Is this cold break?

[pharaohpierre]

I finished boiling the wort and did some whirlpooling. About 10 minutes before end of boil, I added Irish moss too. The temperature is now approximately 75 degrees F and there is a coagulated looking mass in the middle of the wort. Is this cold break? I sure hope so, around this mass the liquid looks clear. Any thoughts

 

[Yooper]

Yep! That's definitely cold break. Hot break is very thin, like egg drop soup and the cold break looks like big goobers.

 

[pharaohpierre]

Nice! I never had a cold break that clean before. However, I messed up and put my racking cane in aggressively and made the whole thing break apart and of course, I screwed up my whole cold break/whirlpooling hopes of keeping it clean. Any advice on how to put the racking cane in and avoid sucking up trub and cold break?

 

[j_ettar]

Now that you whirlpool and that you get a nice cold break, you could get a side dip tube and set it up with a ball valve to get the wort w/o the trub & cold break! But sorry, no tip for the racking cane, cause i dont use!

 

[Yooper]

I don't have a way to separate out my cold break, as I have a counterflow chiller, and all of the cold break goes into the fermenter as a result. Even so, it compacts down in the trub, and doesn't resuspend in the wort, so you still will have clear beer whether the cold break is removed or not.

 

[diS]

Good looking cold break.
You could create whirlpool and siphon from edge of kettle.

 

[Queequeg]

I don't have a way to separate out my cold break, as I have a counterflow chiller, and all of the cold break goes into the fermenter as a result. Even so, it compacts down in the trub, and doesn't resuspend in the wort, so you still will have clear beer whether the cold break is removed or not.

Recirc with a pump back to the kettle? Then whilrpool

 

[pharaohpierre]

So I guess my best option is to slowly lower the racking cane at the edge of the kettle where it is clear and clamp it. Then just racking over and hope for the best.

Yooper, what do you mean by it compacts down in the trub and doesn't resuspend in the wort. From the picture, it looks like it is floating in the wort near the top. Could you give a little more knowledge on the subject?

 

[Queequeg]

During the 3-4 weeks of fermentation it sinks to the bottom much more than it does in your photo. When you rack to the piming bucket you will disturb a little but break material compacts quite solidly so not so much ends up in your bottles.

 

[Yooper]

So I guess my best option is to slowly lower the racking cane at the edge of the kettle where it is clear and clamp it. Then just racking over and hope for the best.

Yooper, what do you mean by it compacts down in the trub and doesn't resuspend in the wort. From the picture, it looks like it is floating in the wort near the top. Could you give a little more knowledge on the subject?

Sure. What you have in your kettle is what I get in my wort in the fermenter. I have a CFC, and the last pass is from the boil kettle, through the chiller, into the fermenter- so the cold break makes it into the fermenter. It sure looks like a lot when it's fluffy like that! But it compacts down with the trub into the bottom, and it is practically unnoticeable by the time fermentation ends and the yeast cake is at the bottom. I don't get a ton of trub in the fermenter in the end, even though all of the cold break makes it in there. If I send 5.25 gallons of wort to the fermenter, I still end up with a bit over 5 gallons of beer at the end so I haven't worked at getting the cold break out of the fermenter at all. It compacts down just fine, from those fluffy goobers into part of the trub and it doesn't increase the trub in any noticeable amount in the end.

I hope I'm explaining that better!

 

[CA_Mouse]

I don't have a way to separate out my cold break, as I have a counterflow chiller, and all of the cold break goes into the fermenter as a result. Even so, it compacts down in the trub, and doesn't resuspend in the wort, so you still will have clear beer whether the cold break is removed or not.

+1 to this... I don't bother removing it since it drops and compacts. If I was harvesting yeast, I wouldn't be transferring it, but until I get a conical that won't happen.

