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mash n trub losses

happy hillbilly

Master Brewer
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hills of Kentucky
Ole happy here. I been wonderin bout a few things lately. I'm on the brewin roll agin, meenin I been brewin. last week i put together about 24 gallons of beer that is fermentin away. i usually make beer in 8 gallon batches. iffin yer wonderin that comes out to a few bottles short of three cases of beer to drink. dont seem like so much time in a few bottles o beer. anyhow i got a new 16 gallon kettle that really works good! I was puttin her thru the works so as to get used to brewin with it when it dawned on me about trub loses. do ya'll lean the kettle over n git the last drops from yer kettles or just let it go till it quits drippin out? I use one of those bazooka screens in my kettle n it seems good but iffin i scrape on it a little towards the end i get a little more runnins. also same question bout the mash tun. i go the batch sparge route and wondered if you try to get everything out as long as you got gravity? thanks n happy brewin. 
 
I usually lean the kettle over and get the most volume I can, unless I'm dealing with an IPA or something really really hoppy (I think I'm leaning towards pellet hops now because the whole leaf hops have been a PITA a couple times, clogging up my racking tube).  So I have duplicated my equipment profile and have a "hoppy" version which just bumps up my trub loss.

I do not mess with the mash tun... when it stops dripping, I close the shutoff valve and move on with my day.
 
I recirculate during the mash and usually batch sparge (sometimes I do no sparge). I used to tip the mash tun during run-off, but decided that might stir up the grain bed and let more sediment run into the kettle. Now I stir the mash occasionally and usually about half-way through the mash I remember to tip the mash tun and wedge something under it to keep it tilted  the rest of the mash. Same with the boil kettle. I also use a stainless steel scrub pad over the inside of the spigot to filter out some of the trub. It works better with whole hops than with pellets - pellets sometimes clog the pad and require me to tap it with my spoon to get it flowing again.

I've read that trub in the fermenter doesn't matter, but I often re-pitch yeast and I'd prefer not to have lots of hop debris in the re-pitch. That's my preference because ... ahhh .. well, you see ...
 
I tip my 15 gallon boil kettle when it gets down  to the last few inches of wort. I put a small block of 2 by 4 under to hold it while I work away.  My BK has a bazooka screen and portable  cooling coil in it. I whirpool by hand and recirculation. The trub seems to be held in place in the bottom center by the coil so I leave the coil in there until all wort is drained. I prefer the cooling coil in the bk rather than using a counterflow chiller because I prefer the cold break trub to separate and mass up in a  gelled lump in the kettle.  I always use irish moss in the boil, seems to gel the trub nicely. Only nice clear wort goes into my fermenter. If the trub pile loosens and wort starts to come out cloudy (which happens when you hold the kettle by hand),  I stop. Lately I can drain all out but a  pint or two.
The mash tun I tip only after the runnings are stopped. I don't let the gravity get all the way to zero, stop it around .005- .010. I confirm by taste as well; if there's very little sweetness or an astringent taste, the runnings are stopped. Then the tun is tipped up and allowed to drip drain. The spent grains are then scooped into a plastic bucket with holes drilled in the bottom and allowed to drip drain further, firmly covered, beside the garage before being thrown into the compost. Draining the spent grains, they are much lighter and easier to move and don't go sour and bad smelling  so fast.  CHEERS!
 
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