cold break accounting

[thomasgorff]

Just finished making a belgian tripel figured to be 5.5 gallons after boil. I hit that point and started to cool. After I hit pitching temp, I decided for the first time to siphon out the wort from the kettle (as opposed to just pouring it all in like I normally do). There was a lot of cold break and I ended up leaving behind about a gallon of cold break material. Just wondering if there is a way you can account for this loss or if the whole siphoning experiment is a waste of time. Thanks in advance! :rockin:

 

[TopherM]

I do all of my additions in a stainless steel tea ball like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004X4LGIO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Besides just keeping like 95% of my hop matter out of the cold break, it also helps me make the amount of beer I lose to cold break a more constant variable.

I actually rack EVERYTHING, including the cold break, to primary. Lots of brewers do this, and it doesn't cause any issues at all.

I then consistently lose about 0.4 gallons to trub when I rack to my keg or bottling bucket. I use Beersmith, and just enter this variable into my custom equipment profile, but if you are doing it by hand, then this would just be 0.4 gallons of extra total water volume you'd start off with on brewday.

Hope that helps!

 

[maida7]

I would not worry about having the trub in the fermenter. Unless your fermenters are undersized and you need the space for the beer. This was a problem for me when I used better bottles. They are just a bit undersized.

Just make a larger batch so after you lose some to trub and hops and transfers you have the right amount of finished beer at the end. I make 12 gallon batches so I'm sure to have 10 gallons of clear beer in the kegs at the end.