German Pilsen Lager Nightmare!!!

Alright, like the first post in the entire thread...perhaps this is the same thing, or maybe it is something different, so here it goes:



So I decided to try and make my first all-grain, light lager today. I used 7.5 lbs. of Pilsen 2-Row Malt, 1 lb. Vienna Malt, and .5 lbs. Carapils. I followed this mash-schedule:

122 – 140 – 155 degrees F (thirty minutes at each)

When it came to the boil, I noticed something I’ve never noticed in the all-grain ales I’ve done. There were tons and tons of small little floating things. At first, I thought they were just the proteins that would disappear after the hot-break, but then they remained there till the very end.

I recirculated my wort numerous times, so I am almost certain that it is not grain that slipped through my mash-tun. I am thinking it has to do something with this new Pilsen malt I’ve never used before. When I got a bunch of the floating things in my hand, I could mash them together; very pliable, almost like drudge from the hops on the walls of a primary, so they couldn’t have been grain husks. Remember, they were there before any hop addition too, so I don’t think that it came from the hops either.

Could someone PLEASE tell me what this stuff is? And if you know, how do I get rid of it? Or will it do it automatically after I rack to the secondary and then to the keg?

Appreciate it,

Cheers!

Pils has hot break that looks like egg drop soup. Its due to the higher protein content of the malt. Dont worry about it, it will all settle out. Its totally normal.

It is a good thing that this hot break material is there - as strat says it's coagulated protiens which would make your beer cloudy. This is what settles as trub when you strain the wort off into the fermenter.

onelegout said:

It is a good thing that this hot break material is there - as strat says it's coagulated protiens which would make your beer cloudy. This is what settles as trub when you strain the wort off into the fermenter.

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I have been researching straining methods...how do you guys do it? And at what intervals (right after boil, before secondary, before keg????)

I use this:

http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php

It works like a champ, I leave all the break material behind in the kettle and only clear wort goes into my fermenter.

shamilton2 said:

I have been researching straining methods...how do you guys do it? And at what intervals (right after boil, before secondary, before keg????)

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First of all, that sounds like a perfectly normal hot break to me, usually there
will be more hot break in an all grain than in an extract beer. I believe this has something to do with the dehydration process, but I am no expert in the production of malt extract.

Second, there is no need to strain hot break out of the wort. You can just pour it straight into the fermenter with NO ill effects whatsoever. If you really don't want it in the fermenter, you could decant off the clear wort into the fermenter after chilling and leave the hot and cold break behind in the kettle.

Pivovar_Koucky said:

Second, there is no need to strain hot break out of the wort. You can just pour it straight into the fermenter with NO ill effects whatsoever. If you really don't want it in the fermenter, you could decant off the clear wort into the fermenter after chilling and leave the hot and cold break behind in the kettle.

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I disagree. I try to leave a much break material behind in the kettle as possible. There is no added benefit to having it in the fermenter and it's absence means less solid material that has to settle out before you have nice clear beer. Clarity isn't a big concern for some, but if you are brewing German pils it should be brilliantly clear.

strat_thru_marshall said:

I disagree. I try to leave a much break material behind in the kettle as possible. There is no added benefit to having it in the fermenter and it's absence means less solid material that has to settle out before you have nice clear beer. Clarity isn't a big concern for some, but if you are brewing German pils it should be brilliantly clear.

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I agree that there is no benefit to adding it, in fact when I'm pour from my kettle to the fermenter I stop when it looks like I'm just adding break proteins; however, I think by the time the yeast is done doing its thing, the break proteins are long out of suspension. If you want to see what I'm talking about cool a batch of beer in a shop sink with ice water, by the time its room temperature its just about crystal clear. This takes less than an hour, assuming you got a good cold break. Much less than the 2-5 months your pils will spend fermenting/lagering.

That stuff freaked me out a little too with my first Pils, but you'll be fine if you just rack from your bk to your primary. Anything that does make it to primary settles out before you rack to a secondary. DWRHAHB. I'm actually enjoying my first AG Pils now and it's the best beer I've ever had. I told my buddy that I'd buy this in a six pack store over anything else if it was available. Good luck!