Cold Break

I have an immersion wort chiller and had a quick question. Once the wort is cooled in the kettle and I transfer to the primary, there is a bunch of stuff at the bottom of my kettle. Is that the cold break that I should leave in the kettle or should I just pour it all in to the primary? I just feel weird about leaving potential beer in the kettle!

yes that is cold break. some people will tell you it doesnt matter some will tell you it does.

personally i whirlpool my kettle for a few minutes with a sanitized spoon..then let it rest for about 20 minutes while i clean up and get my fermenter ready. then i siphon my wort into the fermenter from the side as all the cold break and hop mess will be sitting in a pile in the middle (well more or less)..you don't loose very much wort at all. don't worry if you get a bit in there..but with a little practice its pretty easy.

I'm one that just dumps it all in the primary. After a few weeks everything falls to the bottom and compacts at which point I rack to secondary or bottle.

I'm with Nurmey - I just filter it through a strainer as I'm pouring into the carboy. The faster I can go from boiling to fermenting the better. I can get a 5g batch from 212 to 75 in 20 minutes now and don't want to waste time worrying about stuff that "I don't think" matters.

HOWEVER - as noted some say it does so as with many things brewing - dealers choice.

I don't whirl pool or dump it all in. I just siphon from a corner of the pot and try not to get much in the carboy. Its not going to hurt anything if you get some in the fermenter (in fact I think it has yeast nutrients but could be wrong) but it makes for less trub at the end.

You'll either leave wort in the kettle along with the break or beer in the fermenter along with the trub. Your call; it's still loss.

I whirlpool with an immersion-coil chiller. While it's not necessarily bad for cold break to enter the fermenter - otherwise all those guys with counterflow chillers would be really, really pissed off - I prefer to have as little solid matter as possible in the fermenter.

Cheers,

Bob