Large amounts of hot and cold break

[Climb]

Hello – I did a brew that consisted of 79% Belgian Pilsner malt, which I had never used before. I had massive hot and cold break like I had never experienced. The hot break coagulated into floating nodules where the largest ones were about the size of my thumb. The cold break presented in a white colored foam that came to the top of the BK. I do recirculate the wort while chilling with an IC. My process and equipment have not changed. I scooped out both the hot and cold break. I typically get very little hot and cold break material when using American pale or two row malt. Could this massive break material be attributed to the Belgian Pilsner malt? If not what else might have caused it?

 

[hotbeer]

Large amount of hot break might be a good sign. Some say you'll have a stronger more stable head on your beer. Did you boil harder than the prior stuff you made?

And I also seem to get a better cold break too when I boil harder. Though I don't know whether your use of the term "massive" means you got a good separation of material when chilling or only had a little bit of clear wort with a lot of fluffy looking break material.

 

[Climb]

No, I didn't boil any harder than usual.

After I scooped out the cold break foam that was on top of the wort, I had a good separation of clean wort and other material that collected at the bottom of the BK.

 

[hottpeper13]

I get the same thing with Maris Otter. Excessive amounts of calcium will effect break as well.

 

[hotbeer]

I'm confused. Typically I think of cold break as being the material that falls to the bottom after chilling.

What were you scooping out? Stuff floating on top from fruit or other additions during the boil or very late hop additions that didn't go to the bottom?

If I don't get a good cold break and it's mostly fluffy material, then I'll strain my wort somewhat to try and capture some solid material, but otherwise it all goes in the fermenter to become trub on the bottom.

When I get a good cold break and it all goes to the bottom of the kettle, then I'll just use the clean wort if there is sufficient quantity.

 

[Climb]

This batch was a Belgian Strong Golden Ale that included 2.5 pounds of sugar for the 11 gallon batch. Maybe the white foamy cold break was caused by the sugar. I still had break material settle to the bottom of the BK. No additives or adjuncts other than the sugar. I use a hop spider for all hops in the BK.

 

[hotbeer]

Maybe the white foamy cold break was caused by the sugar.

Might be a good assumption till someone that knows more gets involved here. If it was regular table sugar, then there are things added to it that help to keep it running free. So maybe just the impurities.

I haven't used table sugar yet for the stuff I've been brewing. So just wildly supposing.

 

[Climb]

I used the same amount of white sugar in a prior batch that used pale Malta’s the base malt and had normal amounts of hot and cold break. That batch didn’t have any of the white foamy cold break.

 

[hotbeer]

I wouldn't use the comparison of two uses as a definitive thing. But if your grains and other ingredients are different than your other brews or your mash procedures and temps different, that might be something to look at as well.

It's not inherently a bad thing to have stuff floating on top your wort. Just like it's not a bad thing to have some on the bottom, nor even when it's in the wort you put in the fermenter as it will just become trub.