Racking through thick trub

[Weizenbonk]

Hi,

I have a Black IPA that (unintentionally) hit 1080 SG and has a massive trub (that's what she said). So it is ready to rack to a keg after getting down to 1018 (8.2% ABV)...but the trub is huge. It is covering the tap (which has a sediment reducer) but still is not going to end well.
Anyone have any ideas what I should do to get a clean rack? My current plan is to cold crash on an angle to get the trub to slide away from the tap. I don't want to use my siphon because of the O2 risk.

Any better ideas? Cheers

 

[Sidney Harbour-Bridge]

Hi,

I have a Black IPA that (unintentionally) hit 1080 SG and has a massive trub (that's what she said). So it is ready to rack to a keg after getting down to 1018 (8.2% ABV)...but the trub is huge. It is covering the tap (which has a sediment reducer) but still is not going to end well.
Anyone have any ideas what I should do to get a clean rack? My current plan is to cold crash on an angle to get the trub to slide away from the tap. I don't want to use my siphon because of the O2 risk.

Any better ideas? Cheers

I doubt the sediment covers the tap hole, it tends to stick to the side of the fermenter, you could drop the first 200 ml into a different vessel and see how clean it runs after that.

 

[Schikitar]

Geez, every brew of mine looks like that, sometimes higher! I just saw the 'angle' trick the other day, never thought of doing something so simple so I'll definitely be giving that a go next time as I'm pretty sick of pulling trub through to the secondary (and as I'm moving to kegs now don't want it in those either)..

 

[Dark Maiden]

I have tried the angle technique and found still pulled through a fair amount of trub on the last 2 brews. One being a New England Pale, and the current one being a Rye IPA. There is only so far I can tilt back while in the fermentation chamber. So curious to hear if there are other solutions (other than buying a conical SS )

 

[Weizenbonk]

Ok, so I racked this today and was reasonably successful but a lot of hop matter still came through - just usual amount I guess. The photo I took was after already trying the “Larry leanback” and reducing the depth at the tap. For those playing along at home, it turns out that cold crashing ceases up the trub, and i found it moved easier when the FV was warmer. Makes sense I guess. So next time I would cold crash then do the tilt for a couple of days before racking. From now on I will be using my new kegmenter with a floating intake for these big beers.

 

[dr K]

Perhaps a little late ( I am an occasional visitor at best) but my two questions would be
How do yo chill your wort..and
How much wort do you try and get your fermentor......its the crap in crap out story really.

K

 

[Weizenbonk]

Hi dr K, I chill in a wine fridge which gets down to 7c. Yeah probably over zealous on the amount of trub transferred from the robobrew. Hard to not try and get the last bits out and leave them in the tub, also I understand the yeasties are happy with the extra protein.

 

[wynnum1]

Harden up and use a piece of hose to siphon from the top taps are a waste of time.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Hi dr K, I chill in a wine fridge which gets down to 7c. Yeah probably over zealous on the amount of trub transferred from the robobrew. Hard to not try and get the last bits out and leave them in the tub, also I understand the yeasties are happy with the extra protein.

Check out the Lauter Helix thread.

 

[koshari]

Harden up and use a piece of hose to siphon from the top. Taps are a waste of time.

fixed that for you.

 

[Weizenbonk]

Damn, not another thing to lust over...somewhere along the way I remember thinking this homebrew caper was going to save me money...shame the beer I make sh!ts all over what I can buy in a bottle oh well, Helix is the new object of desire I think...plus the iSpindle I am keen on and the keezer I just started on...please tell me it ends eventually

 

[Quokka42]

I don't understand why you think there is an "O2 risk" when siphoning?
I haven't used taps in quite some time - since I got a "speed siphon," as they are contamination traps and all too often cause leaks. I bought the speed siphon after the last time I managed to catch a tap with my foot... I now have a length of silicon hose on my siphon so I don't have to convince my son to hold it at the bottom of the keg or fermenter as I start.
I like the idea of crashing at an angle, except you have to keep it at that angle as you get it up high enough to rack...

 

[Tony121]

Damn, not another thing to lust over...please tell me it ends eventually

It does not

 

[Weizenbonk]

I don't understand why you think there is an "O2 risk" when siphoning?
I haven't used taps in quite some time - since I got a "speed siphon," as they are contamination traps and all too often cause leaks. I bought the speed siphon after the last time I managed to catch a tap with my foot... I now have a length of silicon hose on my siphon so I don't have to convince my son to hold it at the bottom of the keg or fermenter as I start.
I like the idea of crashing at an angle, except you have to keep it at that angle as you get it up high enough to rack...

The O2 risk/issue I have experienced is the ingress of air between the barrel and the piston of my siphon (easy siphon I think it is called). I can hear it sucking air in and I can’t seem to stop it happening. Maybe my siphon is stuffed and I need to replace.
If I use the tap I can pretty much flush everything with CO2 and there is just about no oxygen in the transfer. I think that would be harder to achieve with a siphon. Any tips?
You are right about the angle to rack, but what I found is that when crashing, the trub solidified with the cold and it didn’t move much. I did a rest at ambient temp and the trub move a lot easier. So next time I would just crash as normal then do my rest at ambient on an angle at the height and place I need to rack off.