Cold break

[Goose]

before anyone tells me to DASFFS please try putting in the words "cold break" into the search engine and tell me what you get.

Anyway I'd like to inquire if anyone sees any issue with cold break inside the fermenter, which is what happens if you use a plate chiller and run straight to the fermenter from the boiler.

I use two plate chillers in series to crash the wort temperature from 100 to 12 deg C so no question my fermentation occurs in the presence of cold break proteins.

My alternative would be to recirc back to the boiler and then pump into the fermenter, but to me that's one more step and extra time.

Mind you my beers are ok so I won't bother unless conventional wisdom suggests that I would see a marked improvement if I kept the cold break out of the fermenter ? Anybody ?

 

[Dan Pratt]

From reading that, the first thing I think of is.....no chill has cold break.

 

[slcmorro]

Lots of people will tell you coldbreak affects beer in various. Lots of people tell you it won't. If you're not getting any ill effects, then don't fix what ain't broke.

I've chilled and no chilled, and I've been careful to transfer off clear wort, and I've also just dumped the whole lot in. I can't tell the difference and I enjoy my beers. I'm one of the latter of the two people I mentioned earlier. Makes stuff all difference IMO.

 

[Yob]

Mind you my beers are ok so I won't bother unless conventional wisdom suggests that I would see a marked improvement if I kept the cold break out of the fermenter ? Anybody ?

Nope

 

[manticle]

I ferment on top of all of mine (no chill, ferment in nc cube) and notice no ill effects. I keep as much of the hot break out as I can.

 

[squirt in the turns]

My alternative would be to recirc back to the boiler and then pump into the fermenter, but to me that's one more step and extra time.

I do this (using a plate chiller), whirlpooling while I chill. Part of my original thinking was that my trub cone would include hot and cold break, but guess what? Cold break doesn't settle - at least not in the 30 mins I tried waiting for it to happen with the wort at 9 degrees. I thought my whirlpool wasn't working. Turns out you get cold break in the fermenter whether you chill in the kettle or not, at least in my experience. I think someone on AHB has filtered from the kettle to the fermenter to remove it, can't cite the post though, sorry. Not that you'd want to bother with that anyway.

I'm not sure what point Pratty1 is making, but no chill might actually be the best way to keep cold break out of the FV. It will settle out in the cube and if you pour carefully most of it will stay there.

 

[JDW81]

Anyway I'd like to inquire if anyone sees any issue with cold break inside the fermenter, which is what happens if you use a plate chiller and run straight to the fermenter from the boiler.

I do the same as Manticle, no chill and ferment in the cube. IMHO I make very good beer and can't say I notice any ill effects from cold break. Hot break stays in the kettle.

JD

 

[Bribie G]

Experiment done a few years ago. Double batch, identical beer no chilled in two cubes.

FV 1 gets the top halves of both cubes with just clear wort
FV 2 gets the bottom halves with all the cold break and a bit of trub.



After fermenting, samples taken to home brew club for blind tasting.



For some tasters, FV 1 is slightly "fresher" and cleaner, FV 2 is perceived as slightly more hoppy and flavourful (possibly some hop components get "bound up" with the break???

Most people couldn't tell the difference.

As you can see the CB just drops out to give a thicker slurry layer, there is a theory that it is a yeast nutrient, maybe marginally. I get the feeling it's just neutral and doesn't contribute to chill haze as Palmer suggests. Two glasses were out of 2°C kegs.

Edit: in defence of Palmer he didn't say that Cold Break itself causes chill haze, rather that wort should be "shocked" into breaking via a plate or coil chiller and that some break components that don't actually break out and remain in the wort during slow chilling were responsible for chill haze compared to the "shocked" worts. There may indeed be something in that, but using kettle finings such as BrewBright flocs out the polyphenols and Chill haze is something I seem to avoid. It's important to use the freshest BrewBright as it can go slack after a few months.

 

[dicko]

Just on Brewbrite, I found to slurry the powder in a 100 mls or so of clean water makes it work much better than just adding it dry as well.

 

[Goose]

All great feedback thanks lads. Particularly interesting (thanks squirt) that the cold break takes time to settle out , unlike the egg white type consistency of the hot break. Hence no point to cool the wort prior to transfer.

Bribie, that is a very nice piece of work and thanks for sharing. I did not realise the extent of the cold break but its plainly obvious from the difference in those trub levels. Its great to see genuine evidence.

 

[lukiferj]

Just on Brewbrite, I found to slurry the powder in a 100 mls or so of clean water makes it work much better than just adding it dry as well.

Nice tip. I thought about that last brew. Will give it a go.

 

[dicko]

Nice tip. I thought about that last brew. Will give it a go.

I tip it into the kettle after slurrying at five minutes before flame out and it is like magic before your eyes....you can see the protein form into lumps and prepare themselves to drop out.
I chill with an immersion chiller and let the cooled wort settle in the kettle prior to draining to the fermenter
There is a pic of the wort from an Aussie Lager chilled to 18 deg being gravity tested...all the crap is left in the kettle and does not go into my fermenter.

Do a comparison with Coppafloc you wont go back

 

[lukiferj]

Have been using Brewbrite for a while after using whirlfloc. Wasn't overly impressed with the results but I reckon this will nail. it. Cheers Dicko.