[flbrewer]

If you are resting 60 minutes, then what you are seeing is more than likely a rootlet or other fibrous material.  Did you perform an iodine test (using the colored stuff that stains everything it touches)?

No, I read those iodine tests aren't worth a hoot.

[Wort-H.O.G.]

You can't see starch.....what you see is malt pieces or husks. You can get either of those in the wort regardless of conversion or not.


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[S. cerevisiae]

flbrewer, I am just curious, but what brewing books have you read?  From the volume and nature of your questions, it appears that you are LTBBFing (Learning To Brew By Forum), which is not the most efficient or effective way to learn.  There's an advantage to learning how to brew by reading a comprehensive introductory text on brewing such Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide: Everything You Need to Know to Make Great-Tasting Beer, John Palmer's How to Brew, or even Charlie P.'s The Complete Joy of Homebrewing.  From there, I would recommend reading Greg Noonan's New Brewing Lager Beer and Ray Daniels' Designing Great Beers.  Most of the senior brewers on this forum learned how to brew using one or more of these texts.  All of these texts provide a brewing fundamental base on which to build more advanced knowledge.

[flbrewer]

I haven't done much reading and I hope I haven't come off as taking advantage of the folks here! Good suggestion though. I do own The Complete Joy...and can read Palmer's book online. I have a couple of other recipe based books which I can look at as well.

[bboy9000]

I haven't done much reading and I hope I haven't come off as taking advantage of the folks here!

Don't worry about that.  We're on here because we like learning and teaching about brewing!  That's said, S. cerevisiae recommended some great books.  I read How to Brew in its entirety before jumping to all-grain.  There was a lot of stuff I didn't understand at the time but I still learned a lot. 

[ynotbrusum]

Is it possible that you are simply seeing the hot break particulate?  I have had it look like small crumbles of grain as it boils or it has looked like egg drop soup at times.

[JT]

I think you may just be over thinking it a bit.  If all you're seeing is a few specks floating around, that is really nothing at all.  Don't be overwhelmed by mystical nature of beer making!  Think of it this way, if you took those few teenie tiny specks of grain and tossed them in 7 gallons of boiling chicken soup, would you expect it to do anything at all to the flavor?  Of course not.  You likely aren't going to get every single speck of everything out of the wort pre boil, and you don't need to.  Vorlauf until the wort is "clear" (read: "clear enough", not "lager clear") then drain to your boil kettle.  During this process, you will occasionally see a particle or two find its way in.  They aren't harming anything. 
Read Charlie's book.  Relax, don't worry and have a homebrew. 

[jeffy]

flbrewer, I am just curious, but what brewing books have you read?  From the volume and nature of your questions, it appears that you are LTBBFing (Learning To Brew By Forum), which is not the most efficient or effective way to learn.  There's an advantage to learning how to brew by reading a comprehensive introductory text on brewing such Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide: Everything You Need to Know to Make Great-Tasting Beer, John Palmer's How to Brew, or even Charlie P.'s The Complete Joy of Homebrewing.  From there, I would recommend reading Greg Noonan's New Brewing Lager Beer and Ray Duncan's DANIELS Designing Great Beers.  Most of the senior brewers on this forum learned how to brew using one or more of these texts.  All of these texts provide a brewing fundamental base on which to build more advanced knowledge.

Fixed that for you.
And I agree that reading any of those will provide insight and more overview to the process.

[pete b]

I haven't done much reading and I hope I haven't come off as taking advantage of the folks here! Good suggestion though. I do own The Complete Joy...and can read Palmer's book online. I have a couple of other recipe based books which I can look at as well.

I suggest reading some of those books AND continuing to ask all the questions you want on the forum.

[Iliff Ave]

To the OP, I vorlauf and still get a very small amount of grain (no husk) into my kettle. I have never worried about it and it has not seemed to impact the final product.

[dmtaylor]

Yep, a few little grains is no problem.  If you see a lot of it (like 1/4 cup worth or more), then you can get astringency.

[erockrph]

I haven't done much reading and I hope I haven't come off as taking advantage of the folks here! Good suggestion though. I do own The Complete Joy...and can read Palmer's book online. I have a couple of other recipe based books which I can look at as well.

I suggest reading some of those books AND continuing to ask all the questions you want on the forum.

+1 - You can even read "How To Brew" online at http://howtobrew.com , although I'd still recommend buying it to support the author. And while I agree that "learning by forum" isn't always the best way to learn to brew, this forum is a bit different. I've thrown out more bad info just by paying attention to this site.

[denny]

To clarify...here is a picture of my grain crush. I'm referring to the little white chunks of grain (not the husk). I'll see a few of these during vorlauf and sometimes maybe a few after I'm done draining into the kettle.

I haven't seen them after the boil, although they are probably at the bottom of the traub.

Not a problem

[narcout]

If you are getting more grain particulate in the boil kettle than you would like, you can always tie a hop bag to the end of your transfer tubing.

[HoosierBrew]

If you are getting more grain particulate in the boil kettle than you would like, you can always tie a hop bag to the end of your transfer tubing.

+1.  What I do.