Letting beer settle before pitching yeast

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

I have brewed a Czech Pilsner today - I transferred into a pre-fermenter to let the cold break etc settle and then racked to the actual fermenter.

It was my first time trying this, and although I lost a few litres, it was worth it for the crystal clear wort, and perhaps less chill haze at the end. I cannot believe how much crap I must normally get in my fermenter.

I just had an aha moment when I realised that I often have chill haze and the yeast may be carrying the crap with them as they go.

Will plan for a bigger batch next time and more losses, so I don't end up short.

How many others do this?

 

[Buffers brewery]

Kind of, but not quite. I cool the wort after the boil to 20C ish then leave for at least an hour before transferring to the fermentation bucket. I get a bit of crud at the beginning and at the end of transfer but a lot is left in the kettle. Doesn’t seem to have adversely effected the clarity of my beers. This is the last half pint from a 5 gallon pale ale from my pressure barrel…

I’m happy with clarity.

 

[Bzee]

Posh beer mats

 

[chthon]

• My chill haze actually disappeared when I started acidifying my sparge water.
• For brewing ales, I just pitch my yeast on top of my cooled wort (everything included)
  • My beers still get clear nicely
• My last lager (a bock) I did rack from the trub
  • However, when I do this, it filter the rest of the trub through a cheesecloth
  • No problem letting this drain overnight, just boil this filtered wort
  • I use this when racking from a primary fermentation vessel to a secondary fermentation vessel, to keep the fermentation going
• There is nor relationship in "clear wort in gets clear beer out". I somewhere found (in a scientific paper even, but don't know where) that clear wort could end up in a cloudy beer

 

[Leon103]

Wrong thread

 

[YeastFace]

Obvs it's not evidence but there's been a few Brülosophy exbeeriments that have yielded no discernable difference regardless of trub/cold break making its way into the fermenter.

I do think that clearer wort will end up in clearer beer though and aim for that. I have a G40 (like you, I think) and feel like I get more cold break into the fermenter than I did with an immersion chiller.

I only use kettle finings and then keg at 2.5°. I've never had any complaints about clear beer and with time will get crystal clear beer.

 

[Agentgonzo]

My previous brewing kit was a plastic 3 vessel system with an immersion chiller, so all the cold break got left behind in the kettle.

I got a grainfather a couple of years ago, so my new system has a CFC so the cold break ends up in the fermenter.

I've never cold fermented or cold crashed my beers. They ferment and get bottled at room temperature. The only time they get chilled is when they go into the garage or fridge to condition.

I have persistent chill haze and have tried a variety of things like acidifying the sparge water etc but it's still there. It clears after a couple of weeks conditioning in the garage. Beers clarity is excellent at room temperature.

The haze doesn't bother me, so I'm doing this more out of curiosity than anything else.

I've never seen anything but anecdotal evidence for "clear wort in, clear beer out" and just chalk it up to confirmation bias, but each brewhouse is different so if it works for them, then great! As noted, there have been plenty of experiments/studies about cold break. All breweries I've seen use heat exchangers between the copper and the fermenter and so will end up with cold break.

It'll be interesting to see how your final beer turns out. Keep us posted!
in the fermenter too.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Obvs it's not evidence but there's been a few Brülosophy exbeeriments that have yielded no discernable difference regardless regardless of trub/cold break making its way into the fermenter

Well, it  is evidence. It's just not conclusive evidence. It's a single (or two/three) datapoints and they are quick to point out it's not proving/disproving anything, but it's evidence nonetheless.

 

[The Baron]

I think clear in must give clearer beer out as there is less to drop out but this does not mean it does not all drop out at the end so I would say if possible keep as clear as possible but not to despair as we have all had clear beers from loads of trub too.
The paradox of brewing

 

[MashBag]

Obvs it's not evidence but there's been a few Brülosophy exbeeriments that have yielded no discernable difference regardless of trub/cold break making its way into the fermenter.

I do think that clearer wort will end up in clearer beer though and aim for that. I have a G40 (like you, I think) and feel like I get more cold break into the fermenter than I did with an immersion chiller.

I only use kettle finings and then keg at 2.5°. I've never had any complaints about clear beer and with time will get crystal clear beer.

