Question about cold break...

A buddy of mine and I were discussing cold break while we were filling the carboys up with wort post chilling.

The beer was coming up a bit cloudy and I mentioned that the cloudiness could be mainly attributed to the proteins, fats, etc. that have fallen out of suspension.

My friend asserted that it was not mainly proteins, that it was mostly hop residue that was causing the cloudiness.

My question is, is what is cold break mainly comprised of exactly?


Here are some of the beer specs if necessary:
All-grain
10 Gallon batch of an IPA
22.5 lbs of grain
5 oz of hops

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter7-4.html
http://www.beer-brewing.com/beer-brewing/wort_cooling/cold_break_formation.htm
Protein and polyphenol compounds.

Cold break is a protein and tannin coagulation that forms when your wort is cooled rapidly. Hop solids can also cause cloudy wort. Without pictures, it's tough to say which you were seeing. To me, cold break looks like egg drop soup, and hop matter looks more like sludge.

heres a picture:

The white gunk floating in the lower half of your carboys is cold break.

Are you sure that's all cold break? My guess would have been mostly hot break. AFAIK, getting a good cold break isn't that easy, it doesn't form much unless you chill fast and low, and cold break flocs are much smaller than hot break flocs. I thought 'egg drop soup' was hot break. There's a good bit of break in those fermenters and it looks like fairly big flocs but it's bit blurry.

In my experience hot break is smaller, and not big goobers of globs. (Technical terms!)

Maybe it's because I use whirlfloc in the kettle, but the hot break seems fine and thin and hard to filter while the cold break looks just like that. My cold break ends up in the fermenter since I have a CFC and sometimes the hot break is hard to filter out even though I recirculate. Often the cold break is big globs like that, which compact down into the trub soon.

SpanishCastleAle said:

Are you sure that's all cold break? My guess would have been mostly hot break. AFAIK, getting a good cold break isn't that easy, it doesn't form much unless you chill fast and low, and cold break flocs are much smaller than hot break flocs. I thought 'egg drop soup' was hot break. There's a good bit of break in those fermenters and it looks like fairly big flocs but it's bit blurry.

Click to expand...

Indeed. I get a decent amount of cold break with a standard whirlpool chiller, and it looks pretty much the same as hot break (though, like you say, often with smaller loogies). The stuff floating in his carboy is definitely protein break. Whether it is hot break or cold break is tough to say without watching it form.

Yooper said:

In my experience hot break is smaller, and not big goobers of globs. (Technical terms!)

Maybe it's because I use whirlfloc in the kettle, but the hot break seems fine and thin and hard to filter while the cold break looks just like that. My cold break ends up in the fermenter since I have a CFC and sometimes the hot break is hard to filter out even though I recirculate. Often the cold break is big globs like that, which compact down into the trub soon.

Click to expand...

From what I've read, the small/cloudy stuff is the cold break and the big goobers are hot break. But I really don't know, this question has come up before and lots of folks said it was cold break but based on what I've read it seems to 'fit' the definition of hot break better.

FWIW, here's a few links to where I read this stuff:
How to Remove Trub (BYO)
Cold Break (BT)
Hot Break (BT)

Wierd, almost the exact thread.https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/cold-break-question-232994/

I top off with ice to cool my beer. I do NOTHING to clear it. My beers are seriously clear (after the the first pint or 2). I am not bragging, I am befuddled.

Could the ice do something that clears?

I do not filter, I do sparge and vorlauf exhaustively, I leave hop residue and trub in.

cheezydemon3 said:

Wierd, almost the exact thread.https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/cold-break-question-232994/

I top off with ice to cool my beer. I do NOTHING to clear it. My beers are seriously clear (after the the first pint or 2). I am not bragging, I am befuddled.

Could the ice do something that clears?

I do not filter, I do sparge and vorlauf exhaustively, I leave hop residue and trub in.

Click to expand...

That sounds about right to me, cheezy.

The ice is cooling your wort very quickly, and thus precipitates a cold break. There are a lot of things that can cause beer haze: poor cold break, unconverted starches, yeast, etc. It sounds like your process eliminates most of them quite effectively.

Thanks Malfet!

I am lucky that my fridge makes sterile ice with no off flavors.

I highly recommend testing yours! It is worth 1 batch to find out.

I boil 5 gallons down to 4 and cool with 1 gallon or so of ice.

It is fast and couldn't be easier.