 

[ChrisMT]

The first time I saw cold break I got a little concerned, its odd seeing it in the bottom of your BK

 

[pharaohpierre]

The cold break is a clearer to me now, thx. However, what is the point of whirlpooling then. If the cold break is going into the fermenter and then it falls to the bottom, then why waste the time to clear the beer?

 

[j_ettar]

If you chill your wort with an immersion chiller and have a side dip tube, youll let the cold break in the boil kettle after whirpooling.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Yooper]

The cold break is a clearer to me now, thx. However, what is the point of whirlpooling then. If the cold break is going into the fermenter and then it falls to the bottom, then why waste the time to clear the beer?

I have no idea!

I think many people who whirlpool may also be trying to minimize the hops debris and the hot break as well.

The cold break, once out like that, won't resuspend in the beer. The wort is nice and clear, and having the cold break on the bottom won't cloud it again. If the wort is clear going into the fermenter, the beer is clear in the end (except for some non-flocculant yeast strains that can cause a yeast haze).

 

[laughingboysbrew]

Yooper - do you recirc through CFC to sanitize during last few min of boil and/or for whirlpool? I have tried this, last few boils it dropped the temp so much it killed the boil and I wasn't able to recover during my 60/90min window. didn't ruin the batch, just through off hop schedule.

I boil outside (cold MN winters) and need to pump inside to my conical (about 20ft away). i'd like to sanitize the CFC/tubing with boiling wort rather than starsan. It's possible that I'm pumping too much volume through and I should close the value way down to preserve temp.

 

[freisste]

I use a CFC, but I just sanitize with sanitizer.

For your question, just run some wort through the chiller (without the water running). This will cool the first wort through quite a bit because your copper (or steel or whatever) is going to absorb a lot of heat. But don't run it back into the kettle, or, don't recirculate. Run it into a bucket and when you are ready to start actually chilling, dump it into your kettle then.

 

[boscobeans]

Most of my brews are 6 gallon all grain ales. After the boil I cool it down, get a whirlpool going and let it settle for a few minutes. Once it stops spinning I dump it into my fermenter. If there is any really gloppy looking gunk I leave it in the kettle, usually only about a quart or so doesn't go into the fermenter. ( I hate wasting beer) No problems with any of my brews. Three weeks later (+or-) and it's all laying on the bottom like a wet blanket.

bosco

 

[laughingboysbrew]

I use a CFC, but I just sanitize with sanitizer.

For your question, just run some wort through the chiller (without the water running). This will cool the first wort through quite a bit because your copper (or steel or whatever) is going to absorb a lot of heat. But don't run it back into the kettle, or, don't recirculate. Run it into a bucket and when you are ready to start actually chilling, dump it into your kettle then.

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but just wanted to share an update. I tried this method this morning. I had almost same result (dropped a few degrees and lost boil) except I was able to get boiling again within 5 minutes (12 gallons). I ran some wort off through pump into a bucket and it still dropped the boil temp (confusing). There was a big air bubble that released into the boil (assuming cold air) - so that might be it.

It's apparently not an issue with final product...my beers are good. But I'm a technical nut...and I know it's not technically what was "designed" and would be difficult to reproduce exactly.

 

[eb2u]

I am new to the hobby and have a similar question about cold break. The three brews that I have made so far were extract kits put together by my LHBS. The kits included specialty grains and three hop additions so there was a good deal of solids at the bottom of the brew pot.

On my first batch I used a cold water bath to cool the wort. I gave the wort one last stir, let it sit for 10 minutes then began to siphon to the fermenter. As the level of the wort lowered I was glad to see a well formed cone in the center of the brew pot. Then to my surprise the cone collapsed sending the solids to the siphon. Being under the impression that I want to avoid cold break in the fermenter I stopped the siphon and sacrificed about half a gallon of wort.

The next two batches I used an immersion chiller to cool the wort which seemed to help coagulate the cold break but same issue with the cone of solids. This time I poured the last half gallon through sanitized sieve. Is this step a waste of time? Am I loosing anything by filter out the solids?
Thanks
EB