Lower of than expected before trub

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by Georgeobie, Nov 26, 2017.

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  1. Georgeobie

    Georgeobie Initiate (0) Nov 26, 2017 New Jersey

    i just brewed a double ipa kit by truebrew. The og was predicted to be 1.069 to 1.073. I brewed and placed in fermenter. Took the og and it was 1.04. Lots of stuff left in the boil pot. I scooped it out and put it in fermenter. Og was then 1.07. Buddy told me the stuff at bottom was trub (proteins) and should have been left there and may lead to off flavors 2 questions. One. Why was the og so low without the trub if it was bot supposed to enter the fermenter. Two. How will adding the leftover stuff effect the beer. I have only brewed about 3 kits prior and never had this problem.
     
  2. PapaGoose03

    PapaGoose03 Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,057) May 30, 2005 Michigan
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah

    Welcome to the BA site, Georgeobie, and to the homebrewing forum. A few extra things we'll need to know to figure out what happened:

    Was this an extract brew?
    Was it a partial boil with top-off water added?
    What temp was the wort when you took the 1.04 reading?
    Was the 1.07 reading taken immediately after you put the trub into the fermenter and a lot of it was in suspension?
     
  3. Georgeobie

    Georgeobie Initiate (0) Nov 26, 2017 New Jersey

    Yes to extract yes partial boil. TEmp was 60 degrees yes it was directly after i put the trub in the fermenter
     
  4. Bryan12345

    Bryan12345 Initiate (0) Mar 17, 2016 Texas

    ^^^This. You can think of specific gravity as how “heavy” your liquid is. The mashing process takes plain water and adds dissolved sugars into it. So your wort will be “heavier” than just plain water. The more quantity of sugars that are dissolved, the “heavier” the wort, and the higher the OG reading. Alcohol “weighs” less than water. So after fermentation those sugars have been converted to alcohol, and your final beer is “lighter,” and your FG is lower.

    So, long story short, when you added the trub you did indeed make the wort “heavier.” Just not necessarily with fermentable sugars.

    That said, I also predict no noticeable negative effects. RDWHAHB :slight_smile:

    Carpe cerevisi!
     
  5. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    This is true, but there are also as many molecules of CO2 produced as there are alcohol, so a not insignificant amount of the sugar's weight becomes CO2 and gasses off.

    In fact, as I think about it, more of the gravity change is due to "lost to CO2" mass than to the difference in density between alcohol and water.
     
    #5 VikeMan, Nov 26, 2017
    Last edited: Nov 26, 2017
  6. PapaGoose03

    PapaGoose03 Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,057) May 30, 2005 Michigan
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah

    Okay, the wort temp was where it needed to be to take a gravity reading, and the fact that this was mostly an extract brew says that your mash efficiency was not a cause since you did not have a mash process. Extract brewing is very predictable for its original gravity reading as long as the correct amount of liquid is present. So it is either the trub in suspension, or when you added your top-off water it was not well mixed and your gravity sample had too much of the top-off water in it, thus a low reading. Either way, I think your beer will be fine.
     
  7. Silver_Is_Money

    Silver_Is_Money Devotee (337) Jun 4, 2017 Ohio

    It has been my understanding that floating solids (like stirred up trub) do not affect specific gravity readings. Only dissolved goodies can do that. (Or so I thought...)

    https://mashmadeeasy.yolasite.com/
     
  8. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    Basically true. But floating solids can act as buoys to help float a hydrometer. In practice, with a normal wort, the effect is negligible.
     
  9. PapaGoose03

    PapaGoose03 Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,057) May 30, 2005 Michigan
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah

    That's like saying that mud isn't thick, and I don't buy that. :wink:
     
  10. Silver_Is_Money

    Silver_Is_Money Devotee (337) Jun 4, 2017 Ohio

    But density is not thickness.
     
  11. utahbeerdude

    utahbeerdude Maven (1,374) May 2, 2006 Utah

    I agree with @Mothergoose03: I'm strongly suspect your original reading was so low largely because the wort and added water were not mixed well. RDWHAHB. Cheers!
     
    JackHorzempa and PapaGoose03 like this.
  12. BeerMaverick

    BeerMaverick Zealot (718) Dec 14, 2010 Connecticut

    Just listened to a Brulosophy podcast about kettle trub in the fermenter. Marshall had clean wort in one fermenter (avoiding racking trub at all costs) and another where he literally did what you did and put spoonfuls of trub into the fermenter. He didn't notice any flavor differences between the two, but the one with trub in it was unexpectedly much clearer and fermented further (lower FG) with the yeast performing a noticeably more aggressive fermentation. He did this same experiment multiple times with the same results. Here's the link:

    http://brulosophy.com/2015/03/22/the-impact-of-kettle-trub-part-2-exbeeriment-results/
     
  13. Silver_Is_Money

    Silver_Is_Money Devotee (337) Jun 4, 2017 Ohio

    I make absolutely no effort to separate trub from wort, and I find that the yeast gobble it right up as if it was prime yeast food. Can't say that I've noticed any difference since I got tired of trying to separate out the trub, sans that I fill more bottles with beer now than I did before from the same size batches. By the end of ferment the trub is nowhere to be found, and only yeast sediment remains.

    https://mashmadeeasy.yolasite.com
     
  14. Silver_Is_Money

    Silver_Is_Money Devotee (337) Jun 4, 2017 Ohio

    Ever since noticing the advice to not aerate wort when using Lallemand dry yeasts (as seen in their data) I have also discontinued that practice, with no noticeable difference in the results.

    https://mashmadeeasy.yolasite.com
     
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