The transfer of Break Material to FV...?

[Darcey]

Hello all!

I have done 12+ AG's now and all the beer has turned out great, slowly getting more and more knowledge and practical experience. Up until AG 9 I have always used a white opaque plastic fermenter (coopers kit), the last 3 AG's i have used a semi-transparent FV as a primary and I have noticed ALOT of 'protein' material sitting in the FV for at least a week!


This image is not my own but my wort before pitching is nearly as clumpy as this perhaps not as extreme.

Is this really something I should be worrying about? I just use a standard copper hopfilter on my 70l boiler. All my beer turns out crystal clear in the end and I get very good hot and cold breaks from my two 2.75KW elements and IC.

Any advice!?

 

[artiums_enteri]

Break material is not really something to be terribly concerned with. I asked a wyeast rep the same question because I've started chilling in my conical fermenter being that it's less surface area, more portable, and I can run boiling wort directly into it to help with sanitation. Normally I would open the bottom most valve and drain the break material prior to pitching. The rep told me it's not really a bad thing to have the proteins in the wort, in fact it acts as sort of a yeast nutrient. The important part is that you are getting the break therefore blowing off potential DMS. The proteins can add to cloudiness, but with the addition of crashing the beer that can be easily dealt with.

 

[graysalchemy]

The only thing you will find is that more washing will be needed if you are reusing your yeast. If you are really bothered you could double drop 24-48 hrs into ferment.

 

[evanvine]

+1 for GA, I do this as a matter of course!
Not only does it get rid of a load of rubbish, the beer ends up in a fermenter wit a 4" screw on cap (gas tight so the bubbler works).

 

[Pinck]

I far prefer protein clumps like that photo as opposed to a protein haze. clumps drop out easily when fermentation settles. Once fermentation is fully complete, that's the only real time that I worry what my beer looks like.

 

[Farmbrew]

There was a trend a few years ago of trying to leave as much of the trub material in the boiler/hop back as poss. This was okay for running beers (less than og 1050) but yeast really needs some of the nutrients from it.

Being anal with removing trub from bitter wort can stop or slow down fermentations with some yeast strains, higher grav and glucose rich worts.

Most protein hazes are from grist make-up (too much adjunct) or poor conversion (starch remaining) - although the former is part of some styles e.g. wheat, rye etc. If you serve beer too cold then there prob will be a protein haze evident.

Trub is good :geek:

 

[artiums_enteri]

There is such thing as beer being too cold?

 

[evanvine]

There is such thing as beer being too cold?

The colder the beer the less flavour it has!

 

[Darcey]

Well maybe it doesn't matter. Racked the last two beers off and both were infected anyway.

I think time for some fine mesh on the mash flange and hop filter, bin the fv and start making sure my brewing practice is up to scratch.

D