Hot & Cold Break Removal

[Brody]

I've read some conflicting things about wether or not it's a good idea to let break material and trub in general into the Fermentation Vessel.

Some say the material may help the yeast in some ways, the brulosophy experiment showed a slight preference for more trub, but I've also read that German brewers tend to remove it.

I wanted to get your guys opinion on it - do you bother to skim the hot break and rack off as much trub as possible, do nothing, or take it a step further and cold crash your wort and rack off the trub before pitching (Bryan, wasn't this your method?)?

Previously I haven't concerned myself much with it, although last brew I left close to a gallon of trubby wort in the kettle (more than usual for me) in an attempt to bring less stuff in the kettle. I'm thinking next batch I may brew a larger batch size, transfer it all into a carboy, then cold crash it overnight before racking into my corny for fermentation.

[Beersk]

I believe many German breweries will crash the wort down to 32F (0C) and rack off the trub before aerating and pitching the yeast. This is not something I have done.

[lhommedieu]

I skim off break material. On my last fermentation I filled the carboy up to the neck and set up a blow off tube; the fermentation blew out a lot of stuff that would have settled into the beer. On my next brew day I'll have a Blichmann Fermentator to use and I'l let the trub settle for a couple of hours and pour it out before I ferment.

[Kranz]

I don't skim the hot break at all. When I make lagers, I have to wait for it to cool to 45 F and that takes until the next morning. 14.5 G conical. This makes it easy to remove some cold break, aerate and add my yeast.

[Brody]

It sounds like most people agree that removing hot break is ideal but cold break may have some benefits? I'm wondering if it makes more sense to skim the hot break and leave some trub behind or crash the wort and rack off everything before pitching/aerating.

Maybe I'll brew a larger batch at some point and cold crash/rack before pitching half and don't with the other half.

[Techbrau]

The foam that accumulates at the top of your wort as it is coming to a boil is not hot break. You can skim that if you want. Hot break is made up of the flecks of white protein that are rolling around in the wort during the boil. It's heavier than cold break and will form a nice cone with hop matter if you whirlpool after the end of your boil.

Cold break is much lighter and fluffier and doesn't like to cone up in the whirlpool. I would try and keep the hot break and hop matter out of your fermenter, but not worry about the cold break getting in.

[Bryan R]

Right, I call that foop.


Hotbreak is this:

[Bryan R]

[Beersk]

[Bryan R]