Interesting brew day.

[dwhite60]

Not big on heavily hopped IPA's but I had to try one out to help burn off this Centennial that's pushing two years old. They've been in a vacuum bag in the freezer. Brewed this:

Brew in a bag.
5 lbs. Maris Otter
1 lb. White wheat malt
0.5 lb. Light Munich
0.25 lb. Medium crystal

Mash in @ 163F. Mash 75 minutes at 154F to 150F.
Preboil volume 3.5 gallons.

Hops:

Centennial pellets 9.0%AA, 0.33 oz. @ 60, 45, 30, 15 minutes. One ounce at flameout. Bunch of IBU's.

Yeast. US-05 rehydrated.

OG 1.067. 70% eff.

Cooked this up in a five gallon kettle. Very little hot break. Took off boiling and foamed some but didn't even begin to boil over. Very little trub in bottom of kettle. Was really surprised by this especially using a pound of wheat. Had a good strong boil on this too as good as anything else I brew. Lots of hop residue in bottom of kettle though.

Wonder why the low hot and cold break?

All the Best,
D. White

 

[Lefou]

Possibly very little break for two reasons.
One, you'll have a less fermentable wort because of the lower diastatic potential of the grains you chose.
Two, older hops will tend to contribute less alpha acid when added so you may notice less foaming action.

 

[Veets]

Possibly very little break for two reasons.
One, you'll have a less fermentable wort because of the lower diastatic potential of the grains you chose.
Two, older hops will tend to contribute less alpha acid when added so you may notice less foaming action.

Got any authority for those two being related to break? Or just wild guesses?
I've never read anything like that, but am willing to learn.

 

[dwhite60]

I'm with Veets.

Hot break usually occurs before the first hops addition. Only thing I can figure is I happened into some very low protein Maris Otter.

I stayed close by this time keeping an eye on it. Like a supervised kid it may have known better than to act up

All the Best,
D. White

 

[MrHadack]

I had a similar experience with a beer lately. I brewed 4 lagers in the span of two weeks: Czech Pils, Maibock, California Common, and an IPL. Similar ambient conditions on all brews, same process, same equipment used to crush, etc. All four also sourced from the same sack of Pilsner malt (though, I believe I used pale 2 row in the Cali-Common.) Same water source, all used pellet hops in muslin bags.

The Maibock had surprisingly low hot break. Hardly anything left in the bottom of the kettle after draining for cooling. It was so surprising I made note of it. The only thing in common with your recipe is the light munich, but since you only used .5 pounds and I used 1, I can't imagine it would be a factor in this at all. I haven't been able to account for the difference. So far all numbers are exactly as predicted (gravity, ABV, etc.)

 

[Lefou]

Got any authority for those two being related to break? Or just wild guesses?
I've never read anything like that, but am willing to learn.

No, no authority.
Just SWAG on the part of someone who uses first wort hops and different malts and mash methods from time to time. Excuse me while I show myself out of the thread.

 

[kh54s10]

I'm with Veets.

Hot break usually occurs before the first hops addition. Only thing I can figure is I happened into some very low protein Maris Otter.

I stayed close by this time keeping an eye on it. Like a supervised kid it may have known better than to act up

All the Best,
D. White

Did you lower the heat when approaching the boil? I had quite a few extreme boil overs (when distracted by HBT) then started watching and controlling the heat. It still foams up, but less than if I don't watch. What a mess.......

 

[RM-MN]

The last two beers I brewed, I had the wort within half an inch of the rim before the temp got over 180. I watched them very closely, stirring down the foam with a whisk as it approached boilover and managed to keep it all in the kettle. Hot break varies on my beers too, no apparent reason.

 

[balrog]

Never thought to use the whisk. That's interesting idea. I always used spoon and spray bottle, thinking if I break through the foam to the liquid enough it traps less heat as foam continues to generate.

But 1/2" from top is beyond my ability to even comprehend the nervousness I would feel.

Makes my spleen twitch.