Separating the wort from the trub.

Make grain beers with the absolute minimum of equipment. Discuss here.
The_blue

Separating the wort from the trub.

Post by The_blue » Sun Nov 20, 2011 4:47 pm

The bottom of my boiler after a night of no chill:-
Image

Even at this i'd tipped the boiler to get as much wort out as i can...


Has anyone got any tips for getting the rest of the wort? Also i ended up with an amount of trub going the tap anyway. Was affect does this have on the end product if any?


I found this thread on it:-
http://forums.morebeer.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15058
Last edited by The_blue on Sun Nov 20, 2011 4:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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GrowlingDogBeer
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Re: Separating the wort from the trub.

Post by GrowlingDogBeer » Sun Nov 20, 2011 4:52 pm

Do you not have a hop strainer in your boiler?

If you had one it would draw the liquid from the base of the boiler filtering the wort through the hop bed. You would end up with lovely clear wort, and with a good syphon effec you should leave no precious wort behind in the boiler.

My Hop strainer is just made out of a few plumbing fittings and some 15mm copper pipe. It has lots and lots of 2mm holes drilled through the bottom third of the copper pipe against the floor of the boiler.

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Twistedfinger
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Re: Separating the wort from the trub.

Post by Twistedfinger » Sun Nov 20, 2011 4:56 pm

+ 1 hopstrainer

If your looking to salvage the wort in the pictures strain it through some voile. You can use it for starters once uve boiled it again.

Oh and a bit of trub will not effect your beer.

The_blue

Re: Separating the wort from the trub.

Post by The_blue » Sun Nov 20, 2011 5:13 pm

Thanks guys!

I'm still on the tea urn tap at the moment. (it was a test brew to see if i liked it.)


Image

My urn has a gauge on the front with the tap Incorporated into it. I'm looking at getting a 15mm ball tap fitted for the next batch.

How did you seal you tap through the steel?

GARYSMIFF

Re: Separating the wort from the trub.

Post by GARYSMIFF » Sun Nov 20, 2011 5:22 pm

The_Blue
RE: connector
looks like you have lots to read, most of your answers are on this forum, search the words Tank connector or look here this may help with your hopstopper viewtopic.php?f=6&t=43561&p=478030&hili ... or#p478030 other hop stoppers are available :D

or hereviewtopic.php?f=6&t=10030&hilit=bes+part+number

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Re: Separating the wort from the trub.

Post by GrowlingDogBeer » Sun Nov 20, 2011 5:25 pm

I used one of these

http://www.bes.co.uk/product/141~PF~293 ... ---UK.html

It gives you a fitting inside you can connect a 15 mm copper pipe to, and a 1/2 inch bsp male thread on the outside to attach to your ball valve

http://www.bes.co.uk/products/099.asp#8115

The_blue

Re: Separating the wort from the trub.

Post by The_blue » Sun Nov 20, 2011 5:31 pm

Thanks again guys!

Always on the learn here. ;)

Yeasty Rob

Re: Separating the wort from the trub.

Post by Yeasty Rob » Sun Nov 20, 2011 7:39 pm

I filter through a sieve which stops the hops etc, but the finer trub all goes through to the FV.

At first I thought this might be an issue, however it all just ends up 'locked' in the yeast cake anyway, and so never ends up in secondary as I syphon it off.

The_blue

Re: Separating the wort from the trub.

Post by The_blue » Fri Jan 13, 2012 4:50 pm

Hi all, just a quick update now i've got a few brews under my belt.

I've been no chilling so i've used a hop sock but i've been fermenting on the trub then transfering to a 2nd FV after 5 days. I've not noticed any issues with flavors etc from fermenting on the trub..


I've made a chiller now so the hops will be going in loose next time, just plan on sticking the sieve under the tap like Rob :)

Thans guys for your help :)

danbrew

Re: Separating the wort from the trub.

Post by danbrew » Fri Jan 13, 2012 5:30 pm

You could try whirlpooling after you have chilled (remove the chiller first) and as I understand it all the trub settles to the middle/ centre of the bottom and you can syphon off all the way down if you're careful.

Never done it myself (so I may not have understood it correctly) because I have an element in the bottle of my tea urn but it might be worth looking into....

