oh no end of the world how will i live

[ACo]

Well to start of, i have to say i used some suspect LME that I had bagged up and left in a dark cool room for 6 weeks which i was not too happy about, but whatever. When I was making my brew i tasted the malt and it seemed fine, and i thought the heat from the boil would pretty much kill anything else in the malt that could have grown. Anyway, I was about to pitch my yeasties this morning (couldn't get the temp down enough till the next morning) and noticed a good amount of yellow flecks along the surface of the carboy, floating on the wort, and suspended in the middle of the wort. Any thoughts?





I pitched the yeast anyways, and tried a sample which tasted just fine at this point, smelled fine, etc....


OG 1.068 which i thought was low for my IIPA about 9# LME, 1.75# brown sugar.

 

[bernerbrau]

Pitch and RDWHAHB. It will be beer.

 

[undallas]

I think those are proteins.... it is ok... no big deal.. they will settle to the bottom after your primary fermentation.

 

[ACo]

oh, i'm relaxed, just curious....im well past my first time brew jitters....

 

[DRoyLenz]

If I had to guess (and let's face it, that's all I ever do any more) the floating specks are the proteins from the 'hot break' phase of your boil. Since you cooled so slowly, you may have not achieved the 'cold break' so those coagulated proteins will remain until they settle out to the bottom.

 

[ACo]

verrrryyy interesting....I guess ive never had that problem.

I typically use my wort chiller, however, i am brewing not at my home and the faucet didnt allow for the attachment of the chiller. ice baths can only bring it down so much.


I guess my second question is what is the end effect of not having a cold break?

 

[DRoyLenz]

From what I understand, the biggest effect you are going to encounter is cloudiness, or haziness, in your beer when it is chilled. When you chill the beer, it is going to kind of replicate the 'cold break' and bring the proteins out of suspension, creating a haziness to the beer. If you were to warm the beer back up, the proteins would resuspend, and the beer would clear up, until you chilled it again. I think the advantage to getting the cold break right after the boil is you thermally "shock" the proteins out of suspension permanently.

When you get down to it though, the haziness is only an aesthetic thing. From what I understand, it does not change the flavor profile at all.

 

[ACo]

When you get down to it though, the haziness is only an aesthetic thing. From what I understand, it does not change the flavor profile at all.

Ah, you speak the truth, sir. I've noticed that in a few of my earlier brews without the wort chiller. I guess it's been a while since i've had to worry about that. I love my chiller, gets it down to pitch temps in 15-20 minutes...

oh well, if it still tastes like beer that's all i'm concerned about.