Bottling day- big trub loss

[Hengoedbrewer]

Morning all

I bottled my latest effort (Galaxy PA) this morning, AG number 4. I did this one a little differently in that I both fined it in the kettle (irish moss) and cold crashed it for about 2.5 days in total. Yeast was M44. I could see that there was going to be a large amount of sediment; but in the end I only managed to package a disappointing 15x500ml bottles. My rather rough measurements of FV volume using a brewing spoon told me I should have had over 10L in the FV, does 2.5 L or so lost to trub sound excessive with this yeast and a hop bill of 110g (40g of which was a dry hop?) If the beer tastes okay and has a better clarity I wil live with it but it's the lowest yield of any of my AG's so far when I am always aiming for about 20 bottles (so far most has been 17).

Thanks

 

[obscure]

Did you cool then transfer to the fermentation vessel? I transfer my hot wort staright to the fermentor (through a muslin square) my batches are about 11 L going by the markings on my fermentor but typically yields 9-9.5L so 1.5-2L lost to trub, so loosing an extra half to dry hopping doesn’t seem out of the realms of possibility. The few times I have cooled and then transferred I have had much less trub.

I don’t doubt that I could increase my yield/reduce losses with a bit of care but I ultimately decided the cost of scaling a batch up slightly is minimal, and I am happy with my approach.

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

Did you cool then transfer to the fermentation vessel? I transfer my hot wort staright to the fermentor (through a muslin square) my batches are about 11 L going by the markings on my fermentor but typically yields 9-9.5L so 1.5-2L lost to trub, so loosing an extra half to dry hopping doesn’t seem out of the realms of possibility. The few times I have cooled and then transferred I have had much less trub.

I don’t doubt that I could increase my yield/reduce losses with a bit of care but I ultimately decided the cost of scaling a batch up slightly is minimal, and I am happy with my approach.

Hiya

Thanks for reply. Cooled the brew kettle in the sink in ice bath then transferred to FV via sterilised strainer to catch hops; then into brewing fridge. fermented for 2 weeks at 19c; then dry hopped, and cold crashed at 5c.

 

[Drunkula]

I had tons of trub loss on a lot of beers, some of them with really powdery trub that just wouldn't fully settle. I haven't had that recently but I've been doing a vorlauf, just using a jug to pour from the bottom back into the top during the runoff and sparge. You could try that if you haven't been doing it.

 

[dwhite60]

On a twelve liter all grain batch dumping the WHOLE kettle in after the boil ( HORROR OF HORRORS!) I lose less than a liter to sediment at bottling. I can't imagine 40 grams of dry hops accounting for a liter and a half of sediment. Sure your volume measurement method is accurate?

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

On a twelve liter all grain batch dumping the WHOLE kettle in after the boil ( HORROR OF HORRORS!) I lose less than a liter to sediment at bottling. I can't imagine 40 grams of dry hops accounting for a liter and a half of sediment. Sure your volume measurement method is accurate?

It's a very roughly calibrated brew spoon with pen markings- I tipped water into my brew pot and marked the spoon at intervals of about 2 litres each up to 14L. So it might be a bit off but I can't imagine it would be absolutely miles off either. Hmm. Any suggestions on how to get a more accurate measurment of what I have post boil / into the FV would be helpful!

I should really calibrate my FV's as well in the same manner so I can see more accurately how much is in there I suppose...maybe before next brew day. I noticed the M44 sediment this morning was very loose as well. I hadn't used this yeast before so not sure if that's par for the course or not.

 

[dwhite60]

It's a very roughly calibrated brew spoon with pen markings- I tipped water into my brew pot and marked the spoon at intervals of about 2 litres each up to 14L. So it might be a bit off but I can't imagine it would be absolutely miles off either. Hmm. Any suggestions on how to get a more accurate measurment of what I have post boil / into the FV would be helpful!

I should really calibrate my FV's as well in the same manner so I can see more accurately how much is in there I suppose...maybe before next brew day. I noticed the M44 sediment this morning was very loose as well. I hadn't used this yeast before so not sure if that's par for the course or not.

I measured the diameter of my pot and calculated the area. I know one inch is about 0.47 U.S. gallons. I have a spoon with notches cut in it at one inch intervals. Overall it's pretty accurate.

I've got a 26 liter fermenter I marked by adding water and drawing lines. At 20 liters it's off a full liter. I did something wrong somewhere. It's not one big step either. It's incremental all the way up. Measuring container I used was clearly off. Bucket has a slight taper to it so measuring to calculate the volume wasn't practical.

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

I measured the diameter of my pot and calculated the area. I know one inch is about 0.47 U.S. gallons. I have a spoon with notches cut in it at one inch intervals. Overall it's pretty accurate.

I've got a 26 liter fermenter I marked by adding water and drawing lines. At 20 liters it's off a full liter. I did something wrong somewhere. It's not one big step either. It's incremental all the way up. Measuring container I used was clearly off. Bucket has a slight taper to it so measuring to calculate the volume wasn't practical.

I measured the diameter of my pot and calculated the area. I know one inch is about 0.47 U.S. gallons. I have a spoon with notches cut in it at one inch intervals. Overall it's pretty accurate.

I've got a 26 liter fermenter I marked by adding water and drawing lines. At 20 liters it's off a full liter. I did something wrong somewhere. It's not one big step either. It's incremental all the way up. Measuring container I used was clearly off. Bucket has a slight taper to it so measuring to calculate the volume wasn't practical.

I'll give the calibrations a try; I'd like to brew again soon but with stocking up during the pandemic the brew fridge is being borrowed by SWMBO for now as a supplemental food fridge; which is frankly sacrilege, but hey ho! I have a porter and re-brewing a Citra IPA which was my first AG planned, so I'll get to calibrating before they are brewed.