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More specifically: Some time ago I switched from fly sparge to batch sparge. My motivation was that I noticed quite a bit of channeling on deeper grain beds with the fly sparge. Batch is quicker and at least as efficient, but seems to generate a fair bit of trub. I'm guessing this comes from the fact that I have to settle the grain bed multiple times, and run off multiple times.

I vorlauf the friggin' bejesus out of it. I have a March pump and recirc the mash for at least a couple of minutes. Maybe some kind of inline filter would help me but I don't want to deal with the BS of having a stuck sparge because my filter is clogged.

My other thought is opening up the gap (currently 0.035) to something more like 0.050 so less of the malt gets powdered.

Yes? No? Maybe? What else?

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Trub is a post fermentation byproduct.

As long as you have clear wort out of your sparge, adjusting the mash or grist won't help the trub.

The best ways to limit fermenter trub is to leave the hot/cold breaks in the kettle. Bag hops and other additions.

Adjust your boil volume to leave behind a healthy portion in the kettle.

Chill and whirlpool in the kettle let the whirlpool settle before transferring to fermenters.

Edit: The biggest reduction in trub I got was abandoning the use of boil finings like whirlfloc or Irish moss. I found it fluffed the trub too much and I could get much better compaction in cold crash. I saw no difference in the final beers clarity. Haven't used them since.

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  • Maybe the best answer is that there is no answer? Collecting the trub in the boil kettle rather than the fermenter just moves the problem to a different area. I got rid of my immersion chiller a long time ago because it's faster and more efficient to use a counterflow chill plate inline as I'm running off, so chilling the boil in the kettle isn't a good option for me.
    – Robert Zormeir
    Commented Sep 15, 2018 at 18:08
  • @RobertZormeir I just did an edit that may help in reducing trub over all. Also leaving the breaks in the kettle has the advantage of the whirlpool which compacts trub and in the fermentor it just settles out.
    – Evil Zymurgist
    Commented Sep 15, 2018 at 18:35

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