Is your homebrew cloudy? Do you like beer with clarity? Do you find yourself with cloudy beer even after the yeast has flocculated? It’s okay that your beer has haze to it. It just means it contains more protein than the visually translucent brew. Okay okay okay. We’ve heard this before. Maybe we followed the carrageenan talk (enter hyperlink) and our beer still has some haze to it. The carrageenan approach only really works on hot break. Hot what? Hot break. It’s the fats, proteins, and lipids that coagulate as a sticky gross mess on the bottom of the boil kettle. It becomes more apparent when you whirlpool. (we’ll get into that on another post) This post isn’t for hot break. This post is for cold break.
What is cold break?
Cold break is precipitation of proteins, tannins, and hop debris. It occurs around below 130 degrees Fahrenheit and is most effective when quickly cooled below that.
How to quickly cool wort?
There are many ways to cool wort. There are arguments that it is best to cool in the kettle so that you do not pump the cold break into the fermentor. If that’s your thing, cool. I personally like using an inline heat exchanger but I have access to a cold liquor tank and small pumps. I do pump the wort with cold break into the fermentor, but I either dump the cold break or rack the beer off of it when it settles. A copper coil with a cold hose water flowing through it can do the job good enough. If you have that and a whirlpool you are in great shape! (we’ll get to the whirlpool later, okay?)
Break is not all bad, yeast need protein too. Some compounds in hot and cold break can serve as a yeast nutrient. Proteins are key to a good head on beer too, so don’t over do it! Some styles of beer are supposed to have haze so just adjust your haze removal regime to tailor it to the style you are brewing and you’ll be well on your way to better, world class beers.
If you have any other tips, feel I missed something, or disagree leave me a comment here or on Facebook!
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