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Trub separation from Boil Kettle to Fermentor

dharalson

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I've been doing this a while, but in the last few batches I have had a large amount of trub get out of the Boil Kettle and into the fermenter.  It all settles out in the end, but I'd like to have less crud in the fermenter.  I have used both immersion chillers (with prechill coils) and counterflow chillers.  I try to give the wort a good stir and let it settle, but maybe I'm not waiting long enough

Opinions on how the get the trub out.

David

 
David, I use a large funnel with strainer.  That gets almost all of the crap out.  By the time I xfer to secondary or bottle there's hardly any trub.

Mark
 
I whirlpool. Stir vigorously but DO NOT AER/ATE while hot. Let stand 15-20 min and then siphon to another kettle with the immersion chiller in it (all sanitized) Cools quicker too! I plan on leaving 1/2 gal trub in boil kettle - YMMV depending on whole/pellet hop quantities.  Then I aerate it with a sanitized squirrel cage paint mixer. Then, for belt and suspenders, pour thru strainer into primary. Looking for 5 1/4 into primary which leaves 5 gals easily when done.
 
Get yourself a boil kettle screen,when I when to the boil kettle screen,,, most all the trub stays behind,,,,,,i like it alot,
 
Get yourself a boil kettle screen,,,, I had a T screen when I first started but it would get clogged up, so I went to a full boil kettle screen and I am very happy,,, it does the trick leaving behind trub,and pellet hops,,,, you will llike the results, for sure,mine covers all of the bottom leaving about an inch around the diameter
 
Also I forgot to mention that I do a small sparge back to the boil kettle to santize the wort chiller and by doing this it in turn setup the boil screen to act as a filter,,there are times when I will have 2 to 3 inches of trub at the end of transfering to the oxygenated wort,hope this

helps ya,,,
 
http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php/topic,1490.157.html

This gadget in the boiler works for me. 
 
I have never heard of using a paint strainer bag before.  So I head over to Google, flip it to images, and type in paint strainer bag.  The top 20 images were all home brewing uses.  I had to scroll down on the page to find a pic of a painter using a paint straining bag.

I love the creativity and resourcefulness of homebrewers.  ... And I am totally getting some because trub annoys me.  :)
 
I recirculate the wort.  There are two advantages of doing this:
1. I start to recirculate the wort with 15 minutes left in the boil.  I insert my immersion chiller and postion the return line so it is centered in the immersion chiller.  Wort is picked up by a dip tube that is positioned just off of the bottom of the boil kettle.  That tube is connected to the 3-piece ball valve.  The wort is directed to the March pump where it is pumped through a return line. The return line has a T at the end and two 45 degree couplers that cause a whirlpool effect. 
2. At the end of the boil, recirculating the wort and directing the flow through the immersion chiller dramatically reduces temps which results in a good cold break.  I can chill 10 gallons of wort to pitching temp in about 15 minutes. 
That's 30 minutes of whirlpooling.  All of the trub collects in the middle of the boil kettle.  I also use the pump to transfer the wort to the fermenters.  If I'm careful, very little trub enters the last carboy and all I have is about a pint of wort/trub left in the kettle.
 
dharalson said:
I've been doing this a while, but in the last few batches I have had a large amount of trub get out of the Boil Kettle and into the fermenter.  It all settles out in the end, but I'd like to have less crud in the fermenter.  I have used both immersion chillers (with prechill coils) and counterflow chillers.  I try to give the wort a good stir and let it settle, but maybe I'm not waiting long enough

Opinions on how the get the trub out.

David
I have bazooka screens in my boil kettles. Works well. Yeast stays nice and clean for re-use.
 
Letting it sit cold is definitly the easiest way I find. An hour or better would do wonders. Whirlpooling seems to get the bulkiest hop particles stuff towards the center , but not the lighter cold break.

Do you use whirfloc or irish moss? I think that would help precipitate.


Lately I've been thinking about chilling the wort overnight in the chamber. this would allow a transfer to another carboy before pitching yeast and probably leaving almost all of the trub behind.
 
Normally when I get a ton of break material or hop goo, I siphon off what I can before it gets into the fermentor, then I put the rest in sanitized distilled water jugs. Then I chill in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight, then just add to my already active fermentor. This method not only works like a charm as I can reclaim half of the usual 2 gallons of hopp/wort concoction, or use it for a starter for the next batch if I have enough volume.
 
I've started using a steel mesh colander along with a paint bag as a strainer.  I've gotten very little hops gunk into my fermentation bucket since starting to use this method.  Obviously I sanitize both before pouring the wort.  Keep a second sanitized bag handy in case the first one clogs with hops before you finish pouring.
 
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