Oops -- All trub into fermenter

Hectic brewday leads to distraction.

The preggonaut and the 20-month old proved to occupy me during my brew. Got grains steeped at the right temp and for the right duration, got DME and LME into boil without boilover, got hops in on schedule, got kettle cooled quickly...

...when it came time to rack to primary...

...i dumped the entire kettle without thinking, all of my trub went right in

I plan on racking to secondary after 5-6 days in primary, which should help clarity a little.

---RECIPE SPECIFICATIONS-----------------------------------------------
SRM: 4.7 SRM SRM RANGE: 3.0-6.0 SRM
IBU: 19.0 IBUs Tinseth IBU RANGE: 15.0-28.0 IBUs
OG: 1.055 SG OG RANGE: 1.038-1.054 SG
FG: 1.010 SG FG RANGE: 1.008-1.013 SG
BU:GU: 0.344 Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz Est ABV: 5.9 %
EE%: 72.00 % Batch: 5.00 gal Boil: 2.30 gal BT: 60 Mins

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 28.6 %
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 9.5 %

---BOIL PROCESS-----------------------------
Est Pre_Boil Gravity: 1.105 SG Est OG: 1.055 SG
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3 lbs Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 3 28.6 %
2 lbs 8.0 oz Pilsner Liquid Extract (3.5 SRM) Extract 4 23.8 %
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 40.0 min Hop 5 17.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 6 1.8 IBUs


S.G. ended up being 1.061

Anything i can do to save this?

Yes, don't rack after 6 days. It won't make a difference that that stuff is in there.

Never had a problem with trub going into the fermenter. 3-4 weeks and it's all settled to the bottom with clear beer above it. If it still looks a little cloudy, a couple of days cold crash finishes it well enough for me.

bosco

So?

That's really one of those things that is a matter of personal preference and nothing else. Some dump everything in, without straining, just pour it in the bucket or in the funnel....Some use a big strainer that fit in the funnel for a carboy, or a sanitized 5 gallon nylon paint strainer bag in the bucket...

I have done it all ways. It really doesn't matter...anything will settle.

In other words, there is no wrong way to do it, or better way, or way that will make the best beer...they all work...the choice is what will work the best for you. That's how you develop you own unique brewing process. By trying all ways and deciding what works best for you.

What I do with my IC, is chill the wort, then I lean the bottom of my autosiphon about two coils up from the bottom on the metal of the siphon. That rests it above most of the break material and trub, then I rack it to the fermenter until I'm down to that and carefully lower the siphon down into the gunk, just trying to get as much of the wort as possible without letting in the hops and break matter.

A whirlpool helps.

But pretty much up until I got my immersion chiller I just dumped for the majority of my batches. And I still managed to do well in contests...

I find that long primaries render my beer just as clear, and crisp tasting regardless of whether I dumped it all in or not....so I just do what works for me.....

ZERO issues with the trub going into the fermenter. The trub actually contains proteins that improve yeast health.

I always put everything into the fermenter, and end up with consistently clear, clean beer.

I just:

1) Whirfloc in the boil
2) Rack carefully off the trub into the keg
3) Allow time in the keg for everything to settle, and pull it out in the first draw.

That's it!

dlaramie08 said:

Yes, don't rack after 6 days. It won't make a difference that that stuff is in there.

Click to expand...

Are you saying don't rack to secondary? not sure if i understand why NOT to do that.

As you can see from the recipe this beer is trying ery hard to be not too hoppy, won't sitting on a bunch of hop residue for the full extent of fermentation work against this?

Norselord said:

Are you saying don't rack to secondary? not sure if i understand why NOT to do that.

As you can see from the recipe this beer is trying ery hard to be not too hoppy, won't sitting on a bunch of hop residue for the full extent of fermentation work against this?

Click to expand...

This is the most asked and discussed topic on here, on a daily basis there are 5 or six treads on this.

This discussion has been thoroughly covered in this thread, it's become the "uber discussion" on this topic.

To Secondary or Not? John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff Weigh In .

Many of us skip secondary and leave our beers in primary for a month...we think it IMPROVES our beer.

"Spent" hops won't do anything.

Revvy said:

This is the most asked and discussed topic on here, on a daily basis there are 5 or six treads on this.

This discussion has been thoroughly covered in this thread, it's become the "uber discussion" on this topic.

To Secondary or Not? John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff Weigh In .

Many of us skip secondary and leave our beers in primary for a month...we think it IMPROVES our beer.

"Spent" hops won't do anything.

Click to expand...

So, dlaramie08 wasn't providing a solution to the specific problem I requested assistance with, merely providing a personal preference?

I appreciate all the feedback, I will likely rack to secondary after 6 days anyway, just to free up the primary and get the beer off of the solids. This is my opinion and personal preference.

Thanks again for your prompt responses.

