What is this?

[KWright_VT]

Can someone tell me what I am seeing in this picture? As my wort cooled down to 70, it was like it was separating, and formed a cloud like accumulation of this lighter, fluffy looking stuff ( I know, great technical terms here). When I put my ice bag (sanitized) into the wort and stirred, the fluffy stuff dispersed throughout the wort again, that's when I took this pic. When my hydrometer sample settled, it separated again and the cloudy dropped. The only term I can think of to describe it is coagulation.

Since this was my first AG, and I used irish moss, I'm guessing that's what made it look different from my extract batch. I'm just trying to learn as much about what is going on. All my numbers were almost dead on.

Thanks for all the help, advice and knowledge!

 

[Psych]

This is your cold break I'd presume. Irish moss greatly enhances this, makes for a pretty cool sight sometimes. Very normal and common for all grain batches. And safe to dump into the fermenter if you so choose.

 

[hunter_le five]

Hot break/cold break. Coagulated proteins and such. It's normal, and will settle out in the trub.

 

[KWright_VT]

Great, I wasn't too worried as I thought I knew what it was, I just wanted to make sure. It was definitely a cool looking thing going on in the kettle. When it was in the hydrometer tube, I just didn't know which way to taste the wort, all mixed up, or just the clear stuff from the top.

Thanks again for the help!

 

[normonster]

IMO you should try to get as little as possible into your fermenter. Same with the layer of stuff that comes up when you first start to boil (hot break). That stuff messes with fermentation and tastes horrible and can contribute some serious off flavors. I know this to be true for sure.

Scoop the hot break out and when cooling create a whirlpool by swirling the wort then use a siphon or something to leave it behind. If you don't believe me just take some out and taste it...or better yet Google it and learn more.

Cheers!

 

[hunter_le five]

IMO you should try to get as little as possible into your fermenter. Same with the layer of stuff that comes up when you first start to boil (hot break). That stuff messes with fermentation and tastes horrible and can contribute some serious off flavors. I know this to be true for sure.

Not trying to be contradictory, but... this is the exact opposite of my experience. I've tried it both ways (removing trub/hot break vs throwing it all in the fermenter) and not noticed a difference.

These days I generally let the trub/break material settle on the bottom and siphon off the top of it, but I'm not real anal about it if some happens to get into the fermenter. I don't even bother scooping off hot break as it forms.

 

[Psylocide]

Not trying to be contradictory, but... this is the exact opposite of my experience. I've tried it both ways (removing trub/hot break vs throwing it all in the fermenter) and not noticed a difference.

These days I generally let the trub/break material settle on the bottom and siphon off the top of it, but I'm not real anal about it if some happens to get into the fermenter. I don't even bother scooping off hot break as it forms.

Didn't Brulosopher do an exBeeriment on this and it pretty much confirmed what you're saying?

I swear I saw that somewhere but don't have time to dig for it now.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[hunter_le five]

Didn't Brulosopher do an exBeeriment on this and it pretty much confirmed what you're saying?

I swear I saw that somewhere but don't have time to dig for it now.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Pretty sure he did. I think he actually was able to detect "differences", but the differences were not bad. In fact I believe the Trub beer came out clearer?

I'd google it, but I'm feeling especially lazy right now.

While I say I detected no difference, it's not like I was doing a side-by-side comparison or anything, just comparing one batch to my memory of the previous one. But I never picked up any off flavors as a result, which was my main point.

 

[speeddemon190]

Didn't Brulosopher do an exBeeriment on this and it pretty much confirmed what you're saying?

I swear I saw that somewhere but don't have time to dig for it now.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yea i read that post. Not digging for it either but I remember reading it. Some interesting stuff in that post.

 

[KWright_VT]

These days I generally let the trub/break material settle on the bottom and siphon off the top of it

Hunter, do you rack to secondary or leave in the primary and just leave the trub/break material on the bottom when you rack to the bottling bucket/keg?

Since mine is already in the fermenter, I'm just along for the ride this time. It's in the bucket I use for a primary fermenter. I was planning to just leave it in there for a few weeks instead of racking to secondary. Wish I had a second carboy so I could watch what it's doing. My carboy will be available next week since I'll be bottling that beer this weekend, so I could rack it after fermentation if it would help.

 

[hunter_le five]

Hunter, do you rack to secondary or leave in the primary and just leave the trub/break material on the bottom when you rack to the bottling bucket/keg?

I just leave it in the primary until the beer has visibly cleared (I speed this process along with cold crashing and gelatin after I've reached FG), and then rack to keg. I haven't used a "secondary" in years.

 

[Qhrumphf]

It's one of those "a little trub is good, a lot is bad" kind of things, if I recall correctly, and the line isn't really understood. One of those things that's a bigger deal on the commercial scale than the homebrew scale. But I, like many others, have just dumped it all in countless times without issue and without noticing a difference. I've also strained, and often do so when I expect large amounts of kettle debris (namely hop matter when doing hoppy beers). I admittedly haven't tried side by side to directly compare.

 

[normonster]

Well I'm no expert but that is what my experience taught me. I stared with a Blonde, leaving it all in and it was great. Moved on to Pale and started getting weird flavors. Got to IPA and it got pretty bad. Searched around, found info on removing cold/hot break, did brew-overs of the
same recipes and removed as much break as possible and it was the cure.

Have you guys ever scooped some out and tasted it? It is horrid. To each his own but I'm a hot break scooper and a whirlpooler to the bone now (and I have some darn good IPA on tap).

Cheers.

 

[Psylocide]

Here we are...

http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/

 

[hunter_le five]

Perhaps it affects hoppy beers more? I tend to brew more mildly hopped styles, so that could be part of the difference there.

 

[normonster]

Interesting blog. Im going with Palmer and my tongue....lol