Break into the fermentor

[i4ourgot]

What are the negative effects of dumping your break from the wort into your fermentor? Or is it a good thing to dump all that stuff in.

 

[hophop]

What are the negative effects of dumping your break from the wort into your fermentor? Or is it a good thing to dump all that stuff in.

You are going to get a lot of arguments for both ways. I like to keep the trub out because I like to wash my yeast sometimes. There is a lot less stuff to filter out then.

 

[BansheeRider]

I get very clear beer and almost no chill haze, and I dump everything but the hops into my fermenter. If you ferment on the low end (low 60's) the break material will drop in the fermenter regardless.

 

[ajf]

I have heard that the hot break can cause off flavors, but the cold break helps the yeast to ferment. I do not know if this is true or not.
I have a false bottom in my kettle, and use whole hops and a CFC to cool the wort.
The false bottom in the kettle with a layer of hops on it, filters out most of the hot break, but the CFC causes all of the cold break to be transferred to the fermenter.
I have not noticed any problems with this setup, and find that the beers that I generally brew (English Pale Ales) taste much better than most of the commercial varieties available in England.

-a.

 

[i4ourgot]

Cool thanks, but doesn't the hot break become cold break when i am chilling my wort?

 

[Cider123]

It's all going to become trub and after 2-3 weeks in the fermenter it will form a nice compact cake on the bottom. I dump everything from the brew kettle into the fermenter after cooling the wort (minus the hops). No worries. Saves a lot of time when you don't have to whirlpool and siphon.

I also harvest my yeast. Yes, there is usually more trub than I want so I dump half of it, then wash what is left. I still get a decent amount of yeast to save.

 

[ajf]

Cool thanks, but doesn't the hot break become cold break when i am chilling my wort?

No. Hot break is produced at the start of the boil. Cold break is produced whilst chilling.
Cooling hot break material doesn't make it cold break.

-a.

 

[kiblerjd]

I asked a very similar question on a thread I started a few weeks ago and it morphed into a conversation about the v-vessel. What I took from that was nobody seems to be screaming that the cold break is bad. That is consistent with what you will read in books too. Get rid of the hot break and do whatever you want with the cold break.

I'm actually going to dump my cold break when I brew this Friday and see what happens. My guess is i'm not going to notice any difference in the beer but harvesting yeast is going to be a little easier. I may not even wash it depending on what it looks like.

 

[i4ourgot]

So how are you getting rid of the hot break, just through the boiling process or do you remove it by skimming the foam off the top?

 

[shadows69]

I never worry about the hot or cold break. I have a screen that filters out most of the stuff when going into the primary. No off flavors that I ever noticed. Guess I never really worrying about either the hot or cold break, I just assume I was on the right track when I see it.

 

[chickens4life]

I prefer to exclude break material from the fermenter. I re use yeast, and it is my understanding that yeast is more stable at the bottom a fermenter without break material mixed in (yeast will "eat" break material using up glycogen reserves and generating heat). I don't have enough data on that yet to make a claim one way or the other. it is however easier for me to get good clean yeast ready to go again if there is no other trub mixed in. I also find that I get a more dense (easy to siphon off of) yeast cake a little quicker without trub.

That said, I dumped everything from my kettle through a colander into my fermenter for the first 3 years that i brewed, and I still made beer!

 

[kiblerjd]

I get rid of the hot break by whirl pooling the hot wort in my kettle and let it settle. 95% of it settles in the middle so when I drain the kettle it all stays there (my kettle has a valve on the bottom). I pump the wort through a counter flow chiller so 100% of the cold break goes into the fermenter

 

[BridgewaterBrewer]

Basic brewing radio had a bunch of brewers do an experiment in which everyone brewed 2 batches, one with cold break in fermenter and one without. Results were all over the place but at least half said the beer tasted better if they left it in. I whirlpool and dump about half in unless I plan to reuse the yeast .