Help! Too Much "break" In Fermenter.

[matti]

As the title suggests.
I had trouble to decant/ separate the "break" from my cube as I entered it to my fermenter.
The ideas was to poor off the top and leave majority of the break behind
but that never eventuated.

I pitched my rehydrated lager yeast at about 230 pm this afternoon keeping my fingers crossed.
Before I left to work 430pm (nightshift) the break had settled in the fermenter.

It is a lot! I am talking about 3 cms.
The break is over the tap.

This will not be a very good thing for the bottom fermenting yeast and the flavour of the beer.

QUESTIONS.
1.Is it feasable to decant the beer off the break to another fermenter?
2. Will have to pitch more yeast and re-aerate it?
3.If I proceed with this plan can I save the beer if I leave it for 12 hour or so?

Ps don't as why there was so much break in the cube.

 

[lobo]

this might be a silly question, but

does it really have much of an impact on the final beer? i have wanted to seperate it but it always goes all in.

Lobo

 

[matt white]

It'll be half as deep in the morning! Should settle out well...dont stress about it.

 

[matti]

Well Lobo.
It is a lager.
My aim is to avoid any astringency that may come with the break.

I little break is good and will give yeast some nutrients.
Too much break will suffocate the cells that drop out in to the break and it may suffocate them.
They will survive but adjust/mutate.

I am talking of 3 liters plus.

Gilbrew.
I re evaluate my plan of attack in the morning.

Either way it turn out as beer. I just have to call it "Break" Lager

 

[matti]

Home from work and checked how much the break has settled.
Slow action in air lock after 17 hour of pitching, temperature 10 degrees.
The break is sitting just on tap level.
I've decided to just leave it but will give this a good diacetyl rest and rack extremely careful in approx. 7 days.

Was hoping to have 19 L in keg and 7-8 longnecks but it appear I will loose around 3 litres due the dense trub.
I just hope the yeast is extremely healthy and doesn't impart too many off flavours.
John Palmer reckon that it will not do so in the 1 week but other lager brewer reckon it will.

I just have to fine this one keep my fingers crossed.
time for some ZZZZZZZZ

 

[kabooby]

I normally chuck all the wort from the cube into the fermenter, break and all. Providing the yeast is healthy there shouldn't be a problem.

I have a dortmunder in the fermenter atm, full cube break and all, 3l starter, SG 1050, 7 days later it is 1012. Pitched at 8C and let warm up to 10C overnight. Has been sitting at 10C for the 7 days.

I think the only issue form excess break may come from clarity of the beer at the end of fermentation. A long lagering period should fix this

Kabooby

 

[MHB]

Matti
What sort of break is it; if its cold break I wouldnt be in the least concerned. Hot break on the other hand yes you would want to leave that in the kettle.

Cold break is something of a bugbear with North American brewers using high protein 6 row malt, the rest of the world just treats it as a yeast nutrient and ignores it (well mostly).
If you follow good brewing practice and keep the hot break in the kettle, and arent using lots of adjunct that isnt really up to speed in terms of its protein content no problem.

MHB

 

[floppinab]

I've been having similar problems matti to various degrees recently with the worst one being something I posted about a while back where the break was so thick it created a layer half way up the fermenter so that the top half of the fermenter feremented out but the wort in the bottom half wasn't touched. A decent stir and all was well and those who tried it in the NSW Swap thought it was a reasonable beer.
From what I've experienced so far you will have a slower ferment I believe simply due to the yeast being a bit swamped by the break and taking longer to swallow up the sugars. Particularly for a lager you might need a bit of agitation along the way for the next few weeks to keep a reasonable amount of yeast in suspension and stop it being dragged to the bottom by that break.
Keep that in mind and you should be OK.

 

[warra48]

If you feel you have too much material settling in the bottom of your fermenter, and blocking your tap, then use a wedge to lean the fermenter back from the vertical by about 20 away from the tap.
The solids will settle out, but will not block the tap.
It's my usual practice, and makes bottling a much easier exercise.

 

[brendanos]

From the ANHC blog, re: Foster's brewing the ANHC beer - Keeping hot break out of the fermenter is a very high priority, as they believe it changes the yeast's metabolic processes to the extent that flavour is jeopardised.

If you were brewing an ale I'd be less worried, but a lager yeast has to relax in all that goop! I'd be inclined to rack it into another fermenter, though you might have to leave some yeast behind with the trub and require another sachet. IMHO.

 

[matti]

ok.
thanks a million for all the advice.

Warra, I wedged it up and the tap is clear.
I will have to run the tap up free from gunk b4 I rack.


I suspect There is a bit of hot break in this at it may have come with some of the hop debris, but she is fireing on all cylinders.
Ps plenty of Zink, magnesium + oxygen was added for a healty yeast growth.

If all goes well the gunk will have impaired minimum off flavour(s).
matti