Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

Just brewed an Imperial IPA on Sunday. Nearly 10 ounces of hops without the dry hops. Every thing went fine and I pitched the yeast at about 67deg.
About four hours later I did an "Oh-Oh" By this time the trub was settling and I don't see how to rack off the clear beer without pulling in a bunch of trub or really splashing the beer. I read the recipe a little closer and the suggestion was to chill the wort for a cold break, rack to a second primary THEN pitch the yeast. Has anyone dealt successfully with beers with 2-3 inches of trub? Or am I just going to have to deal with the mess?

Let it ferment then crash it in the fridge. Rack it to a secondary then bottle. Or crash it again before you bottle. You might loose a little beer but the trub won't hurt anything. I don't really like the wait before you pitch routine. I'm too scared of something getting in before the yeast.

Pitch Pitch Pitch!  I agree with Tom.

On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 4:53 PM, tompb <brew-tech@crbeernuts.org (brew-tech@crbeernuts.org)> wrote:

Let it ferment then crash it in the fridge. Rack it to a secondary then bottle. Or crash it again before you bottle. You might loose a little beer but the trub won't hurt anything. I don't really like the wait before you pitch routine. I'm too scared of something getting in before the yeast.



Runamok Brewing

Jesus must have been a yeast. Who else could turn water into wine?

--
Prost!
Travis Scheidecker
Head Brewer
Third Base Brewery
500 Blairs Ferry Rd NE
Cedar Rapids, IA 52402
Tel.  319-378-9090  Fax:  319-378-9697
http://twitter.com/3rdBaseBrewery

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Do you have an easy way to hold your racking cane off the bottom. Not sure what you use for a fermenter, but a clothes pin could possibly do the trick w/ a bucket. Another option could be to get a short piece of PVC pipe and an end cap and put the racking cane in it, so you don't suck up the trub. Or just keep a close eye on it, and pull the racking cane out when it gets down to the trub. I've never really had much of a problem w/ trub, but I mostly keg, and gunk in the bottom of a bottle is much less appealing than just tossing the gunk in the first glass out of a keg.

I sometimes put my wort in the fridge overnight before pitching to get temp down if my wort-chiller doesn't get it as cold as I like, or if my starter hasn't started, and haven't had any problems. But chilling, then racking, then pitching, sounds like a lot of opportunity for trouble, and a waste of my time, although 10 oz of hops could help keep other critters at bay.

I agree w/ the other Tom. Let it ferment out, chill if you can, then rack.

When I have a ton of hops left in my trub, I sanitize a muslin hop sack tied around the tip of my racking cane and stick it right down to the bottom. It will drain much slower but you get a lot of beer strained out of those hops.

Well you should have seen my first two batches...I just poured nearly everything from the kettle into the fermenter. The second batch I tried to use a screen on the funnel, but there was so much "hop gunk" that the screen quickly clogged. Both batches ended up with about 1 1/2 inches of trub in the fermenter. I just left some beer behind in the fermenter when I racked to the bottling bucket. Yeah my yield was lower, but it worked out.

My second batch (a not so Pale Ale) is really turning out nice, so I don't think the trub really has that bad of an effect for ales at least. With my third batch I started trying to do sort of a whirlpool in the kettle then racking (instead of dumping) to the fermenter to try and leave more gunk behind. It seems to work if I take my time and let things settle out first.

I'll have that Pale Ale at Big Brew Day for those brave enough to try it. It may not be award winning but I'm super stoked with the results so far after only 10 days or so in bottles.

The hop sack and clothes pin holder in combination sounds like a good solution. Thanks for the input. The first 24 hours literally filled and clogged the blow out hose with hops. I may not have as big a problem as I thought I would have. This is supposed to be a "Pliney the Elder" clone. Is that good stuff?

I'm looking at a bottle of Pliney right now!

But its empty  :(    tears and shame.......

On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 4:00 PM, Matt F <brew-tech@crbeernuts.org (brew-tech@crbeernuts.org)> wrote:

Pliney is one of my favorite beers. Would be cool if we could get it around here now!



Matt Franklin
Slappy Brewing North

--
Prost!
Travis Scheidecker
Head Brewer
Third Base Brewery
500 Blairs Ferry Rd NE
Cedar Rapids, IA 52402
Tel.  319-378-9090  Fax:  319-378-9697
http://twitter.com/3rdBaseBrewery

Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://www.mail2forum.com)

Pliney is one of my favorite beers. Would be cool if we could get it around here now!

Pliney = Yummy!

Hey Randy, another trick that I am currently using is to transfer my kettle contents after the boil is finished into my bottling bucket and then insert my wort chiller. Accomplishes 2 things - I'm not having to cool off all that metal in the pot => faster chilling, and when the wort is cooled off, the valve, being offset from the bottom of the bucket, helps leave most of the trub behind. I still use a strainer with a funnel in the carboy, but it doesn't clog up as fast. I usually have to dump it only a couple of times during the transfer, depending on the amount of hops added. Yeah, it's another thing to clean/sanitize during the brewing session, but it seems to be worth the extra work to me.

Stir the kettle to create a whirlpool right at the end of the boil. Then while it cools let it sit for 20 minutes. After this the whirlpool is done and most of the trub is in a cone in the middle of your kettle. Just siphon from the side. The key is to wait for the whirlpool to stop so everything can settle. This works for chilling in a water bath or using an immersion chiller. It is similar to how my whirlpool immersion chiller works with the pump.

Pliny is awesome. I can bring a bottle on Saturday if you plan on being there. Which version did you brew? I've seen a few different variations of the recipe. I know it's been in BYO, Zymurgy, and Brewing Classic Styles. I was planning on brewing the Zymurgy recipe sometime this summer.

daveR wrote:Pliny is awesome. I can bring a bottle on Saturday if you plan on being there. Which version did you brew? I've seen a few different variations of the recipe. I know it's been in BYO, Zymurgy, and Brewing Classic Styles. I was planning on brewing the Zymurgy recipe sometime this summer.

I brewed "Hop Hammer" from classic styles. My basement has a definite hoppy odor to it right now. I added about 7 ounces of Centenial, Simcoe, and Columbus in a hop bag. Very curious as to how this will come out. I do plan on being at BBD. I would love to taste "Pliney"

The Zymurgy one was from Vinny himself. I seem to remember there was some kind of typo in that one but don't remember what. I believe the correction was published in the following issue.