Being bested by cold break

jessejohn · January 21, 2012, 4:50pm

I’ve been having a tough time keeping excessive amounts of cold break from reaching my fermenter. With using a plate chiller via gravity my cold break ends up floating about within the carboy. In recent brews I’ve attempted to filter the cold break with ss mesh strainers and coffee filters, but the quarter sized globs of protein sift straight through. I’ve also tried to whirlpool the cold break material out of suspension but this seemed to just break the globs into smaller bits that remain in suspension.

From here I’m not sure what to try next. Usually aerating with a drill beats the protein material apart so I’ve yet to see the cold break last long enough to know how it acts. If chilled wort is left undisturbed will cold break settle out of suspension?

glug_master · January 21, 2012, 5:14pm

Yes.

I don’t know of any way to remove it, it’s just one of the facts of using a plate or CF chiller. I’ve never heard of anyone having off flavors from to it. It does add a little more work to harvesting yeast.

shadetree · January 22, 2012, 4:15am

Don’t sweat cold break in the fermenter.

tg · January 22, 2012, 5:05am

rdwhahb

vaughn_s · January 24, 2012, 1:16pm

Yeah, that’s actually a desirable situation for most brewers.

dobe12 · January 24, 2012, 1:28pm

Yeah, it’s gonna happen. I filter my wort through a funnel that has a pretty fine screen and still get a lot of cold break. Usually an inch or more in the bottom of the fermentor. It’s no big deal though. I do rise and collect yeast so I have really take my time when rinsing, but cold break is not a big deal.

duckmanco · February 3, 2012, 1:16am

I dump the entire contents of the kettle into the bucket… All kind a’ break makes into the primary… Hop gunk too. Magically it ends up at the bottom of the bucket when it’s all over. This is another thing that would need a side by side comparison test that in all likelihood would show no conclusive results…

edawgwv · February 3, 2012, 3:24pm

Same here. I unhook the hose to my recirc chiller and blast the chilled wort into the fermenter making a big ole foamy O2 party for the yeasties. Pretty much everything (break, hops, etc) goes in there and my beers taste great IMHO.