4

I made a silly mistake using a wine degasser to aerate my wort. After cooling the wort I aerated in the brew-kettle, with trub/hot-break still present, rather than racking to a carboy before aerating. When racking there was still a fair amount of trub, but I'm sure some of the finer particles were still suspended.

I'm now 72 hours into fermentation, and just realized my mistake. My question is whether there are any actions I can take which will help offset the mistake. Aside from cold-crashing before bottling I'm unsure of what other options I have.

What options would be available to help offset the effects of the extra trub (additives, extra steps, etc), and what are their pros and cons?

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
4

The trub will settle naturally as the beer finished fermentation. Don't worry about it. Especially don't try to "fix" it now. That often results in more problems than you originally had. There has been at least one test I know of using wort with trub vs. wort with trub removed. The beer was a pilsner and the conclusion was that the beer with the trub left in was actually clearer and better tasting than the one with the trub removed.

Improve this answer
3
  • thanks for the input; I'm hoping it turns out to be a "good" mistake--I actually did it halfway conscientously. I decided to aerate the wort in the kettle with my degasser, which really puts a lot of air in. Compared to a second batch this one is fermenting much more actively (although there are quite a few differences between the two)
    – STW
    Commented Oct 17, 2011 at 21:11
  • Glad to hear your opinion on this Denny. I don't separate my trub, even with lagers, and have very clear beers after minimal lagering. Sometimes less work equals better results.
    – GHP
    Commented Oct 26, 2011 at 17:18
  • Thanks was just looking for this as I seem to get a lot of hot/cold break when I drain my kettle. I've never worried about it much, but I wondered. I agree doesn't seem to affect the taste or clarity of my beers.
    – Chris Nicola
    Commented Apr 28, 2013 at 23:51

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.