Trub

[cubbie]

I fear my brewing is getting worse, perhaps i should just stick to the Brewing at hand rather than digging trenches, laying bricks, playing in the garden.

My Mash tun normally drops 1-2 degree over and hour, but the brew before last dropped 3-4degree and then on the weekend about 6 degree. i am hoping that most of the conversion happened in the first 30min and that I was only 2-3degree below. Not sure why it is dropping so much all of a sudden.

After that my boil went reasonably well, but then I had trouble draining the kettle. Opened the tap and nothing came out, clogged with trub. I managed to clear the tap but it clogged a couple of times and by the end most of the rub ended up in the fermenter. I always use pellets and never had this problem and in fact I used less hops in this brew than I have been of late. Perhaps the addition of koppafloc was the cause. I have not used any in may last 5-6 brews and before that I used whirlfloc.

Anyway my question is what to expect from the trub entering the fermenter, I know some people allow it to flow in all the time but most don't. I would expect all the break material/hops etc will settle out so will my beer just be that little bit less clear than normal?

I do rack to secondary.

On top of that I burnt my leg on the HLT and banged my arm when my trench collapsed and I slipped.

 

[raven19]

When you mentioned trub, I assume you actually just mean hops, grain bits, etc? (trub is only trub after yeast drops to bottom of fermentor)

A bit of hops, grain bits, etc should not present a huge issue in the fermentor, as it has all just been boiled. Anything heavy will settle out, and racking to secondary will certainly help clear things up a fair bit.

I always rack to secondary nowadays too.

2c.

 

[peas_and_corn]

All the proteins from the grain, hops etc will get caught in your yeast cake- it's no big deal.

 

[drsmurto]

Cubbie - what sort of pick-up are you using in your kettle? Do you whirlpool prior to draining?

 

[cubbie]

I have a bent copper pick-up tube to the edge of the kettle above where the kettle bowls to the bottom. Yeah I did whirlpool, but I guess a bit of the hops/break material ended up in the pick up tube and then as I was getting close to the bottom a bit more went in and I lost my siphon (hence I had to tip the kettle a bit more to get the siphon going again and in went the break hops/material)

 

[raven19]

Happy to put my hand up to recieve samples to check authenticity at any time!

I reckon it will be fine. Interesting it only happened this time though with less hopes than normal.

 

[Bribie G]

A hopsock is a great device and the hops get a good simmer and workout. After the boil and a 20 min rest, the wort comes out crystal clear with the hot break settled out nicely, and don't get any hot break into the nochill cube at all. Whirlfloc is an absolute gem as well. I'll swear the monster pack I got from Ross contains enough tablets to keep me going till the end of the Recession, war in Afghanistan and no child living in poverty, so I chuck a whole one in, not half, and get brilliant floc-out of the hot break.

What mash tun do you use? I mash BIAB in an urn but don't use power while mashing as I don't want to burn the bag. I just wrap the whole thing in a duck feather doonah I bought years ago real cheap from Woolies of all places, and it drops 2 degrees at the most. I expect that even an esky type tun would benefit from the doonah wrap thing.

 

[cubbie]

yeah I need a hop sock. I have had a look at the one Ross sells, but I will wait until I need to order a bit more stuff.

No idea why I have had temp issues in the last 2 brews. I brew in a round Gatorade cooler about 40L. Always wrap it up. I think I am loosing heat through the lid, so I am going to fill it with some foam and give it a good pre-heating.

 

[troopa]

Gotta ask the question thats probably been asked a 1000 times before im sure

but Bribie why if you have swisse voile on hand do you use a store bought hops bag?
im curious to know if you find it better and y?

 

[seemax]

My kettle has a banged up copper pickup tube, bent towards the edge of the kettle and low. I've had intermittent results while syphoning.

I brewed a Hefe on Saturday (yes in 47C heat with no aircon, mad I tell you) and decided to remove the pickup tube.

After flameout I did a gentle whirlpool as usual and left for few mins, normally I don't get much of a pile in the center, but this time is was perfect. I suspect the pickup tube disrupts the flow and prevents a good whirlpool effect.

I drained, then tilted and ended up only wasting about 1L or so.

 

[Bribie G]

Gotta ask the question thats probably been asked a 1000 times before im sure

but Bribie why if you have swisse voile on hand do you use a store bought hops bag?
im curious to know if you find it better and y?

I use the swiss voile for mashing in the bag, hoist it, drain it then dump it into the 'baby bath' that I put next to the urn.

I actually have left over voile from when I got the bag made but what I like about the hop 'sock' (see photo) is that it has a nice wide open mouth so I can lower it into the boiling wort and do the hop additions as if I was just chucking them into the kettle.

A hop bag (as opposed to hopsock) is certainly cheaper but it would be a hassle to drop it into the boil, fish it out and put hops in for second addition, etc. The hopsock was a good investment of twenty bucks or whatever, as well as avoiding third degree burns

 

[Mantis]

I think the hop bag would stand up to the boil as it is made of stronger stiffer stuff than voile and also it is much smaller and doesnt touch the bottom of the kettle.

My 2c

 

[MHB]

cubbie

My Mash tun normally drops 1-2 degree over and hour, but the brew before last dropped 3-4degree and then on the weekend about 6 degree. i am hoping that most of the conversion happened in the first 30min and that I was only 2-3degree below. Not sure why it is dropping so much all of a sudden.

I think there is a good chance you have water leaking into the insulation of the cooler, probably where the tap mounting goes through the wall.

You could try taking the tap out and see if any water drains out overnight.

Getting too much break material into the fermenter is not good, apart from hops the trub contains lots of condensed protein and lipids that can redissolve in the brew, both head negative and bad for the storability of the beer.

I would rack as soon as possible, or if it happens again delay pitching the yeast, then rack once the trub has settled to the bottom of the fermenter.

raven19


When you mentioned trub, I assume you actually just mean hops, grain bits, etc? (trub is only trub after yeast drops to bottom of fermentor)

A bit of hops, grain bits, etc should not present a huge issue in the fermentor, as it has all just been boiled. Anything heavy will settle out, and racking to secondary will certainly help clear things up a fair bit.

Trub is the name given to detritus of any type in any tank, in fact "Kettle Trub" or "Hot Trub" are among the most common application of the word.



MHB

 

[cubbie]

My kettle has a banged up copper pickup tube, bent towards the edge of the kettle and low. I've had intermittent results while syphoning.

I brewed a Hefe on Saturday (yes in 47C heat with no aircon, mad I tell you) and decided to remove the pickup tube.

After flameout I did a gentle whirlpool as usual and left for few mins, normally I don't get much of a pile in the center, but this time is was perfect. I suspect the pickup tube disrupts the flow and prevents a good whirlpool effect.

I drained, then tilted and ended up only wasting about 1L or so.

I have always thought this so I might try the same experiment.

I think there is a good chance you have water leaking into the insulation of the cooler, probably where the tap mounting goes through the wall.

You could try taking the tap out and see if any water drains out overnight.

Getting too much break material into the fermenter is not good, apart from hops the trub contains lots of condensed protein and lipids that can redissolve in the brew, both head negative and bad for the storability of the beer.

I would rack as soon as possible, or if it happens again delay pitching the yeast, then rack once the trub has settled to the bottom of the fermenter.



MHB

Well I worked out last night that it was my thermometer that has had the pork. The glass thermo has a backing with the temp marks and this has been shifting. i did not realise until I was comparing it to a digital probe that I just picked up. So that is good to know, bad news is I have no idea at what mash/sparge temps my last 7 brews were at. No wonder I have not been happy with the results of late.

I delayed pitching my yeast for 6 or so hours.