Technically the stuff you see during the boil is hot break. I should've taken a picture Sunday when I was cooling my wort. I got some nice cold break, looked quite disgusting actually haha. Almost like an alien brain floating in the middle of my wort. I called my wife over and made her look. It only happens when I let it sit and cool in the sink undisturbed for hours though.
Mosaic citra and about 30% of the bill being sabro. I’d add the fruit as primary fermentation starts to slow and wait to dryhop until the fruit has completely fermented out.
The foam that forms on top of the wort at the beginning of your boil? That's hot break and should be nice & fluffy if your ph is where you want it
Excess protein, they would end up being hot break during boil. Hot break looks like egg drop soup.
Yes. When the wort is first coming to a boil both floating and suspended hot break occurs. I skim the floating hot break until the boil starts. The hot break is denatured proteins and the like and does not dissolve back into the wort when cooled. Cold break is material that is only soluble in hot wort. Chilling hot wort quickly is suppose to make a difference at least in how quickly it clumps and settles out. If you whirlpool your cooled wort and let it settle, you will have a cone in the middle of the kettle containing both hot and cold break, and hops. BTW I got rid of the plate chiller and hop basket. I find adding the hops directly into boil much simpler and the Kegco CFC is impervious to hops unlike the Therminator nightmare.
10-15 minutes sounds great. Give it a chance to form and settle.
I’ve read somewhere that as long as you get a good hot break then it’s not necessary but it’s such a quick thing to do, I don’t see a reason not to skim it off. I have a large sifter I use and I can practically skim it all off in 3 passes around the kettle
Clear wort from the mash tun is very important. Vorlauf/recirculate your wort through the grain bed until its coming out clear. Boiling grain parts will add harsh bitterness to your beer.
It’s inevitable that a small portion of grain debris will make it into your boil kettle, even when creating a dense grain bed. This little bit of debris will not cause any noticeable bitterness, especially if your ph is in the proper range. The bigger risk of extracting tannins will occur during the sparge if you’re sparge ph is off
You either skim it off or clean it off the kettle sides later. Besides it goes to my OCD.
i appreciate your insight and advice
There are some concepts that are agreed upon as best practice(limiting O2 as much as possible), but a lot of people do things a bit differently yet still find success so good luck trying to find one agreed upon process. I hard crash in my keezer under pressure when I want to drop the yeast before dry hop, but I've also dry hopped at the end of fermentation and spunded without crashing and made good beer. In the past I've raised the temp back up before dry hopping for a couple days but I'm starting to play around with dry hopping cooler and shorter especially for my beers with huge dry hops. I've read and heard on podcasts several times recently brewers suggesting doing that to get the desirable oils and leave the harsher undesirable stuff behind. I've been noticing alot of the commercial hazy IPAs I drink lately are a bit harsh and astringent.
According to Charles Bamforth at UC Davis a vigorous boil.
Those are best practices with your current set up.
Alvarado Street said in a podcast they dry hop for pretty short periods with their huge dry hops because they were pulling out harshness going too long, although I don't recall them specifying a temp. It may have to do with dry hop amount. Maybe it makes sense in a smaller dry hop to go warmer/longer to get all the oils but the beers with massive dry hops do better shorter so you don't pull too much of the harsher stuff like polyphenols. I'm starting to experiment with doing identical batches but change up the dry hop time/temp to see what happens. I'm sure it also depends on what type of hop is being used.
I don't think you necessarily need to hard crash to drop the yeast although it doesn't hurt. I do it because I ferment in kegs and I like to put them under pressure when I'm crashing and it's just easiest to throw them in my keezer when there's space. But I do think some yeasts like colder temps to make them flocc than others.
My mash ph is usually around 5.3-5.4. I find it doesn't drop much during the boil for me so I have started playing around with adding more acid during the boil to get the KO ph a little lower. I'm still playing around with that though, haven't really decided what I like or works best yet.
That's the one. Not a ton of actionable info regarding his process in the podcast except for the nugget about his crashing/dry hop temp and that he also uses really soft water.
If you want one that has a ton of meat in terms of process information listen to the Triple Crossing podcast on that same network. They're one of the most popular hazy IPA makers in Richmond, VA which is has become one of the hottest beer destinations
I usually put a mesh bag folded a couple of times clamped onto the end of my transfer hose when draining after mash and sparge...i typically vorlauf like a gallon of wort just to make sure grain bed is set but even after that exact you would be surprised what you can trap by doing this and prevent even less particulate from getting into your kettle...and not only ph but also proper temp plays and important role when sparging...try not to go over 170 sparge temp...any higher and there is a risk of tannin extraction from the grain
Never used ella so that's out for me and Vic secret seems to always give me a muddled strawberry thing so I would also toss that and then either rock the remaining three with Sabro or pick two and go for it...although I have had a beer from Grimm that was only sabro and mosaic and it was killer...with citra mosaic and galaxy at your disposal plus Sabro I don't think you can go wrong with whatever combo you choose...cheers
