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This is related to the following post on similar information:
[ Enormous amount lees/trub - yeast smell during stripping run. ]
.
The setup: HBB, nine gallon setup. The beer I stole using the siphon
was very nice, about 4 gallons. The reset I had to squeeze out through
a paint strainer bag. This output has all the trub in it and about equal
amount of beer. I let both sit over night. The trub beer I was able to
steal it with a siphon, left a bunch of trub maybe 1.5 gallons. I wanted
this run to be perfect so I did not, try to get greedy with working trub.
I ended up with 6 gallons of beer for my trip to the swamp.
Ok here it comes the actual question:
Can the trub be worked ? If so how? and is it worth the time to get a good output.
note: beer from top of ferment, maybe 1/2 cup settled out. Tossed that .
I am thinking a 12 gallon ingredients run might be the best for a 8-9 gallon charge.
Looking at my notes, i am working to 30-33% loss from start to finish over the last 4 ferments HBB.

wheat and oats, in my experience, leave a lot of trub that takes a long time to settle out and compress. Even in a cold ass garage. I like to let my strained and squeezed beer sit for a couple of weeks, but I still get about a third of a 5 gallon bucket of trub from 20 gallons of beer out of a 23 gallon ferment.
This hobby just has inherent waste that you have to accept in the relentless pursuit of a better drop.

Ok thank you , I will accept 30 ish percent as ok. My drive is high quality people would gossip about.

Deplorable wrote: ↑Sat Jan 18, 2025 9:30 am wheat and oats, in my experience, leave a lot of trub that takes a long time to settle out and compress. I like to let my strained and squeezed beer sit for a couple of weeks

This hobby just has inherent waste that you have to accept in the relentless pursuit of a better drop.

+1

Definitely an exercise in patience. The finer the grain is milled the more fines are created and the longer it takes to clear. After racking the clear top half of a finished keg ferment into a carboy, I let the squeezed bottom half clear (7-10 days) in a conical. The remaining custard I put in the fridge and a month later rack the clear to my next stripping run. I feel this liquid from the custard is the heaviest, richest beer of the ferment.

TB I will give this a try on next multi run batch. your idea will increase the quality on next batch for sure. Patience , hard to spell and hard to implement. This is my first adventure past one and done.

Deplorable wrote: ↑Sat Jan 18, 2025 9:30 am
This hobby just has inherent waste that you have to accept in the relentless pursuit of a better drop.

Especially when making whiskey.
And reflux can squeeze out the alcohol from mistakes.

planohog wrote: ↑Sat Jan 18, 2025 11:27 am TB I will give this a try on next multi run batch. your idea will increase the quality on next batch for sure. Patience , hard to spell and hard to implement. This is my first adventure past one and done.

So true, PH. When it comes to stilling and safety, being patient sure beats being a patient.

Once you conduct a double-distillation you will never go back. The distillate is that good. Each subsequent double-distillation you do will improve on your previous one, and will lead you to improve your mash and ferment regimes. And your fine spirit will be all yours.

all mine !
https://media1.tenor.com/m/SrjRM5IiIjsA ... eletor.gif

shadylane wrote: ↑Sat Jan 18, 2025 12:56 pm And reflux can squeeze out the alcohol from mistakes.

Mistakes make great neutral.

planohog wrote: ↑Sat Jan 18, 2025 9:21 am
Ok here it comes the actual question:
Can the trub be worked ? If so how? and is it worth the time to get a good output.

Steam stripping will salvage the alcohol from trub.
Then spirit run the low-wines and call it bourbon or reflux for neutral.

I ferment OG and then squeeze out a couple days before I plan to run it. After it clears, I rack off the clean stuff. My process usually yields about 9 gallons of wort and 1.5 G of trub. At first I tried straining through a fabric and other tricks but was never happy with the results for the effort. What I found to be my best discovery is to pour the 1.5 gallons of the trub into a plastic container and put in the freezer. After it gets solid, when you thaw it, you will be left with about 50% clear and the rest big chunks of condensed trub that acts like cottage cheese. The clean is easy to rack off and add to my next distillation. It works great for me.

Throw it in the thumper

Specman wrote: ↑Wed Apr 02, 2025 5:19 pm I ferment OG and then squeeze out a couple days before I plan to run it. After it clears, I rack off the clean stuff. My process usually yields about 9 gallons of wort and 1.5 G of trub. At first I tried straining through a fabric and other tricks but was never happy with the results for the effort. What I found to be my best discovery is to pour the 1.5 gallons of the trub into a plastic container and put in the freezer. After it gets solid, when you thaw it, you will be left with about 50% clear and the rest big chunks of condensed trub that acts like cottage cheese. The clean is easy to rack off and add to my next distillation. It works great for me.

I have tried freeze jacking trub when making beer, collecting a third of the thaw to add back to a few special bottles, but I'd never heard of completely thawing trub before racking, so that's something new for me to try. Thanks for the idea.

Cheers
Chris