Too Much Hot Break ?

[CoolshipMike]

I've brewed a handful of All Grain batches and after the last batch I thought I had it all figured out. Instead of the usual 10-12 pounds of grain I decided to test the limits of my equipment by mashing 20 pounds for a barley wine. I pulled out a small wort sample and it measured 1090 with a hygrometer at room temperature.

I put the wort into my brew kettle and got it to a nice hot boil before adding the hop pellets. Around the I added the hops a *TON* of egg drop soup looking stuff appeared like the size of golf balls all throughout the wort. I've never seen this before but this time I'm using a hop bag so the plant material didn't mix into the wort. Is this the hot break? Is this much material normal?

I started with about 7 gallons and boiled down to 5. After cooling the wort the material fell to the bottom. I was only able to rack about 4 gallons off of all the junk , none of which appeared to be hops.

 

[iskuse]

I'm confused, did you boil 20 lbs of grain and the hops together? Did you use whole hops or pellets?

 

[CoolshipMike]

I'm confused, did you boil 20 lbs of grain and the hops together? Did you use whole hops or pellets?

Edited for clarity. Pellets.

 

[iskuse]

I have always used pellets, and they do produce a lot foam. I just throw mine in the boil and strain them after. I have never seen "golf ball " sized egg dop soup looking stuff. Did you happen to take a picture?

 

[CoolshipMike]

I have always used pellets, and they do produce a lot foam. I just throw mine in the boil and strain them after. I have never seen "golf ball " sized egg dop soup looking stuff. Did you happen to take a picture?

I've attached a couple pictures of me pulling some out with a ladle. Wish I had gotten some better pictures of the wort overall.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

looks nice!!

 

[CoolshipMike]

looks nice!!

So it's safe to assume that a bunch of that stuff moving around in the boil is fine? Wonder how come it hasn't happened to me before. Maybe it did but I just didn't notice because of the hops.

 

[bribo179]

Looks like hot break to me ... Just a lot of it

 

[iskuse]

I've never seen that before. But then again, I have never bagged my hops. I just get a lot of thick foam and potential boil-overs. After the hot break though, the foam pretty much disappears. (It may be possible I have never reached a "hot Break") I get a nice rolling boil at about 215 to 220 degrees F.

 

[CoolshipMike]

Looks like hot break to me ... Just a lot of it

Thats just one piece. There were many pieces of that size and even bigger. Any idea what could cause this much hot break?

 

[ajf]

Any idea what could cause this much hot break?

20 lbs protein laden malt.

-a.

 

[bribo179]

20 lbs protein laden malt.

-a.

+1. If your protein is high in the grains the you can have a lot. My break material varies by base malt and manufacturer.

 

[emdiar]

Isn't that how dumplings are made?

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

So it's safe to assume that a bunch of that stuff moving around in the boil is fine? Wonder how come it hasn't happened to me before. Maybe it did but I just didn't notice because of the hops.

yeah, it's just break material. happens every time, you're probably noticing it more since there's no plant matter floating around with it. wait til you chill the wort, that $h!t'll look all sorts of weird when it clumps up after the cold break. i've seen it look like a clump of hamburger meat. :rockin::rockin: my last brew, it was stringy like old cobwebs before i racked to the fermenter.