Protofloc disaster!

[marcus]

Ch**st what an unbelievable mess I have created in my AG#3 Marston's Pedicure.

I used GWs receipe for a 23l brewlength and cut the boil down to 60 mins.

All appeared to go well on the day and indeed right up to a week later when opening the lid of the FV I discover a superb inch thick jelly like medium on which I shall now be introducing a batch of frogspawn to grow and multiply!

Reading other posts here on the forum it could well be as a result of using too much Protofloc. I did as it said on the Brupacs tin i.e. 1 tsp for 5g. Perhaps this was OTT. Never had anything like this using Irish Moss! Would 1/4 tsp be enough 10 mins before end of boil?

Why can't I get this trub/break material to stay in the copper. I have a fairly vigorous boil for 60 mins followed by immersion cooling for approx 20 mins before it gets transfered into the FV at about 30 degrees C, at which point I pitch the rehydrated yeast.

Having said the above, it tastes OK IMO.

Any advice greatly received.

[floydmeddler]

God knows what the jelly is but doubt it's protofloc. Doesn't sound like you've used too much either. If it tastes good then I'm sure it will be OK.

Don't worry!

[EoinMag]

I find protofloc can get quite fluffy in the fermenter if you let too much of it through. You need a good hop bed to filter it through. It's no harm though, but you can get in there with a sterilised sieve and skim it, it'll get it out of the beer and stop it falling to the bottom once fermentation is finished.

[EccentricDyslexic]

i found protofloc granuals ened up as little jelly balls at the bottom of the boiler.

steve

[chris_reboot]

cover and let the boiler stand for 30-45 mins to let the crud settle out before running slooowly off into FV.
that will massively reduce FV rubbish

[Eric]

Is this really a problem? I don't know.
The time and rate I get cold break varies, sometimes I've thought it had failed when it would gradually appear after removing the chiller. Once I saw none so assumed the copper finings I used was too old.
Cold break material must end up in the FV of those who use in line cooling. I've not read this method should be avoided.

[Tony01]

I had something similar the first time I used protafloc. Most of the floating lumps dropped over a week once fermentation had finished. I used a sterilized sieve to get more out but some made it into the secondary.

Some also made it into the bottles too unfortunately, but it still tastes good. I am told that half a teaspoon of protafloc is plenty for a 5gal batch. I'm back on Irish Moss atthe moment, but will try smaller amounts of protafloc in another brew soon.

[boingy]

I don't know whether I use Protofloc or Whirlfloc but I do know that I have never seen anything resembling jelly in the FV. I do get loads of "little fluffy clouds" (mini-quiz: name the artist) in the boiler but they get filtered out by the hop bed.

[dave-o]

The Orb.

[chris_reboot]

they ran on forever

[Tony01]

the sunsets were purple and red and yellow and on fire and the clouds would catch the colours everywhere

[Jolum]

My advice is a combination of what Chris_Reboot said:

cover and let the boiler stand for 30-45 mins to let the crud settle out before running slooowly off into FV.
that will massively reduce FV rubbish

And crash cool the FV (if you can). After some advice from here (awalker I think it was) I now ferment as normal for 10 days then crash cool to ~7C degrees and keep it there for about 3-4 days. After that all the crap in the FV compacts down to a nice 1-2cm thick layer at the bottom with lovely clear beer on top...luvvly-jubbly