Trub experiment (not my own)

[alix101]

I was thinking about this subject after pitching a BIAB beer I did randomly yesterday, so I looked around to read people's findings on the debate about turb effecting the final beer in the fermenter.
I generally use a plate chiller so end up with trub yesterday I just chilled in a sink and through the lot through a sieve.
This is a very good blog on an experiment on a subject which carries a lot of unfounded information and well this bloke has done it...http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-gr ... ts-are-in/

[Normski]

TRUB

[basswulf]

I've read that Brulosophy article before and I found it fascinating. In fact, I found it so interesting that I decided to try it in my own, small scale BIAB set up. I didn't have the facilities to do a side by side test so just went for it.

I transfer the boiled wort into a plastic jerry can to cool over night and then back into the same (re-sanitised) pot to ferment so I simply transferred the whole lot each time rather than trying to leave behind the sludge from boiling and then siphoning back the next day to discard more sludge. Since I didn't have an equivalent batch to compare, I couldn't say whether it was clearly better but I certainly got good beer out the other end and less waste during the process, so I've stuck with it.

A lot of experiments on Brulosophy seem to end up myth busting. I think the overall message for people working outside tightly controlled scientific or commercial enviroments is be clean and be careful but don't get too stressed about the details because the parameters for producing decent beer aren't quite as narrow as you might assume if you spend a lot of time reading books and websites!

Wulf

[BrannigansLove]

I used to filter trub using my BIAB bag on it's way to the fermenter, but then stopped bothering. Can't say I've noticed any difference beyond the amount of crap at the bottom of the bucket come bottling time. I've always bagged my hops before adding them to the boil though.

[Jocky]

I like brulosophy's experiments, but you have to be careful as to how you interpret their results.

Even the Brulosophy guys don't preach their results as fact, and say that any one result on its own is not proof of a particular technique. It just shows a statistically probable result that for that particular batch of that beer. I'm not going to go into a rant any more about that, but suffice to say be careful drawing conclusions.

Even if you find no difference dumping all of the trub into a particular batch of beer, it doesn't mean that will work for all beers e.g. It might work for your IPA but not a Lager or a Wit.

[basswulf]

The ideas are worth a punt though when the potential risk is low. I could have lived with a batch of spoiled beer - as it is, I'm now saving myself time on each brew. All my brewing so far is in the realm of 'British Real Ale' so I suspect the concept is fairly transferable within that range of recipes.

One important point to remember though is to only change one variable at a time. There's not point adjusting what you do with the trub at the same time as switching to a different yeast, changing your mash temperature and moving from bottles to kegs. If it goes wrong, you won't know what broke and, if it goes right, it is guesswork as to what made the difference. An element of that is inevitable when switching to a different style but say, for example, I decide to give lager a go, it will be back to refining how the process works within my set up over the course of several batches.

Wulf

[alix101]

TRUB

[alix101]

I agree it's not gospel but gospel isn't, it would be intresting to see if it made a diffrence on a bottom feeding yeast perhaps another experiment. ...I'd also like to know the flip side if there is one.

[Matt in Birdham]

I like brusolophy too, but to be honest the "trub myth" was busted long before they took a look at it. I haven't bothered for years - I am happy to drain off thick sludge at the bottom of my kettle into my FV and usually there is a couple of inches worth at the start of fermentation. It compacts fairly quickly down to an inch or less, and to my mind does not affect the beer in any way (it certainly has no detrimental effect on the final clarity of the beer). There seems to be a lot of angst about trub and filtering around but unless you have a good reason to do it (plate chiller, whole hops maybe) then it's not something I'd put any effort into at all. Having said that, all else being equal less hop matter in the FV would make yeast harvesting a little cleaner so I do make a token attempt at a whirlpool.

[Wonkydonkey]

TRUB

It's all the same tomates,

Trub, turb, turd. It's still shit in the bottom of the FV we know what you mean, even if autocorrect likes to drop you in the shit so to speak..