A few questions about trub

[virtualpaul]

I finished brewing my 3rd all grain last week. The beer recipe I created was based on a berliner wheat beer but with a low ABV of 1.8%. The target OG was 1.20 and I got ~1.19 so I am happy with the result.

I used beersmith to design it and made an ~8 step mash... Well, the first few steps were on my electric stove to gelatinize and prepare some non-malted grains (rye, buckwheat, oat, barley) based on this:
http://beersmith.com/blog/2013/09/06/cereal-mash-steps-for-all-grain-beer-brewing/

The other steps I did normally in a BIAB.

I wanted the beer to have a lot protein, mainly for nutritional purpose and partly for mouthfeel, so I did a long protein rest. When I transferred to the carboy for fermenting, I intentionally included all the trub I could. The goal was to keep as much protein as I could and to keep the yeast too.

Now I know most people try to get rid of the trub to get a clear beer but I don't care much about clarity. Some wheat beers keep the yeast and this is what I want also.

I am wondering if there are other reasons than taste and beer clarity to get rid of the trub.
Is the trub not healthy for some reason?
Is the trub taste so bad that it must be removed?

 

[Miraculix]

Clearer wort does not create clearer beer. We had this one over and over, so I'll skip any further comment but you can find a lot about it when using the search engine.

A protein rest does not create more proteins, it just chops bigger proteins into smaller ones. For nutritional purpose, there is no value. There is neither more note less protein in solution after a protein rest.

The only arguement speaking against dumping all the trub into the fermenter is long-term storage. The proteins and fatty acids in the tub tend to go rancid or oxidised after some time, but we are talking about months or longer here, so on a homebrew scale, it doesn't really have a negative impact to dump all the truth into the fermenter. It is beneficial for yaest health, I'll always just throw it all in. After fermentation finished, it settles out quickly anyway.

 

[balrog]

I'm an all-in guy. 150 batches. Stouts, Kolsches, ambers, pales, cream ales. All trub, all in, all the time, and I have no issues with clear beer except for the whole patience thing sometimes. And Wits.

 

[Alex4mula]

Let it rest or cold crash and trub goes to bottom.

 

[Saunassa]

I let mine settle for awhile and drain into the fermenter. I just want to leave the biggest and heaviest stuff behind.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I let mine settle for awhile and drain into the fermenter. I just want to leave the biggest and heaviest stuff behind.

I am mostly the same. I siphon my beer from the kettle into the fermenter leaving the worst trub and hop debris behind. From what I see there is some benefit to getting trub into the fermenter, but too much can cause issues. I would rather limit the amount of boil hops that make it into the fermenter. In any case, it makes more room for beer/headspace in the fermenter and leaves cleaner trub for harvesting yeast.

 

[virtualpaul]

Clearer wort does not create clearer beer. We had this one over and over, so I'll skip any further comment but you can find a lot about it when using the search engine.

A protein rest does not create more proteins, it just chops bigger proteins into smaller ones. For nutritional purpose, there is no value. There is neither more note less protein in solution after a protein rest.

The only arguement speaking against dumping all the trub into the fermenter is long-term storage. The proteins and fatty acids in the tub tend to go rancid or oxidised after some time, but we are talking about months or longer here, so on a homebrew scale, it doesn't really have a negative impact to dump all the truth into the fermenter. It is beneficial for yaest health, I'll always just throw it all in. After fermentation finished, it settles out quickly anyway.

Thanks for your complete response.

For the protein, you mention "For nutritional purpose, there is no value". Do you mean that the proteins are not nutritious anyway or that they are as nutritious with or without the protein rest? I would have thought that smaller proteins would make them more 'bio-available' to our digestive system. Another reason I thought is that smaller proteins might float more easily than longer ones (heavier?) so they would not all go out of the keg on the first few drinks.

In terms of taste, do you think the trub can/should be transferred to the keg?

 

[virtualpaul]

I'm an all-in guy. 150 batches. Stouts, Kolsches, ambers, pales, cream ales. All trub, all in, all the time, and I have no issues with clear beer except for the whole patience thing sometimes. And Wits.

Thanks for sharing.

Do you transfer the trub from the fermenter to the keg too?

If so, does it just go out of the keg in the first few drinks?

 

[Miraculix]

Thanks for your complete response.

For the protein, you mention "For nutritional purpose, there is no value". Do you mean that the proteins are not nutritious anyway or that they are as nutritious with or without the protein rest? I would have thought that smaller proteins would make them more 'bio-available' to our digestive system. Another reason I thought is that smaller proteins might float more easily than longer ones (heavier?) so they would not all go out of the keg on the first few drinks.

In terms of taste, do you think the trub can/should be transferred to the keg?

Sorry, that was misleading from my side. I meant that the protein rest ads no additional nutrients for the yeast that would have been there already without it.

It might be that shorter ones are more accessible, but I have honestly no idea. I guess the yeast can also chop them on their own, of necessary.

 

[virtualpaul]

Thanks for clarifying.

In the end, for the berliner wheat beer I was making, I should have left the trub out of the fermenter. Because when I transfered the beer from the fermenter to the keg, I left out the trub (3 inches at the bottom) but then I lost all the yeast taste that I am used to in my past wheat beer. Perhaps I should try to bottle a few beers with the trub to see how it tastes?