Trub with a Chronical

[WhiteRhyno]

Hi all,

So I have just got a chronical with a dump port in the bottom.

My question is, should I dump all of the wort into the fermentor, including the trub and then dump the trub after a day or so, or wait for the trub to settle out in the brew pot before transfer (this can take ages for me, like hours)

 

[mongoose33]

Hi all,

So I have just got a chronical with a dump port in the bottom.

My question is, should I dump all of the wort into the fermentor, including the trub and then dump the trub after a day or so, or wait for the trub to settle out in the brew pot before transfer (this can take ages for me, like hours)

You'll get different opinions on this. What I do is just dump most of the wort in there. I whirlpool so I don't transfer all the trub, but I do get some in there. I don't concern myself with removing it either right away or later. I let the beer go through normal fermentation, then when I rack it out of there the trub and such stays behind.

 

[RM-MN]

What's the point of having a chonical if you don't let it do what it is designed to do, separate the beer from the trub. Dump everything in there and let the yeast get to work on all the wort, then when the fermentation is over you can dump the trub so you don't have to deal with it when you bottle or keg.

 

[Dland]

Also, if you got a lot of trub in fermentor, and you want it out, a conical will let you dump it at any time during or after fermentation, after it has settled, so you will not waste wort/beer.

Just remember to put a little CO2 pressure in when doing a trub dump so it does not "gulp" some O2 during dump. I just put a couple PSI though the blow off tube.

As to whether it is good, bad or indifferent if there is trub in fermentor during fermentation, that is a different discussion and may vary depending on the yeast you are using. I think the style of beers I make come out better when fermented with little top break present. But some of the yeasts/beers like kveik may benefit from the trub, and some people may even like the ester profiles created in a trub rich environment.

 

[mongoose33]

What's the point of having a chonical if you don't let it do what it is designed to do, separate the beer from the trub. Dump everything in there and let the yeast get to work on all the wort, then when the fermentation is over you can dump the trub so you don't have to deal with it when you bottle or keg.

Is that the point of a conical? I didn't realize that when I bought mine. I wanted the ability to dump yeast, maybe--maybe--dump trub if I felt it was important, and be able to pressure ferment and pressure transfer.

I didn't realize I was doing it wrong.

 

[RM-MN]

I didn't realize I was doing it wrong.

is there really a wrong way to use the conical? It is made to be able to separate the trub from the beer much better than my flat bottom bucket though.

 

[mongoose33]

is there really a wrong way to use the conical? It is made to be able to separate the trub from the beer much better than my flat bottom bucket though.

So do the commercial ones have racking arms like my conical does? If I were doing things commercially I'd want to dump trub leaving nothing but beer in the fermenter such that when it is time to transfer to brite tank or whatever, I'd do it through that same dump valve which is now devoid of trub.

My conical has a racking arm that draws beer from above the trub. Dumping the trub costs me about a half gallon of volume which means I have to increase my volume by that much to ensure the racking arm is deep enough in the beer to draw off 5 gallons.

You implied that since I wasn't dumping the trub I was doing it wrong. I'm not. Too many people want to buy my beer, a local bar owner wants to sell it, and I can't for the life of me see how anything I'm doing is "wrong" otherwise ineffectual.

 

[RM-MN]

I whirlpool so I don't transfer all the trub, but I do get some in there.

This might be the answer. You don't put all the trub into the conical so you don't have that half gallon of just trub settled out when fermentation is done. Try one batch where you dump everything in, let it ferment out, settle the trub, then dump.

 

[mongoose33]

This might be the answer. You don't put all the trub into the conical so you don't have that half gallon of just trub settled out when fermentation is done. Try one batch where you dump everything in, let it ferment out, settle the trub, then dump.

Might be the answer to what? My beer, even when I threw all the trub in, turned out fine. I'm unclear why you think this matters so much. The results, well, kind of speak for themselves.

 

[RM-MN]

Might be the answer to what? My beer, even when I threw all the trub in, turned out fine. I'm unclear why you think this matters so much. The results, well, kind of speak for themselves.

You mentioned that when you dumped the trub you lost a lot (maybe not a lot) of beer with the trub. When you whirlpool you leave wort behind. Dumping all of it into the conical should get you a full bulb of trub so you don't lose beer when you dump. It doesn't matter to the quality of the beer, just the volume.

 

[DVCNick]

I don't know how your specific conical works, but mine has a port at the bottom that can be used for either gravity transfer, or dump ball (or neither).

Two things I don't like about the idea of actually dumping trub: 1) You are going to have a dump ball of air going up through the beer when you replace it and open the port (sounds like a great way to oxygenate at the wrong time) 2) Since the trub sinks and fills the ball, it puts more beer up into the vessel where I can get it out into the keg or bottles. If all the trub was gone, I'd have a dump ball full of good beer that I couldn't use.

YMMV, but I'm not planning this point to actually dump trub from the conical.

 

[Tim H]

My grainfather clogged up when I was transferring a batch or two, forcing me to dump the entire thing in my Conical. I had a few problems with my pressurized transfer to kegs because there was so much material in suspension/around the racking port.

Otherwise, I try to whirlpool and leave a moderate amount in the boil kettle. From what I understand, conical fermenters with dump valves are important for really big batches that put lots of pressure on the trub/yeast.

read this article from brulosophy and decide for yourself. I personally think it’s unnecessary for 5-10 gallon batches.

http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/