Reducing trub from fermenter

So I am still struggling to reduce the amount of trub from entering my fermenter. At this point I am just using a piece of copper pipe angled to pick up from the side, but I am getting a crazy amount of trub in my fermenter.
Whirl pooling by means of a spoon is damn near impossible with the heating element and probes in the kettle. I am using an immersion chiller now, but I am going to be swapping over to a counter flow in the near future. I am also using whirlfloc, but even flowing slow, alot of the break material and hops are flowing into the fermenter.

-will scooping out the "floop" or skimming the proteins just before boil make a difference?
Will it effect the taste of the beer?

I am considering either:

-1) adding a side pickup tube and recirculating for 15 minutes or so after boil is complete to try to gather the material in the middle of the kettle then pulling the wort from the side.
Or
-2) Purchasing the hop blocker screen. I am just a bit hesitant on using this because of the risk of clogging. It just seems like that screen would clog and take forever to drain.

I am really looking for some help here
Having all that material in my Carboy unjust can't be good!!!

If it bothers you, you could always let it sit to settle and then simply siphon the wort to the fermenter.

Trub in the fermenter really doesn't bother me, and I have a CFC so there isn't really any way for me to stop cold break from going into the fermenter, although I recirculate with my pump and some of the trub does stay in the kettle.

Anybody?!

Suggestions?

RDWAHAHB. Seriously, if you dump everything in the fermentor, trub and all, it will settle out with time, and will not have any negative impact on your beer. I prefer that rather than dealing with filters that can clog and will need to be cleaned.

Yooper said:

If it bothers you, you could always let it sit to settle and then simply siphon the wort to the fermenter.

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frenchtoasted said:

Anybody?!

Suggestions?

Click to expand...

I guess you didn't like my suggestion, but it's probably the best option if you want to avoid so much trub.

Have you tried using a hop spider? It's made a ton of difference for me, and they are easy/cheap to make.

Also adding Irish moss to the end of the boil, chilling rapidly, letting the wort rest a few minutes to settle out the particulate, and using an auto siphon to remove the wort from on top of the break material works really well. Yoopers suggestion is good.

Your best bet will be the hopblocker screen. If you are worried about it clogging, you could switch to whole hops. There is really no other way to keep it out but by filtering it.

Yooper said:

I guess you didn't like my suggestion, but it's probably the best option if you want to avoid so much trub.

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I do hear what your saying, and I appreciate the response.
Just trying to find a better method w/o racking from vessel to vessel.
I use an immersion chiller, so I am letting everything settle out for close to 40 minutes already.
I just figured someone may have been using a different method that was working with their electric kettle.
Thanks again!
I do really appreciate the advice.

On a side note, I am really surprised how much has already settled out already. I just assumed that once the yeast really went to work it was going to be some time before things really settled out.

I guess I forgot rule #1 of homebrewing.
RDWHAHB!!

I brew BIAB, so i wasn't getting a lot of grain in the end, but was amazed by the amount of hops material I got. When I got my plate chiller I really wanted to avoid anything clogging it so I started to reuse my bag for the hops additions - read: poor-man's hops spider. I went from dumping everything into the fermenter and having almost a gallon of trub down to less than half an inch of trub. Filtering out the hops is key, especially if you use pellets like me. Look into a hop bag or hops spider, settling helps, or whirlpool and then settle, but limiting the amount of gunk down there to begin with will reduce the amount of stuff going into the fermenter.

All of that said, dump it all in the fermenter, it all settles out in the end!

Another option would be to add a recirculating arm to your immersion chiller and whirlpool that way. It would help you cool quicker and create a little hop cone in the middle at the same time. Instead of adding another port will all the hardware and drilling, it's just 12in of copper bent to math your chiller. Other than dealing with it and moving on, it's probably your cheapest option.

Ddubduder said:

Another option would be to add a recirculating arm to your immersion chiller and whirlpool that way. It would help you cool quicker and create a little hop cone in the middle at the same time. Instead of adding another port will all the hardware and drilling, it's just 12in of copper bent to math your chiller. Other than dealing with it and moving on, it's probably your cheapest option.

Click to expand...

I think I am going to need to give this a shot! Looked at Jamils recirculating chiller and that just might work. I think I like the idea of the immersion a little better then the counter flow.
Now I just need to find a deal on some 1/2" copper pipe so I can build a larger chiller.

Thanks again for the help.
I will be sure to post results when I am finished.

Reducing trub from fermenter? Cold crash and siphon carefully.

Reducing trub into fermenter? Other than using a hop spider, why bother? It's not hurting your beer and only taking up an inch extra in the carboy.