Small Frustrations...

[ColbyJack]

I have been brewing for a couple years, and BIAB for about 6 months (no sparge, full boil). Lately, I have been getting frustrated by mega trub. I am using voile curtains from walmart and lowes, and draping them in my keggle. Followed by a healthy squeeze with my colander into a bucket. I brew big IPAs, and have massive amounts of trub and break material in my keggle when I chill (immersion). I decided to make my batches bigger in an effort to leave more trub behind in my keggle, but the increased amount of grains is not helping the situation. My next idea is to rack to a large 6gal bucket with another filter of sorts, then dump that into my fermenter. Is using pellet hops the problem? I am ordering flower hops now for my next session.
Anyone else getting the same results?

 

[orangehero]

Are you having problems with haze, flavor, or physical stability?

Everything should settle out fine in the fermentor given enough time (3-4 weeks).

 

[Doed]

yes Colby, I end up with about a gallon of trub in the bottom of my primary carboy. I don't really have a problem with it being there. I suppose you could let it settle for a while, few hours, then rack to another carboy and pitch your yeast.

 

[RatsoRizzo]

Think I read somewhere that squeezing the bag opens the holes in the material a bit more letting out more trubby stuff, which sort of makes sense. I'm brewing tomorrow and am going to try filtering the squeezed wort before it hits the kettle. Will probably just line a strainer with my spare BIAB bag. I'm not fussed about mega-trub, just want to see if I do manage to reduce it a bit.

 

[TheJasonT]

Stop squeezing.

I have been using the "mini-sparge" technique. For a 5.5 gallon batch, I estimate to lose .13 gallons per pound of grain. So I start with about 7.5 gallons of water. While that's mashing, I heat up about three gallons of water to 170 and let it sit. I get a big fermenter bucket ready and when my mash AND Mashout is done (Mashout is important in BIAB), I pick up the bag, let it drain some without squeezing, then hang it in the bucket. I then pour about two quarts of wort through the grains, then I rinse the grains with the hot water, stirring and mixing.

For a 1.058 wort, the drained liquid usually reads about 1.036. Lots of sugar there. I then use that wort to come up to preboil volumes.

I hit a solid 80% efficiency with this technique.

 

[ColbyJack]

Are you having problems with haze, flavor, or physical stability?

Everything should settle out fine in the fermentor given enough time (3-4 weeks).

My issue is only getting more of my brew into the keg!!! I hate not filling kegs to the top. Other than that, the brew has been awesome.
The reading I have done here has mentioned that squeezing will increase efficiency. As I am not calculating efficiency yet, I am just squeezing because other people do.
Are you guys using curtains, bags, paint strainers? Thanks for the feedback. I am stoked on the BIAB section. Been wondering when we'd get one.

 

[tre9er]

You can rack it over. The time to really separate liquid from particulate matter is during settling after fermentation, be it extended time in the FV or a nice long cold-crash. The longer you let it sit, the more clear beer you end up with.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Yes, BIAB will produce more trub, let it settle out in the fermenter and rack off the beer. If you are short on volume of finished beer to the keg, increase volume to the fermenter.

 

[mtnagel]

My issue is only getting more of my brew into the keg!!! I hate not filling kegs to the top. Other than that, the brew has been awesome.
The reading I have done here has mentioned that squeezing will increase efficiency. As I am not calculating efficiency yet, I am just squeezing because other people do.
Are you guys using curtains, bags, paint strainers? Thanks for the feedback. I am stoked on the BIAB section. Been wondering when we'd get one.

Using the bag I bought from wilserbrewer. It's awesome and highly recommended.

I don't worry too much about too much trub. Sometimes I use hop sacks some times I don't. And I've been squeezing my bag.

 

[Foosier]

I use a bag made of voile curtain liner. I don't really ever notice much trub going into my bucket from my kettle. I see some but it is pretty limited. Could you be crushing so fine that the flour is making its' way through your bag? I use a LHBS double (single with their newer mill) crush and I really don't see that much trub besides the yeast. Hit better than 80% efficiency with my last batch too.

 

[tre9er]

You'll definitely get more trub with BIAB because your flour will hit the kettle no matter what. With a mash tun you vorlauf to create a fine filter bed so less flour will make it through as you run off. With BIAB some of your flour exits the bag immediately and there is nothing keeping a grain filter bed on the outer edges of the bag. Still, as mentioned, it's not an issue. You should still have the same amount of liquid as a traditional mash-tun brewer, you just need to let the particulate matter settle out.

