In almost every book or article, they point out how important it is to not let a lot of trub into the primary fermenter and that the trub appears as “silt” in the cooled wort in the brew pot.
My question is, I NEVER see anything like silt with a flashing neon sign that reads “TRUB”. Am I overlooking the obvious?
I strain all of my beer through a funnel and strainer and remove the beer from primary to secondary after a week to get the beer away from all the junk in the bottom of the primary.
Should I just relax and not worry, or is there something else I could/should be doing?
Some trub is good for yeast health and development but too much trub may impact beer flavor. I like to keep most of the trub from going into the primary fermenter. Filtering out some of the trub is fine. I usually transfer the chilled wort into a bucket and let the trub settle out for about an hour then siphon the wort from the trub into the fermenter. You will hear varying opinions on this but this is my recommendation.
In my system the hot break stays in the kettle, the cold break ends up in the fermenter with no straining or filtering. I haven’t noticed any off flavors, and don’t recommend racking from primary unless the beer is actually finished fermenting. When racking from primary, I would not go to secondary unless there is a good reason to do so (dry hopping, adding fruit or bugs, etc). Otherwise I’d just rack to a keg and carbonate it.
I almost never use a secondary. It’s really not necessary and may do more harm than good for most beers, with the exception of fruit or bugs as Tom has indicated.
I run my wort through a grain bag on it’s way to the fermenter. It removes much but not all of the trub/hops etc. A fair amount is left in the kettle and alot is left in the grain bag. some ends up in the fermenter and it forms maybe .5 inches of gunk at the bottom of the fermenter. I have also just run it all out into the fermenter without straining and also never noticed a problem. The only reason I bother wiith the ‘filter’ is when I am useing hop pellets and no hop bag. When I use whole hops I bag them and don’t bother with the strainer. I tip my kettle to get all the wort out as well. If you don’t tip the fermenter you will get even less trub carryover.
I generally use hop pellets and they do a pretty good job clogging up the strainer over the funnel pretty quickly. When it gets too clogged, I dump the contents of the strainer out and continue pouring all the kettle contents through the strainer.
When I transfer to secondary, I do so only after fermentation is complete and the krausen head has collapsed all the way.
I am hoping that this allows enough trub in, but not too much…
I think in my case, I have a little knowledge and it is causing me to questions almost everything.
Not getting a lot of trub could be an indication that you need to adjust your water with salts.
I pour my chilled beer from the kettle through a strainer and it catches some trub if I have a fair amount of hops in it, otherwise most goes through. Doesn’t seem to cause me any troubles as far as beer quality.
I would still bottle straight from primary, there is no reason to go to a secondary. If you are worried about it being clear, crash cool it when it is done and just rack to the bottling bucket carefully. You shouldn’t lose any more beer than if you racked it to a secondary (bright) vessel, and you don’t have the risks inherent in the additional transfer.
Not usually, I just lager in the package, in my case a keg. But you can crash cool and leave it in primary for months with no ill effects (that I’ve noticed).
So if i didnt want to rack to a secondary to lager i could bottle then through them in the fridge and lager that way?
If thats right so the process for me would be to let the beer ferment to FG at lager yeast temps then add the priming sugar and the beer to a bottle bucket, bottle them, then through them in the fridge for the lagering time, crack one open and enjoy?
Could i carb at room temp then through them in the fridge to lager?
I have found no ill effects from leaving it on the yeast cake. Autolysis is not as much of a problem on a homebrew scale, and the colder the better for preventing autolysis, so you’ve got everything in your favor. Have you tried it?
Yes, you absolutely should let the beer carb before lagering this way.
I have found no ill effects from leaving it on the yeast cake. Autolysis is not as much of a problem on a homebrew scale, and the colder the better for preventing autolysis, so you’ve got everything in your favor. Have you tried it?
No, I lager in the keg, but I just wouldn’t want my beer sitting on yeast that long.
So, it seems people do things a LOT of different ways and the beer still comes out okay. Maybe that is where the “relax, have a homebrew” comment comes from.
I’m pretty obsessive when it comes to cleaning and sterilization, so I feel pretty safe in the “use a strainer to catch some of the trub and transfer to secondary after low krausen to avoid trub off flavors”. Unless I am doing something pretty unsound, I think that should be safe.
Wait until I get ready to bottle in 2-3 weeks and see what kind of panic questions I can come up with about my bottle wand filler…
Don’t use a strainer between primary and secondary, that will just introduce air at a time when you really don’t want that. The people who use a strainer do it between the kettle and primary. If you have to rack to secondary to make you feel better go ahead, but do it gently and under CO2 if possible.
