I just finished a long brew day (10 hours, 2 5-gallon batches) and I’ve got 6 gallons of American Pilsener in the fridge chilling down to 50F. I read somewhere that its common practice to rack off the cold break before pitching - any advice on pros or cons and whether the trub will cause any flavor issues? I read the recent BYO article that implies trub has little effect on flavor, but I’m not sure if cold break is in the same category.
Thanks!
It’s not really necessary IMO, though I used to do it. Side by side batches (one with trub and one sans trub) have lent no discernible difference.
I got in the habit of doing it just for yeast saving purposes and it’s part of my normal procedure now. It’s not that much extra effort for me.
I’ve never bothered before, but I plan to start racking off the trub before pitching on batches that I’m going to save the yeast from
I just pour the stuff thought a funnel with a screen, leaving the thrub behind, though I too have not seen any differences in taste between strained and unstrained batches.
I have been ravking off the trub for so long now, it is part of my process. Weather or not any flavour is affected by removing it, I’ll keep on trucking.
There was a guy on the Brews and Views board who did a trub/ no trub experiment a year or so ago. IIRC, he actually found that the beer with the trub was better.
There are also studies out there that show that beers with trub ferment faster. This just goes to show that this is one of those topics where there is little hard evidence to support one or the other side.
Kai
Be pretty easy to do this.
Boil/cool beer as normal.
Put clearest wort in one carboy and the “dirty” wort in another
Split yeast equally, oxygenate and ferment at the same time.
If you listen Brew Strong with Dr. Bamforth he talked a little bit about it.
Bottom line it is inconclusive.
Some brewers want to have clear wort and some brewers want to have “dirty” wort.
http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/572
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/membersarchive/bs_haze110309.mp3