Need Opinions on amount of TRUB

[buckeyebrewer]

For your current batch do not leave the beer on the trub for too long after fermentation is complete or you will get some off flavors and some excess fusel alcohol which I don't like since it gives some people like me a headache. At this point let the fermentation take its course. After you hit final gravity let it sit for another week or so then rack the beer to bottles or another fermenter. To get the trub to compact and settle more yeast out, you can cold crash the fermented beer by putting it in a cold refrigerator in the low 30 degree range and the yeast and trub will drop in about a day or two then rack the beer.

While the beer looks very light in color, if heavy hoped as I would expect the pale ale to be the small flavor defects will be less noticeable than in lighter beers. If you want to brew lighter beers, blonds, wheats, lagers, etc then this practice of leaving heavy trub in the fermenter will add haze, off flavors, and have flavor stability problems. If I am making a really light beer sometimes I even drain the kettle to a bucket with a spigot after cooled and let it sit for about an hour then drain off the cleaner wort to the fermenter.

This is a part of learning the process. Each time you brew you should work to make the next batch better. Read, experiment, take notes, make observations, taste, etc, improve your processes and equipment constantly and over time you will be more pleased with your beer quality.

[Ozwald]

Trub has nothing to do with the production of fusels.

For all other reasons stated, yes, it's best to minimize the amount going into the fermenter & not letting the finished beer sit on it for extended periods of time. I would second the comment about using a siphon to transfer instead of a funnel. When the batch is cooling, swirl the pot - it'll help speed up the cooling process & concentrate the trub into a smaller part of the pot. You can then siphon off the beer away from the trub pile & get some fairly clean wort into your fermenter.

[mors]

That is a lot of trub. I would probably rack it to another gallon jug or a half gallon jug (growler).

What was the OG of that IPA? It doesn't look very active for it being the 3rd day of fermentation. I don't even see any krausen... Did you pitch a ton of yeast into it? What is the fermentation temp at?

[Rich216]

Thanks all, and buckeye I used a strainer. This only my second batch so still learning deff next batch I will syphon next batch. The thing thats bugging me is the first didnt turn out this way just wondering what I did different.

[buckeyebrewer]

Trub has nothing to do with the production of fusels.

For all other reasons stated, yes, it's best to minimize the amount going into the fermenter & not letting the finished beer sit on it for extended periods of time. I would second the comment about using a siphon to transfer instead of a funnel. When the batch is cooling, swirl the pot - it'll help speed up the cooling process & concentrate the trub into a smaller part of the pot. You can then siphon off the beer away from the trub pile & get some fairly clean wort into your fermenter.

How so Ozwald? What are you basing the comment about trub having nothing to do with production of fusel alcohols.

My limited understanding is that fusel alcohol production is linked with temperature, amino acid levels, and available oxygen levels in the wort. Temperature is most obvious and probably discussed most often as a factor that affects the rate of production of fusel alcohols. The amino acids are needed by the yeast to form fusel alcohols. Trub is an excess source of simple amino acids for the yeast to feed off and when they do driven by temperature result in off flavors from fusel alcohols. So I would think reducing this source from the yeast would mean a lower amount of fusel alcohols would be produced in the finished beer.

I can say from my own brewing experience that removal of trub at every point possible during the brewing process and strong control of fermentation temperature has made significant improvement in my beer quality and decreased overall fusel levels.

[mobrewer]

I've done lots of brewing in two years but just did a 1G batch for the first time two days ago in the same type of jug in the picture. The trub looked the same at first but after 48 hours has compacted to less than an inch thick.

As far as whether to limit trub or not JZ has said he doesn't really worry about trub so much (okay he has a conical and can dump it) and discourages transferring to secondary. He basically called transferring to secondary some homebrewy thing. I just siphon off of the trub the best I can but still prioritize amount of wort in the fermentor over preventing trub getting in there. The beer still comes out clear after a week in the keg.

[Ozwald]

The trub doesn't matter in regards to fusels because those amino acids are going to be in the wort regardless if it looks clear (there's always a minute amount in solution, which is not a bad thing) or if you transfer the whole kit n kaboodle. Though I highly recommend against transferring the kaboodle.

The potential for fusels is going to be there no matter what. Keep a controlled ferment & they're not an issue. Simply having more trub isn't going to raise the risk of fusels in the final product.

[MJB]

What are the "off flavors" that excess trub will contribute to a beer?