yeasties. If I were to ever eventually do it though, it would be only as part of a strategy to reduce esters in a really big beer for which I want an extremely neutral yeast character.

OP, just make sure to boil that DME in a small amount of water for a bit before adding it to the fermentor. Learn (or use brewing software) to calculate your target pre-boil gravity, and to figure out how much water or DME you need in order to adjust the actual gravity to your desired gravity. And also, next time keep in mind that the huge grain bills involved with such massive beers pretty much *always* cause our systems to end up with a lower-than-normal efficiency - which means that you generally need to use EVEN MORE grain to hit the desired gravity, or make up the difference with extract.

 

[eastoak]

30 points off is certainly low. Heck, even 6 points off is a little low in my book.

And while I don't personally add DME to a beer once it's out of the kettle, it's actually a totally acceptable practice. Some people do it intentionally with big beers like barleywines to make it easier on the yeasties. If I were to ever eventually do it though, it would be only as part of a strategy to reduce esters in a really big beer for which I want an extremely neutral yeast character.

OP, just make sure to boil that DME in a small amount of water for a bit before adding it to the fermentor. Learn (or use brewing software) to calculate your target pre-boil gravity, and to figure out how much water or DME you need in order to adjust the actually gravity to your desired gravity. And also, next time keep in mind that the huge grain bills involved with such massive beers pretty much *always* causes our systems to end up with a lower-than-normal efficiency - which means that you generally need to use EVEN MORE grain to hit the desired gravity, or make up the difference with extract.

i think the perception in the mouth would be very similar between the two gravities. on paper it looks big but to me that would not matter so much. people do add things to their beer during fermentation but i think a beer should be left alone once it's in the fermenter, the time for adding DME is in the boil. i'm anti fiddling. your points are well taken though.