32 replies to this topic

[cj in j]

I'm going to suggest that any trub that does get into the fermenter quickly falls to the bottom and doesn't do any harm. When the yeast starts falling, it covers the trub -- which is why you always hear advice about harvesting the middle layer of yeast -- the bottom has all the trub, the top has all the slow-flocculating yeast. So, getting trub into your fermenter isn't where you have to worry, it's the next step of transferring after fermentation when you need to be more careful.P.S. Commercial breweries are worried more about break material getting into the heat exchanger than in the fermenter. We dump the trub that does make it to the fermenter about halfway through fermentation and again just before we harvest the yeast.P.P.S. Some trub is said to be beneficial to yeast health, so keeping it all out (nearly impossible) will more than likely result in worse-tasting beer.

[chefmiller]

people actually do that???

I remember starting a topic about this some months ago. The chef in me tells me to, but now the brewer in me tells me it doesn't matter.

[Stout_fan]

Apparently, yes. I have heard of Schmutz, Schmootz and similar. But don't be fooled by imitations... this is the one and only Schputzâ„¢. It gives my beer that certain... Schputzitude.

I think the Yiddish predates you by a few years. :DBut hey, everyone needs a little something extra in their beers.

[Stout_fan]

A guy on HBD tested this a couple years back. He made 2 batches of pils, one with trub and one without. IIRC, the differences were very slight, but he actually preferred the batch with the trub left in.

Works for me! !!

[denny]

Works for me! !!

Hey, I even found the results! The beer with the trub not only tasted better, it was clearer!https://hbd.org/disc...0327/41534.html

[stellarbrew]

Very interesting. I have made it a practice to try to leave as much of the cold break behind when I rack into the fermenter, taking for granted that this would make better tasting and clearer beer. This definitely throws that assumption into doubt. If it is substantiated that beer is better when you don't remove the trub, I would love it, as it would make life just a little bit easier.

[denny]

AFAIAC, the bottom line is that the beer is no worse for not removing trub.

[stellarbrew]

I'd say we have it from a very good source... don't worry about the trub.

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

AFAIAC, the bottom line is that the beer is no worse for not removing trub.

How do you feel about purging kegs?

[denny]

How do you feel about purging kegs?

I can't say I've never done it, but I didn't find it to make any difference whether I do it or not. I do purge the headspace after the beer's racked, but unless I'm filling multiple kegs and pushing sanitizer from one to the other, I don't purge before filling.

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

I can't say I've never done it, but I didn't find it to make any difference whether I do it or not. I do purge the headspace after the beer's racked, but unless I'm filling multiple kegs and pushing sanitizer from one to the other, I don't purge before filling.

well it's nice to be in good company anyway

[consumptionjunction]

I just listened to the Brew Strong podcast on Beer Haze with Dr. Charles Bamforth. In the podcast Dr. Bamforth mentioned that some trub aids fermentation and yeast metabolism by encouraging CO2 exhaust from solution. Here's a paper on the subject I found via google search:https://cat.inist.fr...cpsidt=19066632. Pertinently, the abstract states:

Particulate material may improve the development of CO2 from the fermenting medium, thus reducing its concentration and inhibitory effect on yeast metabolism.

Not like this would really be a big deal for homebrewers, as I can't imagine the amount of trub we can actually remove would be substantial. Too much trub may have diminishing returns, I would think, but have not done any comparisons.