aggressive cold break

My IPA had a pretty aggressive cold break:

Very impressive. I never got that much break with my IC. What is your water temp from the faucet??

yeh mine look like that all the time. i thought i was doing something wrong at first.

peterfuse said:

yeh mine look like that all the time. i thought i was doing something wrong at first.

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Haha, my second brew looked like that when I used whirlfloc my first time + 12 lbs of ice to cool 2.5 gallons of wort. At first I was scared, now its my exclusive method of cooling. It looks crazy swirling around in a strong fermentation.

JoMarky said:

Haha, my second brew looked like that when I used whirlfloc my first time + 12 lbs of ice to cool 2.5 gallons of water. At first I was scared, now its my exclusive method of cooling. It looks crazy swirling around in a strong fermentation.

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Yeh it is nuts in a strong ferment but i try to whirlpool in the kettle and keep most of the break out of the fermenter now.

my thought, is it'll settle out and I can chill before secondary to get all that to drop out

schind said:

my thought, is it'll settle out and I can chill before secondary to get all that to drop out

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thats what i do. I boil in a 4 gallon pot and after all the ice is added theres not much room to try and start a whirlpool.

schind said:

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I'd call that one "Three Layer IPA".

can someone explain to me (a noob) what im looking at here and why it is so good?

i currently use a 25ft 3/8" copper chiller recirculating it with some ice.
it takes me ~12-18 mins to chill my ~3.5 gallon boil, but i havent seen mine ever look like this, so im trying to learn how/why

jfrizzell said:

I'd call that one "Three Layer IPA".

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Great Idea, I'll actually call it that!

Link to my page for it with recipe and photos: Click Me!!

Kelly. said:

can someone explain to me (a noob) what im looking at here and why it is so good?

i currently use a 25ft 3/8" copper chiller recirculating it with some ice.
it takes me ~12-18 mins to chill my ~3.5 gallon boil, but i havent seen mine ever look like this, so im trying to learn how/why

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I actually dont know why some times it doesn't happen. this is the best i've ever had

My novice understanding of it is that the solids you see are proteins, sugars, and nutrients that "break" out of the wort from being cooled rapidly. This stuff is good for the yeasties as it provides them with nutrients and helps them reproduce. a lot of people strain this stuff out before primary. I personally don't see the point as long as you do a secondary. maybe it makes your beer a little clearer in the end if you take some of the cold break out, but i usually leave it in.

This is my first full 5 gal boil and the first time using my homemade immersion chiller. it's only 20ft of 3/8th inch copper and it cools the 5 gal in about 15-20 mins.

thanks for the info i will have to look for this in my next batch.

I always feels good when I get a massive cold break. I don't know why. Maybe because it looks cool.

Since I started using Whirfloc tabs I get massive cold breaks like that as well. Some very clear beers result.

peterfuse said:

yeh mine look like that all the time. i thought i was doing something wrong at first.

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+1. I thought I messed something up also the first time I saw this. Scared the hell out of me.

mmb said:

Since I started using Whirfloc tabs I get massive cold breaks like that as well. Some very clear beers result.

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I did use Whirlfloc by the way

The first time I did an AG batch with Irish moss I drained into my carboys and saw this nasty chunk of "fat" in the bottom of the kettle.

I was very confused back then