As the OP does, I BIAB using a Crown Urn.
Firstly, the rest after boiling. My method has always been (and with the previous Birko urn)
At the end of the boil
- Add a good dose of Brewbright
- put the lid on the urn
- Stand at the wall next to power point
- When the steam starts to blow out of the nostrils and before a boilover
- Switch off and set timer for 20 minutes then drain into cube(s)
My no chill cubes are religiously treated with Sodium Percarbonate and kept Starsanned between uses. The only cube infections I've ever had (three of them to be precise) were when I moved house and somehow the lids got cracked open a bit during transit. Normally I pitch within 3 days anyway, otherwise pop cubes (2x 10L) in the ferm fridge at zero.
Hot break and general gunk reduction, and reclaiming wort from the dead space
I always took it as a given that BIAB produces miles of trub compared to sparging or recirculating systems, and that's just a downside you have to put up with. Eminent forum members assure me that it's impossible to create a proper grain bed with BIAB because the wort instantly "channels" through the grain when you haul the bag, and the wort takes the path of least resistance. Most haulers treat the bag like they are mud wrestling a Nubian wench anyway.
My last few brews I've challenged the notion and gone very gentle on the hoist... I have a pulley system ... and now get very little hot break or hop debris compared to my previous ... way hay and up she rises ... quick haul of the bag.
As described
in my other thread I accidentally did this first time and was immediately struck by the difference. Also I no longer do a mashout but did a ramp to 70 on my latest brew (more later).
In order, these are the things that I find markedly different compared to my previous routine:
- Coming up to the boil, there is a far thinner layer of dirty foam
- When the boil breaks through and the foam is pushed to the sides of the urn the wort, instead of looking like soup is already clear
- It is already starting to break, I can see right down into the wort.
- At the end of the boil, adding Brewbright clumps it even further.
- Previously Brewbright was absolutely needed to get any clumping.
Now, using the 20 minute rest, from a 24L total volume I can collect 21L of crystal clear wort into the cubes (My 10L cubes, as usual with cubes, have deformed a bit over the years and can take a tad more).
Then with gentle tipping I drain off an further litre into a Schott Bottle and put it aside, usually about half a cm of hot break drops out.
Posting the pic from the other thread, this is the result in the urn, around two litres:
You can see the urn bottom through the dregs, and it's been similar in the 4 brews I have done so far including latest Aussie Pale that I mashed at 64 then ramped to 70 but with a good rest before hoisting.
Urn dregs can be further cleaned up by running all the dregs into Schott bottles. As an experiment I did just that with my latest brew and got a litre of clear wort after settling, that I've currently got working in a starter.
So for the OP:
- Best practice is to reduce trub as far as possible
- Use hop straining method, a lot of the sludge is green shyte, especially in Aus where we mostly use pellets
- Create grain bed by lifting very gently. Yes this is a grain bed.
- Use Brewbright
- Rest after boiling - if anything still lives in there I'll shake its hand and take it out for an Angus Burger meal.
- Be a sanitisation Nazi with cubes, and try to pitch soon.
That way you should lose around a litre of wort to break.