Norselord said:

So, dlaramie08 wasn't providing a solution to the specific problem I requested assistance with, merely providing a personal preference?

I appreciate all the feedback, I will likely rack to secondary after 6 days anyway, just to free up the primary and get the beer off of the solids. This is my opinion and personal preference.

Thanks again for your prompt responses.

Click to expand...

How do you know you're beer's going to be done in 6 days? Rarely is a beer done in that little time, especially if the yeast took up to three days to re-produce (lag time) as shown in the sticky entitled "Fermentation can take between 24 and 72 hours..."

Even if you rack to a secondary, to clear the beer it's a good idea to leave the beer in primary for a few more days so the yeast can clean up after themselves.....I recommend folks take their first gravity reading on day 10 or 12, and second one 2 days later, and rack around day 14. This leaves a few days of yeast contact to let the yeast clean up after itself.

To me, six days is plain too soon.

Norselord said:

So, dlaramie08 wasn't providing a solution to the specific problem I requested assistance with, merely providing a personal preference?

I appreciate all the feedback, I will likely rack to secondary after 6 days anyway, just to free up the primary and get the beer off of the solids. This is my opinion and personal preference.

Thanks again for your prompt responses.

Click to expand...

What he is saying, is that there is no issue sitting on the solids. The hop oil all comes out in the heat of the wort, so it won't make your beer more hoppy. Even dry hopping doesn't make the beer more bitter, it will only add flavor and aroma, but the hops in your kettle have already released all they are going to release.

If you want to rack, go ahead and knock yourself out. But racking won't help the beer clear, won't prevent any off flavors, and gives you one more chance of infection or oxidation.

Clean and sanitize everything well, and be careful to not splash the beer, and racking won't cause you any issues either, other than having to clean up more stuff.

OK, will heed the advice of my elders...brew date was 4/6, rack date will be 4/20.

Any thoughts on the beer recipe? Trying to create something that i can drink this spring/early summer specifically for after mowing my lawn...Also something that my Bud Light drinking friends won't choke on.

6 days is kinda early. If i'm going to a secondary, its a minimum of 14 days. 1061 is a good sized beer.

Norselord said:

OK, will heed the advice of my elders...brew date was 4/6, rack date will be 4/20.

Any thoughts on the beer recipe? Trying to create something that i can drink this spring/early summer specifically for after mowing my lawn...Also something that my Bud Light drinking friends won't choke on.

Click to expand...

Looks tasty and easy to drink. Good call on heeding the advice, you want the beer on the bulk of the yeast for a good while, and all the break material and hops are irrelevant.

Norselord said:

...Got grains steeped at the right temp and for the right duration...

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 28.6 %
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 9.5 %

Click to expand...

Those should be mashed not just steeped.

A mini mash would be perfect here and you can do that mash in a 2 gallon pot. Keep at 150°F for an hour (in a preheated oven). Use a strainer lined with a grain bag to drain the wort off. Put the grains back in the pot, do a batch sparge and strain again.

It will be tasty, don't worry. Just remember to mash those base malts and the carapils (dextrine) next time.

Your beer will likely come out with a slightly higher FG than you forecast because of the steeped grains, which added a bunch of unfermentables to the wort.

I'm surprised to see your OG being that high at 1.061. Did you end up with 5 gal volume in your fermentor?

Another vote for "psh, big deal". I dump everything into my fermenter, and have never had an issue. The only thing that doesn't go in is the solid crud that I'd have to scrape out with a spoon. I've tried a funnel with a screen and decided that was far much more erffort that it was worth.

If you are planning on secondary, I'd also agree to not rack the beer earlier than two weeks (if not three).

I posted about this recently. Trub is actually good for a more vigorous fermentation. Let the naysayers nay, but I proved it to my own satisfaction.

IslandLizard said:

Those should be mashed not just steeped.

A mini mash would be perfect here and you can do that mash in a 2 gallon pot. Keep at 150°F for an hour (in a preheated oven). Use a strainer lined with a grain bag to drain the wort off. Put the grains back in the pot, do a batch sparge and strain again.

It will be tasty, don't worry. Just remember to mash those base malts and the carapils (dextrine) next time.

Your beer will likely come out with a slightly higher FG than you forecast because of the steeped grains, which added a bunch of unfermentables to the wort.

I'm surprised to see your OG being that high at 1.061. Did you end up with 5 gal volume in your fermentor?

Click to expand...

I did a mini mash -- well micro mash. @150F on stove in water for 30 minutes, in grainbag, rinsed grainbag into kettle to get up to boil volume.

I did end up with 5 gallons in fermenter, i probably ended up going a little high on the LME, since it was only available in 3.3lb qty, and i eyeballed the addition

Looks like there is no need to defend myself as everyone else already has, however, I will elaborate my concise response. I merely meant dont rack because of the trub. If you rack all of your beers at that point and it works for ya then whatever. But didn't want you to think you needed to do that because of your situation.