Agree. I am with brulosophy. Less crap in less crap out. But.... Only to a point. A high flocculation yeast really does make a difference.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

My previous brewing kit was a plastic 3 vessel system with an immersion chiller, so all the cold break got left behind in the kettle.

I got a grainfather a couple of years ago, so my new system has a CFC so the cold break ends up in the fermenter.

I've never cold fermented or cold crashed my beers. They ferment and get bottled at room temperature. The only time they get chilled is when they go into the garage or fridge to condition.

I have persistent chill haze and have tried a variety of things like acidifying the sparge water etc but it's still there. It clears after a couple of weeks conditioning in the garage. Beers clarity is excellent at room temperature.

The haze doesn't bother me, so I'm doing this more out of curiosity than anything else.

I've never seen anything but anecdotal evidence for "clear wort in, clear beer out" and just chalk it up to confirmation bias, but each brewhouse is different so if it works for them, then great! As noted, there have been plenty of experiments/studies about cold break. All breweries I've seen use heat exchangers between the copper and the fermenter and so will end up with cold break.

It'll be interesting to see how your final beer turns out. Keep us posted!
in the fermenter too.

Will do AG.

You should probably be aware that It's gonna be a co-fermentation beer. Bit of an experiment. If it affects the clarity I will use finings, but maybe now I've muddled my experiment?

I've put in 2 packets of M84 for now. I'm going to leave it 24 hours and then put in a packet of Lutra Kveik (about 5PM today). I've mashed a bit higher to allow for the extra attenuation. Doing it under pressure at 20C. Lutra is super clean at 20C as I've tried it before.

Hoping it will be ready to drink around 4-5 weeks old, with the quicker conditioning of the Kveik, but still with the flavour of M84 (hopefully!)

We will see what happens.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

A high flocculation yeast really does make a difference.

Absolutely agree.

 

[MashBag]

Have you used Kveik before? I liked the idea of its upper temp range (for use in the hottest summer) but what it produced with a regular known recipe was woefully disappointing.

So much so I have a chiller setup now.

 

[The Baron]

I use it all the time and especially at high temps for IPA's as it can add to the fruity taste.
I do not use it in ales and bitter styles unless I am wanting a pale with a slight fruitiness like Farmers Blonde etc but then I pitch high and let it freefall to normal temps

 

[gyurmaember]

I try to aim to pitch into clear wort since I'm saving the yeast cake.
Before that I transferred everything.

 

[MashBag]

I use it all the time and especially at high temps for IPA's as it can add to the fruity taste.
I do not use it in ales and bitter styles unless I am wanting a pale with a slight fruitiness like Farmers Blonde etc but then I pitch high and let it freefall to normal temps

Free fall to lower temps. Would normally be something I would avoid. What's the benefit? What's the from and to temps?

 

[The Baron]

I do it because I do not always want a over fruity ester from the yeast as it does not generally throw one at lower temps. So I pitch at a higher temp(not as high as the yeast can go) to kick of the yeast off and by the time it has got going it is at lower temps. The reason you do not like it probably is because you are used to the standard yeasts which ferment at a given temp of their scale usually 17c to 21c depending on yeast style and you choose a fixed temp in that style which is what I do with most other yeasts
The freefall will then reach room temp so I do not have to control the temp with a fridge etc

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Have you used Kveik before?

Yes as per the post below. I think if you use it on it's own expecting the flavour of a different yeast, that is the problem. I'm using both types of yeast to (try to) get the benefits of both, ie, the flavour of the M84 and the faster conditioning property of the kveik.

Lutra is super clean at 20C as I've tried it before.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Agree. I am with brulosophy. Less crap in less crap out. But.... Only to a point. A high flocculation yeast really does make a difference.

The brulosophy experiments showed that the brews that put more crap into the fermenter resulted in clearer beer.

 

[MashBag]

I do it because I do not always want a over fruity ester from the yeast as it does not generally throw one at lower temps. So I pitch at a higher temp(not as high as the yeast can go) to kick of the yeast off and by the time it has got going it is at lower temps. The reason you do not like it probably is because you are used to the standard yeasts which ferment at a given temp of their scale usually 17c to 21c depending on yeast style and you choose a fixed temp in that style which is what I do with most other yeasts
The freefall will then reach room temp so I do not have to control the temp with a fridge etc

Sorry confused now. If you don't want it higher temperature capacity and you don't want its flavour profile, what is the reason you use it?