Grain sediment in wort?

[Virgilartois]

I noticed this morning while pitching yeast that there's quite a lot of small grain particles in my wort. Any ideas what could have caused this? I recirculated 5 litres of first runnings and on the sixth, it was almost perfectly clear. I'm wondering if it was my liquor to grain ratio of 2.3L per kg grain at 65.6 mash temp. The bed looked rather loose.

Can anyone offer some insight on where I went wrong?

Plan to transfer to secondary after fermentation dies back and allow it to clear over time. I used Protafloc so I hope that drags a bit of the sediment down with it too.

Thanks!!!

 

[Ceejay]

Difficult to say really - I'm sure most of us get some sediment transfer over to the FV since it's impossible to filter out every last bit. Are you sure they're grain particles and not hop seeds or protein clumps (i.e break material)?

Did you let the hop bed settle for 30 minutes or so before you transferred into the FV? Also, it's worth recirculating a couple of litres at this stage as well to get the hop bed set.

 

[Virgilartois]

That's a good point... though I did use hop socks for this batch. Those protein clumps freaked me out the first time I saw one stuck to a hop sock.

 

[Ceejay]

Haha! All that grey/brown gunk :sick:

That's the miracle that is yeast though - they sort all that out. It's true what they say - brewers make wort, yeast make beer :clap:

 

[Virgilartois]

I've poured a few pints from my second AG and found it's fairly full of sediment. I personally don't mind it and will drink it anyway (it tastes *great*) but I'm not exactly proud of such a flaky beer. Oddly, my first AG came out much better. I wonder if I can remove some of this by racking, settling, racking, settling, etc. I'd rather figure out what I'm doing wrong in the beginning and change it. It must be during sparging.

Either way, this beer is 100 times better than any kit beer and a lot better than many commercial offerings.

 

[Ceejay]

+1 to that! Really, the less times you can rack etc the better so it's best to concentrate on where the sediment is getting through. Does your boiler have a hop filter? If not it might be worth investing in one; after cooling you allow the hops and break material to settle to the bottom and the hops then act as a filter as you run the wort into the FV :thumb:

 

[evanvine]

You're not doing anything wrong!
Racking at the end of ferment will sort it out.

 

[luckyeddie]

You're not doing anything wrong!
Racking at the end of ferment will sort it out.

Indeed.

When you spoke to me about 'double-dropping' a few weeks ago and I employed the technique, I was amazed at just how much garbage I got rid of after just 2 days fermentation. I now do it as a matter of course (I don't mind losing a bottle's worth)

 

[46.philh]

Do you use a Sieve from boiler to FV ?

I have a question on a similar subject ....

Does it matter if a few bits of grain end up in the boiler from the MT ?

Some times I have done my first runnings until clear but then had to close tap for something and then ended up with some grain in my collection bucket before and then put into the boiler.

 

[Virgilartois]

Do you use a Sieve from boiler to FV ?

I have a question on a similar subject ....

Does it matter if a few bits of grain end up in the boiler from the MT ?

Some times I have done my first runnings until clear but then had to close tap for something and then ended up with some grain in my collection bucket before and then put into the boiler.

I haven't used a sieve yet but I believe I will on my next brew. I have one just like the one in the picture, thanks for the tip!!!

I have the same problem you mentioned about grain in the collection bucket from the MT. I thought it would all settle out during fermentation and racking but I'm actually finding bits of grist in my bottled beer and quite a lot in my kegged beer. I wonder now if it's because I've been using hop socks instead of a hop strainer. That seems very possible.

 

[46.philh]

Does it matter if a few bits of grain end up in the boiler from the MT ?

Sometimes I have done my first runnings until I thought were clear but was not and ended up with some grain in my wort going into the boiler .

 

[luckyeddie]

Does it matter if a few bits of grain end up in the boiler from the MT ?

Sometimes I have done my first runnings until I thought were clear but was not and ended up with some grain in my wort going into the boiler .

Not at all if it's not much. It'll just drop out in the trub if it gets through into the FV after the boil - most will probably fall out with the protein breaks and won't make it past the hop bed. Or you could run your boiled wort through muslin or a sieve into the FV.

If you are concerned with your wort sitting on top of a load of garbage and taste issues re husks, just rack after 2 days (see discussion higher in the thread and elsewhere about 'double dropping') and let the primary fermentation continue in a new FV. You'll be amazed at the rubbish - yeast, cold break, grain, dead fish....