Stove Toppers Mosaic IPA - I think something is wrong

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pjsmithbrew

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Evening all,

I have done my second stove toppers tonight and while I think the process was better than last time, I am concerned something has gone wrong as it doesn't look good in the Demi John, see below:

image.jpg

Not sure why the photo is upside down
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Pete
 
That looks like a combination of a lot of break material and general trub crud.

Generally speaking it's not a problem, though you do seem to have a ridiculous amount of it for such a small brew.

We might be able to offer a bit more specific guidance if you can write up your process in a bit of detail. I suspect though that you've gone straight from the pot you boiled in to the demijohn. If that is the case, you'll basically have any (perfectly normal) crap floating around in the pot going into the beer. You'll also then be cooling the wort in the demijohn which means cold break material may well appear (that's what it looks most like).

So if I'm right about that, the my suggestion would be to cool in the pot you boil in (I used to put the pot in the bath full of cold water til it reached pitch temp), hops and all, then pour it into your fv/Demi through a sieve. The hops will then act as a filter and catch most of the stuff you now have floating about.

I'd leave it, it will settle out and pack down, but what you might find is that it's tricky to bottle without disturbing it.

When you do bottle, move it to wherever it will be for bottling about a day before. That way if you slosh it about when moving it, it will have time to settle backdown. Then you just need to super careful when bottling.

The beer will probably be ok

But like I said, let us know your process and we may be able to offer more specific advice.
 
Hi Gareth,

I did cool in the boil pot but only got it down to 28 before putting into the Demi John via a funnel and sieve. I think I made a mistake as I press the hops in the sieve to get the extra wort from them.

I didn't pitch the yeast until it was at 22 but it was already looking like it does now.

Thanks,

Pete
 
I had similar concerns with my first AG brew.

It turned out ok, but I mashed too high (70 degrees), very tasty but less than 3% due to the high mash.

20151229_233016.jpg
 
Hi Gareth,

I did cool in the boil pot but only got it down to 28 before putting into the Demi John via a funnel and sieve. I think I made a mistake as I press the hops in the sieve to get the extra wort from them.

I didn't pitch the yeast until it was at 22 but it was already looking like it does now.

Thanks,

Pete
Yeah that squeezing won't have helped, but it's by no means the end of the world. The hops are really your best chance of filtering the break material out.

I think with small brews this is always going to be a hazard, trub is a general hazard of any biab method (which essentially this is, even if there's no bag involved).

Keep us posted though. I'm sure as you scale up (everyone does!) it will become less of an issue.
 

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