I try hard not to transfer a lot into my fermentors, but it seems like I always have to rack at least a gallon of wort that is loaded with break material. I chill (IC) down to 62ish degrees, remove any hop sacks, whirlpool for a minute or so, throw the lid back on and let it sit 20-30 minutes. I never get a “trub cone”. All the break material settles but it’s a solid 2 gallon layer. I’ve even tried upping my boil volume.
Any ideas on what I’m doing wrong?
I don’t get a trub cone but I do get a hop material cone. I’ve been using Supermoss and it seems to help the trub settle down lower, although its still pretty loose when it comes to racking. I let my wort sit longer than 30min now too.
The batch I made this weekend sat in the kettle overnight and still the trub represented over a gallon. I racked the clean wort off then put the trub in two pitchers and have spent the last day pouring off the clean wort as it continued to settle. I harvested another half gallon of wort altogether, brought it to a near boil and added to the already-fermenting batch. I wouldn’t have bothered but I was 1/2gal short of 5gal in the fermentor.
I’m starting to brew to an extra half gallon or so as I have the same problem. I also bought a large fine strainer bag but have yet to use it.
Dave
how do you do your whirlpool? I use a sanitized silicon spatula and get a really good whirlpool going then let it settle until it’s not moving anymore. I get a decent cone in the center of the pot and can pull off most of the wort before the trub really starts to flow. I also don’t really worry that much if I get a couple inches of trub at the bottom of my fermenter. doesn’t seem to affect anything poorly.
I try to remove as much trub as possible solely for the purpose of reusing the yeast. I’m not concerned about the effect on the beer either.
Dave
I reuse my yeast usually twice and sometimes three times and I don’t worry too much about the rub. Most of mine is cold break though because I use a counterflow chiller instead of immersion chiller. I whirlpool just like mort and always have a nice cone of hop material and hot break in the bottom that I siphon around.
[quote]how do you do your whirlpool? I use a sanitized silicon spatula and get a really good whirlpool going
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Sanitized stainless spoon. I usually stir for a minute or two then let it settle half and hour. I don’t get much in the way of hop material using hop sacks. It’s just fluffy break material.
Anyone using the JZ whirpool gizmo with a pump? Been thinking about trying that. Also looking at Blichmanns hop blocker, but I don’t know how (or if at all) effective it would be on cold break. Another option I was considering was a hop rocket. I’ve heard of brewers using rice hulls or hops (when appropriate, obviously) to filter with good success
Anyone using the JZ whirpool gizmo with a pump?
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Until a year ago I was trying to whirlpool with a spoon, and used a bazooka screen at the bottom of my kettle as a filter. Got a poor whirlpool and a lot of trub, similar to what you mention.
Then I wanted to try the Jamil whirlpool, not so much for trub removal, but so I could do extended post-flameout hopstand while whirlpooling. In my system, the Jamil whirlpool works great for recipes with few hops, and just ok for recipes with a ton of late hops (whirlpool is hard to keep going). But as far as wort clarity, it has done wonders. I added a falsebottom to replace the bazooka screen and the hops form a great filter bed on top of the falsebottom. The pumping/recirculating causes almost all the break material to get caught in the hop filter bed and the wort is very clear, all the way down to the last quart maybe, and even then it is not very trubby.
Are you using hop pellets with your method?
Most of the time I use only whole cone. When I do use pellet it’ll be < 25% of the hops, and I keep the pellets in a paint strainer bag. Never tried putting the pellets in loose with this setup so I can’t say whether they’d catch into the whole hop filter (or plug the pump for that matter).
I whirlpool with a ss spoon and let sit for 20. I have my hops in a bag the whole time so no hop material but I do get a nice settlement of trub in the center. I draw off of the side of the kettle and avoid most of it. After cooling and racking, I usually have about a half gallon of wort/break in the kettle. So, If I’m looking for 5 gallons finished product, I make a 5.5 gallon batch. 10 gallons finished=11 gallon batch.
I would increase your batch size by the volume of break material you create. You’ll hit all of your targets and still wind up with the 5 gallon batch you’re looking for.
I whirlpool my large batches with a pump and the break still settles pretty flat after it sits for 30min or more.
That’s what I thought. I was hoping you were going to tell me you use pellets…
[quote]That’s what I thought. I was hoping you were going to tell me you use pellets…
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Same here. I’d try a version of the Gordon Smith setup (false bottom and whole cone hops only) but it would really limit the hop varieties available. And I love me some hops.
Yeah you know I’ve tried everything including pulling out wort with sanitized measuring cup and pouring over a paint strainer like fabric that will catch all pellet hops and most trub. We call them “grannies panties” b/c of the resulting sludge and having to constantly clean off the “panties” which is super obnoxious and borderline sanitary (hope that’s appropriate for this blog). Lately we’ve given up on grannies, done a little whirlpool, let settle and just drain it out, sometimes with a lot of trub. My point is that I haven’t tasted any difference especially in future use of the yeast cake. I think a fancy hop filter like http://www.brewershardware.com/FILTER1.html is maybe the only way to insure trub removal.
I just posted this in the wrong thread, need…more…coffee…
I was recently thinking of ordering one of these but the comments about it clogging easy gave me pause:
Here’s the link: Fermenter Strainer
What form factor boil pots do people have? I use a turkey fryer pot and hop pellets and never get a trub cone, and I also typically have a significant sludge layer to deal with. I would bet that if I had a pot that was wider than it was tall I would have better luck with whirlpooling and forming a cone. I’ve been considering what straining options I have as well.
I don’t believe that filter will work with an IC. It needs hot wort to function, and will clog with cooled wort.
i use a collander that is extremely fine, got from pampered chef. i usually don’t have much problems just pouring through it. part way through i sometimes will dump what collects but even then that is not often.
Anyone ever try cheesecloth? I generally do 3 gallon batches and just pour the whole thing through my carboy funnel that has a very fine mesh screen. The problem is that the screen becomes seriously clogged quick and it ends up taking forever to get all my wort into the fermenter. I was thinking of pouring through a strainer lined with cheesecloth in the future, but I’m not sure if that is either too fine or too coarse.