Purpose of the cold break

So after the boil, the wort is chilled as fast as possible to impact the proteins.

Can you then pour all the wort into the fermentation bucket or should you decant it and leave behind (discard) the proteins?

Thx

I strain everything as I'm draining into my fermentor, but it doesn't need to be done. I just like as little sludge as possible when I go to rack it to my keg.

The less trub and break you leave when transferring in any step the clearer your finished beer will be. In addition...more trub and break in your fermenter mean less final volume of beer.

I personally prefer a few extra beers versus being lazy and just dumping it all in.

TheMan said:

The less trub and break you leave when transferring in any step the clearer your finished beer will be. In addition...more trub and break in your fermenter mean less final volume of beer.

I personally prefer a few extra beers versus being lazy and just dumping it all in.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't consider myself lazy, and I don't have cloudy beer. But until I got my new system where the pump clogs if I have hops debris in the wort, I just dumped all of the wort into the fermenter.

Here's a picture of one of my IPAs using that method:


In short, once the cold break and hot break precipitate out, they don't go "back in" your wort. It stays out, and then falls to the bottom with the yeast cake as part of the trub. You won't have clearer beer if you strain, or not. You'll have less stuff in the fermenter, sure. But it compacts to the bottom, and becomes pretty negligible.

I don't see how decanting the brewpot instead of the fermenter makes for more beer. The trub will hold the same amount of water. If anything, as Yoop points out, it is probably more compacted after a month in the primary.