 

[ColbyJack]

Funny you mentioned vorlauf. I'm wondering why more BIAB brewers don't vorlauf. Would that even work? Mashout at 170, vorlauf until you have clear runnings, then pull the bag? The only new piece of equipment would be a valve with some silicone hose.

 

[libeerty]

A gallon of trub is more than I usually get and we have identical methods. I stir my wort chiller in a circle which helps cool it and settle stuff at the bottom. I leave a little behind when I transfer to my fermenter. Maybe get half a gallon post-ferm? Even with dry hopped DIPAs. But anyhow, I would just account for it in your system and aim for more wort. Edit: you did that, but it doesn't work? You are getting proportionally more grain? Hmmm, dunno.

 

[Rake_Rocko]

Stop squeezing.

I have been using the "mini-sparge" technique. For a 5.5 gallon batch, I estimate to lose .13 gallons per pound of grain. So I start with about 7.5 gallons of water. While that's mashing, I heat up about three gallons of water to 170 and let it sit. I get a big fermenter bucket ready and when my mash AND Mashout is done (Mashout is important in BIAB), I pick up the bag, let it drain some without squeezing, then hang it in the bucket. I then pour about two quarts of wort through the grains, then I rinse the grains with the hot water, stirring and mixing.

For a 1.058 wort, the drained liquid usually reads about 1.036. Lots of sugar there. I then use that wort to come up to preboil volumes.

I hit a solid 80% efficiency with this technique.

I disagree with just about everything that thejasonT has to say here.

First off, I squeeze the hell out of my bag after I pull it from the kettle. In fact, I made a little tool that is basically two small pieces of stainless pipe welded together to make a "T" and then at the bottom I welded a flat piece of stainless to it to make a "smasher." I use that on a little table that is angled with a drain at the end. I put the bag on the table and literally smash the bag until its basically dry. No more sticky hands.

I do not sparge and I also do not mash out. I do a full volume mash and boil. And with all of this, I get consistently in the 80s for efficiency. I just compensate for the trub in my fermenter. So I input 5.5 gallons into beersmith for my batch size and all is well.

 

[LowNotes]

Do you use irish moss/whirlfloc? I don't know if it will impact the actual amount of trub, but I think it will make whatever trub you have denser and more compact at the bottom of the fermenter, resulting in less wasted beer.

Are you pouring 100% of the boil contents into the fermenter? Many people (including myself) do this as it maximizes the beer going into the bucket, and then just let the settling process work its magic.

Do you use a hop-sack during the boil? If not, using one might help reduce hop-trub.

Do you dry-hop? I throw my dry-hops in loose, and it always adds a good bit to my trub. Athough I filter through a paint-bag when racking to my bottling bucket to keep hop bits out, which lets me get more beer from fermenter to bottles.

 

[ColbyJack]

Do you use irish moss/whirlfloc? I don't know if it will impact the actual amount of trub, but I think it will make whatever trub you have denser and more compact at the bottom of the fermenter, resulting in less wasted beer.

Are you pouring 100% of the boil contents into the fermenter? Many people (including myself) do this as it maximizes the beer going into the bucket, and then just let the settling process work its magic.

Do you use a hop-sack during the boil? If not, using one might help reduce hop-trub.

Do you dry-hop? I throw my dry-hops in loose, and it always adds a good bit to my trub. Athough I filter through a paint-bag when racking to my bottling bucket to keep hop bits out, which lets me get more beer from fermenter to bottles.

Yes I use whirlflock. I am also going to strain my wort after boil to remove some break material and hop bits.
I dry hop in my keg using giant stainless tea balls. I just installed a valve on my keggle and sewed up 2 new bags in a cone to help drips. I plan to vorlauf this next batch. Will report my findings.

 

[ODI3]

Here are the only options I know of:

A strainer, or grain bag on the output of the kettle before it goes into fermenter
A diverter plate, I am in the process of testing one out, not sure if it works yet
"The electric brewery" uses a hop stopper and report good success with it
Hop blocker by blichmann
bobby M at brewers hardware offers an inline filter.
hop spiders
whirlpooling post cool
using a stainless steel ring in your kettle, when you recirc the wort, it catches the trub in the ring. I had a pic but cant find it online anymore

These are only ideas I know of.