Fillin them fermentors up.

[nelstrodomus]

Hi folks,

I've read many a posts about people whirlpooling to ensure that they get the minimum amount of sediment into their fermenters...

After I get my wort down to 60-65F, I simply drain the entire boiler via ball valve into my carboys, allowing good splashing for aeration. After fermentation is complete, I get about 2" of sediment, (I muslin ALL my hops). I haven't noticed any ill effects in my beer, maybe too much bitterness due to over boiling.

Has anyone compared/contrasted the two different methods and noticed any appreciable differences?

[JayShaw91]

My guess is that it won't hurt anything. Most of my beer have had crap like that at the bottom. I rack or bottle them after 3 or 4 weeks and as of yet I've had no problems.

YMMV...

[hooky]

If a get a bunch of trub in my fermentor, I'll rack to another fermentor the next day. I do this because I no longer secondary. I'll let my beer sit on the yeast for a longer period of time. I don't want it sitting on the trub that long.

[barleyburps]

the amount of trub going from kettle to fermenter seems to be an ongoing debate amongst brewers. from what I've read, most people feel that the vast majority of trub should be kept from the fermenters, but a a little bit of carryover is beneficial.

I personally have always tried to minimize the amount of carryover; and in my opinion, I've always gotten good results.

[JayShaw91]

I just had the owner of the LHBS taste my last two beers and noticed no off flavors in them. Both of them had a ton of garbage in the fermenter. Just sayin'...

[S.F.B.]

I have gone from dumping into the carboy to drining out through a ball valve and now have a conical and dump the trub after it settles. I haven't noticed a big difference in the flavors of the brews from one to the other.

[JayShaw91]

And now that all said, I just whirlpooled and rested my wort before pitching. It certainly was a much clearer beer going in to the fermenter.

SFB, that's good info to know. It does make me feel better about leaving the crap at the bottom of the fermenter.

[Mill Rat]

Trub carryover is one of the more minor issues in brewing, as long as the beer doesn't sit on it for weeks. If you've come recently to the hobby, you've probably got other areas for improvement that will yield more noticeable results.

[dparsons]

I think the only issue is getting your transfer line clogged. I bag my hops, but let everything else go through.

[JayShaw91]

I have a Bazooka screen, so the hops stay, but I *can* let the trub/protein breaks get through. I'm trying to work on my process so the trub is left behind in the kettle and I still get 5+ gallons of brew in the carboy. Efficiency may take a hit or I may need more grains (probably what I'll do). Hell, maybe I'll just top off the carboy with water and call it and stop doing hard math :)

[hooky]

Does the Bazooka work with large amounts of pellet hops? Say 5-6 ozs in a 5 gal batch?

[cul8rv8]

I actually have a straining bag that catches most of the trub, I still just pour from my brewpot into my bucket fermentor with the bag over the top. Leaf hops work best for me as when I use pellets they tend to go through the straining bag easier, but even with pellets I don't get a lot of crap in there. Had I actually found this site prior to buying all of my equipment, I would have had a ball valve installed. I have also thought about using my racking cane and syphoning it to the fermentor, but I would need to also get a way to oxygenate, and since I've had no problems with off flavors or anything with my final product, I have left well enough alone for now.

[Indytom]

I was just reading and drooling on the internet a couple of nights ago when I came across c.d. pritchards website here (http://home.chattanooga.net/~cdp/boilnew/boilnew.htm). He uses a two foot section of hose braid like many of us use in our mash tuns. Has anyone here tried this? If so, how does it do using pellet hops? I am not a big fan of really bitter beers, so the most I have ever used is about 2 ounces of pellets in 5 gallons. If it works, looks like a great idea.

Tom

[JayShaw91]

Hooky, I use leaf hops, so I don't know how it'd hold up to that many pellets. With 2 oz of leaf, I've got no problems at all.

Cul8rv8, I dunno how much a ball valve would necessarily help. My problem is that the bazooka screen will filter the hops and trub as long as I don't start tilting the pot and getting that last gallon of wort out. If I just leave a gallor or so of "dead space" at the bottom of the pot, all is well.

Am I misunderstanding how a ball valve would help?

[cul8rv8]

oh, I don't know if it would help or not. lol Personally, I have had zero problems with how I do it now, so I don't plan on changing. Now if I go to batches larger than 5 gallons, then I may have a problem, but currently I'm fine with it.

I'm not really sure why I thought about having a ball valve installed, now that I think about it. Just seemed like the thing to do I guess. lol Thank goodness it's my Friday.

[hooky]

I have a pick up tube with a 90 elbow and a chore boy SS scrubby. With leaf I'm ok, but if I get too many pellets in the mix...

Tom, I'd wonder how you'd keep it clean and free flowing after a couple of batches.