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Re: Separating the wort from the trub.

Post by Beer O'Clock » Fri Jan 13, 2012 5:35 pm

Make life easy on yourself and don't bother transferring it to secondary until it is ready to bottle/keg. You will get opposing views on this but unless you are leaving it for extended periods, no harm will be done. By leaving it you are avoiding the risk of contamination or oxidation from transfer.

So it's a win-win.
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The_blue

Re: Separating the wort from the trub.

Post by The_blue » Fri Jan 13, 2012 6:06 pm

Good point. I fine my beer for the cornie so i may as well wait till i'm ready to add the finings.

Bribie

Re: Separating the wort from the trub.

Post by Bribie » Sat Jan 14, 2012 2:49 am

There are various ways of increasing your "yield" of clear wort. After 3 years of trying this and that I find the things that work for me are:

1. Don't no-chill in the boiler. It takes forever to cool down - you might like to try the increasing popularity of running the wort into a sanitised water "cube" and cooling overnight. I've used this method probably about 200 times now, and never lost a cube yet due to infection. I've kept some cubes of wort for a couple of months before using. It's tried and true and no longer an "experimental" procedure. It should work absolutely brilliantly in the UK or USA at the moment, just stick the cube out of the back door with the cat and it will cool in no time.

2. Use a good floccing compound in the kettle such as koppafloc. Before cubing, after the boil cover the boiler with something sanitary such as a clean beach towel, lab coat etc and leave it for about 20 minutes to settle out. Then draw off about a litre of runnings into a sterile bottle (lab bottle etc) and put to one side. This should clear the first bit of trub out of the tap etc and you can now start filling the cube with essentially crystal clear wort.

Image

3. Then when cool enough to handle, pour all the rest of the kettle contents into sterile bottles (if you have enough). There are some excellent "free" bottles such as the 1.5L heavy glass that V8 juices come in (if you can bear drinking that carrot and beetroot stuff #-o )

4. The next day, you have the following:
  • a cube of clear wort (well, not exactly, it will have thrown its chill haze - no problems, that can all go into the FV.)
    a few bottles of stuff that has settled out into wort and trub to differing levels. Some will be good, some almost all trub but with still a bit recoverable.
Image
Image

So now you have the trub by the balls and can basically extract all the useful stuff by one of two methods, the easy method or the totally obsessive method, depending how far you want to go.

Easy Method:

Get a turkey baster from a kitchen shop. Big glass thing with a rubber bulb. Alternatively a "wine thief" from a HB type supplier or winemaking supplier.

Suck up all the clear wort a bit at a time, being careful not to "whoosh" the trub. You can get just about every ml.
Squirt the wort into a large pan
Keep going till all you have left is the trub your bottles.
Boil the wort to re-sanitise, cover pan, cool and tip all into FV.

Totally Obsessive Method

Do all the above then strain the trub through some spare voile, hop bag material etc. Collect the strainings in a sterilised jar and let them settle out for an hour. You will have got some more clear wort, suck this up with wine thief and add to the first lot. Personally I'm not that anal and only stick to the easy method 8)

Anyway, the picture posted by the OP is a good example of the trub having you by the short and curlies. If you divide and conquer into manageable quantities, you can turn the tables on the trub and probably only end up losing around a litre to a litre and a half, compared to three or more litres (= $$$$$ over a year)

Edit:
Totally Obsessive Aspergers ultimate geek method =D>

After the "easy method" take all the trub, add a litre of water and strain this through voile, muslin, whatever to obtain some weaker but clear wort.
This is absolutely perfect as a base feedstock for doing yeast starters, when adjusted to around 1040 (see new "Yeast" book) - I know guys who freeze portions of this and always have it on hand.

jimp2003

Re: Separating the wort from the trub.

Post by jimp2003 » Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:54 pm

Great post Bribie! =D>

gnutz2

Re: Separating the wort from the trub.

Post by gnutz2 » Sat Jan 14, 2012 10:11 pm

Just ferment on the trub.

I have hop strainer from copper tube with 3mm holes that lets lots of trub through (even through the hops), the beer tastes fine.

Dont worry :)

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