Brewday techniques

[TrojanAnteater]

Ok so here's something I've been wondering about. The hot break and cold break- what do I do with this? For the only 2 beers i've brewed so far basically the entire quantity of wort gets poured into the primary. Even if I pour it thru a strainer it doesn't catch anything. I also use hop pellets and the majority of those remains do stay in the kettle so I don't let that entirely pour into the primary. Do most brewers have some way, or even want to, keep the hot/cold breaks behind? I think I ready something on a technique where you create a whirlpool in the wort and siphon from the side into the primary but I really don't feel like doing that. Any info on this subject is appreciated.

[thekulman]

I usually pour my wort through a kitchen strainer and it removes most of the break and hop material. If yours has a weave that isn't tight enough, line it with cheese cloth first.

The whirl pool technique is easy though. After a few minutes rest once you've removed the beer from the heat, just stir it rapily for 10 seconds to get a whirlpool effect, then let it settle for 15 minutes. Most of the crud ends up in the centre of the pot, which makes it easy to syphon from the sides and avoid it.

One more technique. Get a brass pot scruber, cut out the elastic that bunches it up and attach it to the bottom of your racking cane with a zip tie. That filters out the bad stuff too, although you might have to take it out periodically to rinse off the crud with boiling water and re-start the syphon.

But the whirlpool effect and the brass pot scruber together will remove most if not all of the wee beasties.

Kul

[corkybstewart]

I don't lose too much sleep over it. I whirlpool the wort and let it settle 15 minutes and my pickup tube runs along the wall of the kettle so most of the crap stay in the kettle. Whatever makes it to the fermenter I call "yeast nutrients". I've seen as much as an inch of crap in the bottom of the fermenters and the beer is not affected by it.

[BitterRat]

Whirlpooling works well, as these guys have stated. But if some or most goes to the fermenter, it shouldn't cause much of a problem. I have started skimming some of the hotbreak material when it forms, and have noticed that my beers don't have any haze issues, but Im not sure if there is a direct corelation between them, it may just be coincedental.

[corkybstewart]

When I batch sparge I heat the wort to boiling after every sparge. This keeps the hot break from foaming over since the kettle only gets filled a little more after each sparge(I typically do 4). But kep in mind that the trub will quickly settle to the botom of the fermenter where it will soon be covered with a thick layer of yeast so its soon isolated from the fermenting beer anyway.

[chapesh]

i agree with corky, i even have read articles that claim trub can be as effective as o2 for yeast. and besides when you transfer to secondary you filter out most of the trub.