Filtering to primary

[masterblaster]

Does filtering from brew pot to primary cause less trub for bottling? I generally siphon from brew pot to carboy and take everything, trying to get all the goodness in there, but my first 5 gallon batch had at least 4" of trub when I went to bottle. If I leave the gunk in the brew pot will this lessen my trub at the end?

 

[hunter_le five]

It depends.

Assuming you did everything right, then the only sediment in the bottom of your bottles will be from carbonating, regardless if whether or not you left true in the brewpot or dumped it into the primary.

The key is to let the beer settle and clarify adequately before bottling, whether by using fining agents, extended primaries, or cold crashing/conditioning.

That said, reducing the amount of sediment that goes into your primary in the first place might make that easier for you.

 

[masterblaster]

I'm not worried about the sediment in the bottles, i racked off the trub and the bottles are very clean. My issue is the amount of trub produced making me lose over 100 ozs of beer in the primary because of 4" of trub.

 

[freisste]

What is your recipe? If you have lots of hops, you will have lots of trub. I filter into the fermenter and even with 4 oz of pellet hops I only have maybe an inch of trub.

I'd suggest getting a strainer and try it for yourself. I will say it can be a bit of a PITA to strain it because the hops are somewhat "gooey" which clogs the strainer easily.

 

[unionrdr]

I strain my chilled wort through a dual layer fine mesh strainer to get out extrainious gunk. But I use hops sacks in the boil to keep that mess out. The strainer aerates it nicely as well. I end up with 3/8-1/2" of trub come bottling time. Got a little more in my latest IPA from using super moss. The IPA is clearing nicely in the fridge with little trub in the bottles. More like a dusting. The protiens settled out so quick,it plugged the barrel tap I have on my ale pail. Got past that & it settled in the bottling bucket for the most part.

 

[Mozart]

I use a 24"x24" nylon mesh bag, the kind some folks use for BIAB brewing. On brewday, I soak it in some StarSan. It fits conveniently into my fermenting bucket, pretty much lining the whole inside of the vessel. I then pour in my chilled wort, and remove the bag. It seems to work pretty well at removing most of the hop debris and is large enough that I've never had any clogging issues.

If you ferment in a carboy, though, this won't work quite as well.

 

[unionrdr]

My kettle is 5G,but kinda wide & short. My nylon bag is 18" x 32",more like for a tall,skinny kettle. I def wanna find that 24" x 24" in nylon,maybe fine mesh vs the course mesh I have now. Seems like that size would fit my kettle better. It'd help keep the fine floury stuff from getting through & sitting on the bottom of the kettle at flame out.

 

[masterblaster]

Recipe

PB American Ale

Style: American Pale Ale OG: 1.062
Type: Extract FG: 1.016
Rating: 0.0 ABV: 6.13 %
Calories: 204.01 IBU's: 65.74
Efficiency: 80.00 % Boil Size: 5.00 Gals
Color: 11.4 SRM Batch Size: 5.00 Gals
Preboil OG: 1.062 Boil Time: 60 minutes

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount Percentage Name Time Gravity
4.00 ozs 2.94 % Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L 60 mins 1.034
8.25 lbs 97.06 % Munton's Light LME 60 mins 1.037

Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
1.00 ozs 40.18 Nugget 60 mins 13.00
0.50 ozs 12.36 Pearle 60 mins 8.00
0.50 ozs 6.53 Cascade 30 mins 5.50
0.25 ozs 5.94 Centennial 30 mins 10.00
0.50 ozs 0.72 Cascade 2 mins 5.50

Yeasts
Amount Name Laboratory / ID
1 dry pkgs Safale US-05 Fermentis US-05

 

[masterblaster]

Sounds like to much hop gunk... Will have to find a way around that when I transfer to the carboy. First time it's been like this and first IPA style beer I have made.

 

[xxcommxx]

I have also had instances where I've had a couple inches of trub from the lack of filtering the wort into the primary. Would having this much trub cause noticeable off-flavors?

Essentially I accidentally did a full dump of my brew kettle into the bucket and want to know if I'm going to have a funky after taste.

Is filtering just to get the beer clearer or are there other real benefits?

 

[unionrdr]

Filtering/straining gets the hop & grainy gunk out,which will in turn leave less trub in the bottom come time to rack to bottling bucket.

 

[freisste]

Filtering/straining gets the hop & grainy gunk out,which will in turn leave less trub in the bottom come time to rack to bottling bucket.

Agreed.

As far as the previous question regarding straining making the beer clearer, I would think not. It will reduce the amount of trub in the bottles (likely), but not increase clarity. The things that affect clarity (non-flocculant yeast, proteins, etc.) will not be caught by a strainer.

 

[xxcommxx]

Thanks everyone for the response. What about off tastes? Will having that much trub create funky flavors?

 

[freisste]

Thanks everyone for the response. What about off tastes? Will having that much trub create funky flavors?

My understanding is that it takes quite a while.

 

[masterblaster]

Thanks everyone for the response. What about off tastes? Will having that much trub create funky flavors?

It takes months. There is a scientific name for it, but its enough yeast cells dying releasing enough stuff to cause off flavors. Autolypsis, autolyposis, or something.

 

[freisste]

It takes months. There is a scientific name for it, but its enough yeast cells dying releasing enough stuff to cause off flavors. Autolypsis, autolyposis, or something.

Autolysis (sp).