Hot Break & Cold Break particles

[BlackDog-Brewery]

In order to help achieve really clear beers (for non-wheat beers), here is a short video about how I've been able to maximize Hot Break materials and Cold Break materials by:

- Going with a VERY vigorous boil during the first 15 minutes, and then backing down to a normal rolling boil.

- Then by adding a VERY quick cold break by supplementing my wort chiller with a restaurant product that is designed to rapidly cool soups and gravies, but works great for quickly chilling down wort.

https://youtu.be/WB9Up4lcRkI

Cheers

 

[cannman]

Thanks for sharing.

I'm not familiar with your mashing process but here are a few suggestions. Was Whirlflock used in the kettle?

1) Consider recirculating the mash. A lot of the finer materials will form a filter bed for the bigger particles
2) Whirlpool and add some volume to your recipe so that you can afford to leave the hot break chuck at the bottom of the kettle.
3) Consider using rice hulls and the Blichmann Hop Rocket. This acts like a hot-side filter at transfer.
4) Condition, Cold crash and rack off the trub
5) Use a filtration system after fermentation is over (But you'll still need to rack off the trub).

I know some of these are like "well duh!" but at least the information is there for someone to use in the future. Otherwise, its not going to hurt anything...

Do you get clear beer at bottle/serve?

 

[BlackDog-Brewery]

I'm not familiar with your mashing process but here are a few suggestions.?

Thanks for your detailed reply Cannman!

Here are the answers to your questions . . .

1) Consider recirculating the mash. A lot of the finer materials will form a filter bed for the bigger particles.

Yes, I recirc during the mash via my HERMS brew stand. When I stir the mash every 15 minutes to ensure there is no channeling, I use the tip of the spoon to make a sounding to feel for the false bottom, but never scrape against it. This leaves the "filter" that you described.

2) Whirlpool and add some volume to your recipe so that you can afford to leave the hot break chuck at the bottom of the kettle.

My collection tube at the bottom of the BK is currently designed to leave 0.5 gallons of crap at the bottom of the BK. But your great question is why I decided to post on the 17 forum because I wasn't sure whether to raise the collection tube even further (at the expense of losing efficiency)

3) Consider using rice hulls and the Blichmann Hop Rocket. This acts like a hot-side filter at transfer.

Although I brew approx 3 times per month, after my false bottom collapsed twice in 1 year I knew I had to make some changes. 1st change is that I never recirc with the ball valve on the pump open more than 1/4 of the way. The 2nd change is that I now include 1 pound of rice hulls on ALL of my brews. Not just something like Pumpkin ales that include that really thick pumpkin pie filling.

4) Condition, Cold crash and rack off the trub.

I cold crash all of my beers @ 35 degrees. But I also use gelatin as a fining agent on the beers that have a low SRM that people are expecting to see through. Stouts, Porters, and Dark IPA's simply get cold crashed without a fining agent.

5) Use a filtration system after fermentation is over (But you'll still need to rack off the trub).

I rubber band an 8" piece of Tubular Gauze to the end of my racking cane's vinyl tubing. This traps all of the particulates (as well as other less than desirable materials that may have gotten past me) from getting into the bottling bucket.

6) Was Whirlflock used in the kettle?

Yes. Although I have switched to a hop sock full time, I found that throwing the Whirlflock tablet directly into the BK ensures that it's benefits will not be lost in the hop sock.

Cheers !