What the OP did is what happens to every batch I brew. Not a problem, clarity is just fine...well, except for the hefes and stuff that aren't supposed to be. That's why they invented finings.

dlaramie08 said:

Looks like there is no need to defend myself as everyone else already has, however, I will elaborate my concise response. I merely meant dont rack because of the trub. If you rack all of your beers at that point and it works for ya then whatever. But didn't want you to think you needed to do that because of your situation.

Click to expand...

I usually rack to secondary when i'm about 5-10% away from F.G. -- i am changing that to a flat two weeks, per posts here.

I misunderstood you, my aoplogies.

After looking up all the 'primary only' info ... a coupla follow ups:

My primary bucket has a built in spigot, should i be using this to transfer to priming tank or should i be siphoning with a cane? The spigot is usually pretty close to the sediment.

Should i just use my plastic carboy secondary as an additional primary then?

OK so this batch smells like a yeasty turd 4 days in, and the bottom draws look like heinous.

I need addresses of the people telling me secondary blah blah, and it will be ok blah blah -- gonna send you some bottles after i let this ferment for another 2 weeks, and then condition for 3 weeks. Promise to drink it, and then tell me your thoughts....

Norselord said:

OK so this batch smells like a yeasty turd 4 days in, and the bottom draws look like heinous.

I need addresses of the people telling me secondary blah blah, and it will be ok blah blah -- gonna send you some bottles after i let this ferment for another 2 weeks, and then condition for 3 weeks. Promise to drink it, and then tell me your thoughts....

Click to expand...

Pretty much all batches smell like that after 4 days.

Norselord said:

OK so this batch smells like a yeasty turd 4 days in, and the bottom draws look like heinous.

Click to expand...

Humans work on Internet time. Yeast work on geological time. Be a bit more Zen. The yeast are going to do what they do, without regard to your machinations. Give it a few weeks. Don't worry, Be Happy.

Norselord said:

I need addresses of the people telling me secondary blah blah, and it will be ok blah blah -- gonna send you some bottles after i let this ferment for another 2 weeks, and then condition for 3 weeks. Promise to drink it, and then tell me your thoughts....

Click to expand...

Send all 48 to me. I'll pay shipping. It looks like a fine recipe.

Seriously, I've done it both ways. After losing several liters of Irish Red Ale to trub loss, I've been using a paint strainer bag for the grain, and an old pair of my wife's panty hose for the hops. Very little trub loss. More beer.

Norselord said:

OK so this batch smells like a yeasty turd 4 days in, and the bottom draws look like heinous.

I need addresses of the people telling me secondary blah blah, and it will be ok blah blah -- gonna send you some bottles after i let this ferment for another 2 weeks, and then condition for 3 weeks. Promise to drink it, and then tell me your thoughts....

Click to expand...

Complain to them when the beer is finished, rather than 4 days in. People with lots more brewing experience than you chimed in to help you out.
The beer is going to finish sweet with all that malt extract and a pound of carapils to boot, but it will be drinkable if you follow the advice earlier in the thread.
Cheers.

bovineblitz said:

Pretty much all batches smell like that after 4 days.

Click to expand...

Exactly...Fermentation is ugly and stinky even when it's perfectly normal.

Norselord said:

OK so this batch smells like a yeasty turd 4 days in, and the bottom draws look like heinous.

I need addresses of the people telling me secondary blah blah, and it will be ok blah blah -- gonna send you some bottles after i let this ferment for another 2 weeks, and then condition for 3 weeks. Promise to drink it, and then tell me your thoughts....

Click to expand...

why are you even smelling it 4 days in? Just leave it alone and let it ferment. All of the advice here has been excellent and it will turn out fine. All the stuff on the bottom might look gross but you won't be drinking that. Fermentation is hideously ugly and beautiful at the same time.

OK, my bad.

Most of the time i do not let the trub get into the fermenter.
To be clear I have a "siphonless" fermenter -- plastic bucket with valve.
I like to track s.g. and progress throughout the fermentation. So when i open the valve to fill my column, i also make qualitative observations. Because of my prior experience in leaving most of the trub in the kettle, the amount of solids in fermenter has typically been below the valve. As a result my samples did not contain as much funk as this one has.

that is another term for using a bottling bucket as a fermenter. If you are taking samples with the spigot, you are likely sampling the trub which is predictably going to taste nasty. How are you cleaning out the spigot after pulling samples? That practice seems like a perfect way to infect the beer when you ultimately transfer it.

OK - just bottled this stuff on 4/27, 2 weeks in primary with a week in secondary.

Hydro sample tasted...good!

I guess I freaked out over nothing. I'll let you guys know in about a week or so what the first test bottle is like.

Glad it turned out for you, sir. New beer can be somewhat in-your-face; it will mellow a little bit in the bottle if given time. (Usually doesn't happen here at Man Cave Brewing.)