Removing cold break material

[Scroogemonster]

Just done my first AG. there is lots of cold break material in the FV. Is there any way I can filter this out when draining the boiler or is this not a problem. It looks very different to a kit brew.
Thanks
Kevin

[TC2642]

Are you using a hop filter? If not you could probably improvise with a sieve and drain it through that.

[OldSpeckledBadger]

I get quite a bit in my FV too. It never causes a problem.

[booldawg]

Let it stand for 30 mins after switching off the chiller. This will allow the break material to coagulate, sink to the bottom of the boiler and collect on the hop bed. Then run off into the FV as usual.

After doing this take a peek in the boiler, you'll notice alot more break material sitting on the hop bed than usual.

[Whorst]

I don't think it effects flavor, but if you have 4-5 inches in your fermenter, it significantly lowers your volume. I posted this pic several days ago.
I don't even have a valve on my kettle. Once wort is cool, I start a whirlpool and leave it for thirty minutes. I then siphon off the very side of the
kettle. