Racking off cold break?

[petrostar]

So I have brewed about 7 All grain batches of beer so far with AMAZING results. I am using a square cooler mash tun with cpvc manifold. I am getting roughly 75% - 80% effiency which I am very happy with. I have a question about racking the beer right after I use my Immersion chiller.

I am just now reading that I should not be draining the entire wort into my carboys after cooled and that I should maybe be racking it? My beer has had NO off flavors and I have reached all of my OG and FG levels perfectly, sometimes exceeding them.

My question is basically do you guys rack your beer after your cold break? I just elevate my brew pot, open my valve and pour it through two stainless mesh strainers into a 5 gallon pot. I get amazing aeration this way because I then dump it into my Glass 6.5 and plastic 6.5 the same way. I do notice that I get a large area of cold break and hop residue material in the bottom of my primary though. It eventually starts going crazy inside the beer once fermentation begins and then drops out.

Thanks for your advice to this noob All-Grain brewer. My questions only arise because I just got my 6.5 glass carboy 3 batches ago and can now see whats going on during my fermentation. One last thing, My beer has been Very clear with no off flavors at all, at least that I can detect.

Peter

 

[brettwasbtd]

To my knowledge, it doesn't matter on ales. You would only want to minimize cold break material on lagers, even then I am not sure if it makes a huge difference.

 

[petrostar]

I've done a stout, mostly pale ales and now a stone ruination clone which is my first 10 gal batch. So, you don't rack off the cold break?

 

[brettwasbtd]

Yes and no. I rack off my wort into my carboy. I have 6 gallons in the pot and rack off 5.5 gallons. I take a good portion of the break with my ales. I leave that last half gallon mainly to leave the trub/hop residue. Sometimes however, I will just pour it all into the fermenter I haven't noticed much of a difference. You are about to do 10 gallons? If so you can let the cold break drop, rack clear wort into one carboy and pour the wort with cold break into another and then see for yourself if there is a difference? I really dont think there is much of a difference., maybe it will take longer to clear in the beer with more cold break? This is just my experience YMMV

 

[TheSeether]

I brew in buckets. The past couple of brews I lined the bucket with a paint strainer bag, dumped in the wort and then lifted the bag out. My motivation for doing this was an IPA that lost about a gallon of beer to loose trub (mostly hops). I can't say that it results in clearer beer but it definitely results in more beer because all that is left after fermentation and conditioning is a solid yeast cake.

 

[permo]

I strain mine through a steel mesh strainer on its way to the fermenter. This introduces oxygen and removes hop particles, if any break matter gets into the fermenter I don't sweat at all. IMO, it is just important that you got the break to take place, to seperate it from the wort, during fermentation it isn't going to be magically absorbed back into your beer. If anything it is good for the yeast.

I really enjoy using whole cone hops. So very easy to remove.