Removing hot break/cold break

Im a beginner brewer and i was wondering how to remove hot break from the brew kettle when using a CFC. I will be using a hop bag also. i may be over thinking this because im still a little unsure what hot break is. I just want to brew a good beer.

I have never once worried about cold or hot break, and have turned out great beers everytime, well almost everytime, but was never due to cold/hot break.

Hot break is bad; you want that gone; best way to get rid of it is to chill the wort quickly via immersion chiller, counterflow chiller, or a good ice bath.

Hot break is what falls to the bottom of the kettle when the wort stops boiling, the trub.

Cold break, aka chill haze, is arguably beneficial for fermenting and the yeast - it stays in solution and is only visible if the beer falls below 40F, so it's harder to remove

Good info:


Hot break: http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue1.4/barchet.html

Cold break: http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue2.2/barchet.html

Hot break forms when you are boiling your wort, and is the result of certain proteins coagulating. You won't see much of this, if any at all, if you are brewing extract, as the hot break has already happened to the extract when they were making it.

Cold break forms when you cool your beer from boiling, and you will get more of it if you cool faster, and the more of the break that you are able to get, the more you can remove. Don't worry about the cold break. If you are brewing extract and you follow the recipe the shop gave you (or that was included in your kit, if you are making your beer from a kit) you will produce the intended result

I'm brewing my first all grain in the next few weeks... This is why I was asking what's the best way to remove it? I was thinking just sending everything through the CFC an straining it when it comes out.

I have also been reading other sites about this and they said a strainer in the pot at the outlet for the valve would help filter the hot break before going into the CFC. Well I was given a legged and it has a welded valve on it and I was wondering if thee was a way to install a filter on it. If there is no pipe nipple on the inside part of the keggle.

Can't really remove all of it unless you filter. Best thing to do is to chill the wort quickly, maybe use a fining agent like Irish moss or gelatin, and let it ride. Most of the break material will settle during fermentation. After that, cold crashing will further help. I've never had a problem with break material. Beers will tend to clear, especially with much refrigeration. Virtually all my beers have cleared very nicely.

So basically if i was to strain everything after it goes through the CFC and before it goes into the fermentor i will be good and will remove alot of the trub? Also is there a possibility that the hotbreak could clog my cfc if its only gravity fed?

Gotta watch out for the really big chunks:



MC

Okay, I brewed my first all grain batch a couple weeks ago. Is this hot break that made it into my carboy?
If so, is it bad for the beer?
If not, what the heck is it?

belmont_pirate said:

Okay, I brewed my first all grain batch a couple weeks ago. Is this hot break that made it into my carboy?
If so, is it bad for the beer?
If not, what the heck is it?

Click to expand...

You should be fine. Ive had plenty of beers where i didnt filter either hot or cold break.

Although I siphon above the break now, I used to brew 6 gallon batches. The first 5 gallons went into 6 gal carboy and the remaining 1 gal with break went into a 1 gal carboy. I got an extra 1/2 gal this way after everything has fermented. I didnt notice much of a difference between the two beers. Possibly its not about taste.


Ive taken a BIAB paint strainer and swiped it across the beginning of the boil foam. Swipe and rinse 4 or 5 times and its gone. Not sure if what I did was effective tho.

I too am a foam skimmer... I dunno if it makes my beer better, but I would like to think that by skimming the foam its less break material to deal with after the boil is done. I do not filter (yet) but when I rack to the fermenter I try to leave as much as possible in the kettle.

I cleared the hot break from my last batch, but I didnt see any cold break (using an IC). The beer still came out pretty darn clear so it was effect in the way that I hoped.

Hot break looks like a very thick foam that you can push around the surface of the wort. I really didn't know what to look for because everyone talks about hotbreak but god if you can find a picture of a normal hot break (not the giant booger-hot breaks, that's obvious) Anywhere!!!

It's not bad if you don't remove it (as far as I have read), a lot of it will settle out in the fermenter if you give it time. I didn't skim any hot or cold break on my hefe I did a while ago, but my steam beer I did skim the hot break. (My Hefe was amazing, and had a great hazy look to it very complimentary of the style).

Wow!

I never really knew anything about hot break until now. I've recently pushed beyond large steeping grain bills/small BIAB partial mashes to near 50/50 partial mashes. I've never done anything with hot/cold break, and I've not noticed anything undesirable. But I suppose it may have been even better had I have.

My beers are generally slightly cloudy, but I usually refrigerate for 1 week before I crack any open, and have noticed the ones that stay much longer usually are quite clear.

So I'm going to try to do something about this hot break next time. I can try skimming the foam in the beginning and/or using a BIAB grain bag on the fermenting bucket to attempt to catch the larger pieces. Which would you do, or would you even concern yourself with it since it's still only a partial mash?

My trub levels are generally about 3/8" thick in a 5-6 gal batch.

In my case, I use a SS "brillo" pad on the end of my Keggle dip tube. This causes its own issues in that I have to use a certain percentage of whole hops to act as the pre-filter. It filters close to 100% of the hot break when using an immersion chiller but I suspect it would be cloase to the same with a counterflow...as long as you use leaf hops.

I get plenty of hot break in my Partial Mashes. I just used my brewing spoon to scoop it out as it formed. No need to go crazy if you dont get all of it.