Trub, trub, glorious trub...

[Oneflewover]

Hi,

I've not long been doing AG brews, on to my 3rd batch and already seeing improvements, however one thing I have noticed is almost like a chemical/plastic taste in background of the finished beer.
I sanitise everything and careful when moving to 2nd fermenter, is this just because I'm using a plastic fermenter or am I doing something wrong, has anyone else experienced this?

Do you remove chlorine from your water?

 

[pmh]

Do you remove chlorine from your water?

I used a chlorine based sanitiser originally but changed since thinking that was the issue but I don't do anything to water, straight out of the tap, is this where I'm going wrong?

 

[Oneflewover]

I used a chlorine based sanitiser originally but changed since thinking that was the issue but I don't do anything to water, straight out of the tap, is this where I'm going wrong?

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAKegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw0wyxJE-2vLG9XAu6jLznRp

 

[pmh]

Wow thanks, that's really useful and I had no idea of chlorine being used in water in UK, never thought about it either tbh, but seems like that's the problem

 

[BeerCat]

My wort used to look like that. As people have said its because its full of particulates. These bags are superb for hops. I don't get any hop matter in the FV anymore. http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338413729&icep_item=271340786159

 

[Covrich]

I dont think its a yeast problem as you have this post boil I also think @Dutto got a bit confused as nottingham is a top fermenting yeast not that it would make any difference anyway to the trub as this is kettle related.

One thing I find which clears your wort up is the quality of a bag you use, paint strainers and such tend to let a lot of crap though in my experience

 

[Brewed_Force]

I always put my crushed grain through a corona mill to get a fine grind and I squeeze the bag. This helps me achieve a great efficiency (87%) but I too get a lot of trub after the boil. I strain through fine voile into the FV and I still get loads of slurry at the bottom when it comes to syphoning into a bottling bucket.
I just take the trub into account when formulating the quantities in a recipe.

 

[matt76]

I always put my crushed grain through a corona mill to get a fine grind and I squeeze the bag. This helps me achieve a great efficiency (87%) but I too get a lot of trub after the boil. I strain through fine voile into the FV and I still get loads of slurry at the bottom when it comes to syphoning into a bottling bucket.
I just take the trub into account when formulating the quantities in a recipe.

Yes this is my thinking too - first rule of engineering is keep it simple. Just have to make sure I have enough head space in my FVs

 

[AdeDunn]

I use plastic FVs, never noticed a plastic taste though. Are you cleaning with a chlorine based product, like VWP, by any chance?

Oh, and I used ALL of the steps discussed here, in a brew day yesterday, including skimming the hot break. I reckon photos say more than I can, but I will add that I hit my target OG of 1.070, but got 2 more litres into the FV, getting 16 rather than 14 litres.



So you know this isn't some odd super wide FV, spreading out the layer....



Nope, I didn't leave it all behind in the boiler either, it just never existed in the first place....



My system uses a recirculation pump though, so I did a thorough vorlauf, then did the whole draining the boiler thing etc, and didn't squeeze the heck out of the back, but rather tightened it from the top by twisting it.

Yes I used Protofloc, half of a tablet in fact. Yes I got a decentfoam up:-



But I skimmed it all off. So that layer is a tiny tiny bit of escaped flour, the rest is a minute quantity of hot break, and the rest is a bit of cold break that made the journey across.

So it's doable with BIAB, but not at all necessary, as it won't really impact flavour any. I just did it a) to see if I could, and b) because I knew I had to use an old FV with no transfer tap (keeping 1 of my 30 litre buckets free for bottling, the other has a porter in it, and my Spiedel has a golden ale in it), and I have a tremor that makes transfer using my auto-syphon a pain in the bottom...

The big thing here? 16 litres at target OG, rather than 14 litres! Less rubbish in the boiler meant I could transfer way more, tipping the boiler way more than I would normally.

 

[Clint]

Use a filter bag in the mash tun and do a full vorlauf if the contents before drain to boiler,then 2 X 10 litre sparged. I don't skin any breaks but after the boil I let the trub settle in the boiler so it mostly stays behind. The bazooka furs up with trub with just a few larger holes visible during the drain off,I drain by just cracking the tap. I use a hop bag too. Leaving the trub settle after the boil I found helps loads .

 

[Brewed_Force]

I drain the wort into the FV through a (sterilised) voile covered sieve. It gets a bit clogged near the end, but moving the voile about helps.

 

[AdeDunn]

Use a filter bag in the mash tun and do a full vorlauf if the contents before drain to boiler,then 2 X 10 litre sparged. I don't skin any breaks but after the boil I let the trub settle in the boiler so it mostly stays behind. The bazooka furs up with trub with just a few larger holes visible during the drain off,I drain by just cracking the tap. I use a hop bag too. Leaving the trub settle after the boil I found helps loads .

Yeah it does, especially if you can combine it with a whirlpool for the settling time, as this gets the heavy stuff into a mound nearer to the middle of the boiler. It's not much use though if you transfer by basically tipping your kettle into the boiler though, as you'll just pour the lot anyway. You can't tell so well from that pic, but all that dark material was in a neat pile near the middle of the boiler at the end of the boil.

I think that's the thing here, very very very basic equipment doesn't really allow you to do an awful lot to reduce flour and trub going into the FV. I think a lot of BIAB brewers just see it as part of doing BIAB. Some of use aren't so willing to settle, and end up over time building more and more elaborate rigs, or changing to a different method. End of the day though, the only thing that will effect flavour is hop material, and that's an easy fix by just bagging your boil hops if you aren't already. The rest is just an annoyance when it comes to bottling time. Too much of an annoyance for me, as I found one time I actually lost about 10 litres of beer thanks to stirring up a thick layer of "trub" whilst transferring to a bottling bucket using a syphon (hence I try to either use an FV with a tap now, or I limit the trub in the FV as much as possible), which is why I spent time coming up with a modified BIAB process that allowed me to still use a single vessel, and still brew in a bag, but get clearer wort and less trub. I actually ended up quitting one particular forum as they just couldn't accept methods that weren't pure BIAB, and I got sick of the nagging. lol

I'm just going to repeat my earlier advice though, buy a finer pored bag, and mash in that. You're not re-circulating, so it won't interfere with it any. There's definitely a cheap one on AliExpress for just under £10 that does the trick, brilliant bag too, nice stiff material and very fine pores that filter your mash really effectively, mine has been relegated to hop bag duties though as I re-circulate my mash with a pump and it's too fine for this to work.