Too much Hot/Cold/Break/Trub in my BK

[hlumbard]

I've had the same problem every batch of AG I've made. Here's my set-up and process, maybe I'm missing something.

30qt Turkey fryer.
Fill almost to the top pre boil
Add irish moss @ 15min.
Immersion chiller
Whirlpool with a spoon and let sit for 20 min.

When I go to rack to fermenter the bottom 6" or so is super cloudy so I hold the siphon above the mess and get crystal clear wort. The problem is there's SO much protein break in there I have to take quite a bit of it into the fermenter to get to 5 gallons. That kinda defeats the purpose of the irish moss right?

Should I just forget about whirlpooling and pour the whole thing into the fermentor?

 

[rockfish42]

The irish moss is to help the stuff clump up and fall out of suspension in the fermenter. Just drain as much as you need to drain to hit your volume.

 

[spareparts]

The trub won't hurt anything. My own personal distaste for it comes from the fact that it takes up beer volume in my fermentor.

Are you doing all grain? If I don't vorlauf enough on my mash system my beer comes otu cloudier and with more break.

Some say it doesn't make a difference but IMO if you skim the foam when your wort begins to boil it helps. The foam is proteins coagulating so it makes sense that if you remove them then there will be less break.

 

[hlumbard]

I was completely turned around about the irish moss. I thought it helped with cold break in the BK. Thanks for the info. The whirlpool is to leave as much of that cold break behind though right? Is there any harm in just putting it all into the fermentor and skipping the whirlpool?

 

[spareparts]

Won't hurt anything. Just takes up space that could be occupied by wort.

 

[samc]

The cold break contains things that the yeast can feed on. Many people have reported better fermentations from leaving the break material. My advice is to use a larger fermenter and leave it in.

 

[shortyjacobs]

My whirlpools NEVER give a nice trub cone in the center. I've stopped caring. I don't care what goes into my fermenters....and it turns out fine.

 

[Got Trub?]

My approach is to have 6g at the end of the boil and then rack 5.5g into a 6g fermentor. This way I leave most, but not all, of the break material behind with little effort and then when I rack to my keg or bottle I have 5g of crystal clear beer leaving 0.5g of beer/break and yeast material behind in the fermentor. For lagers I am more particular about any break material transferring over. For those I chill with my immersion chiller to about 65F and then place my kettle into my fermentation fridge and chill to my pitching temperature of 44F. This takes all night. In the morning I rack 5.5g of crystal clear wort from the kettle into my fermentor. The chilling and extra time drops everything to the bottom of the kettle.

GT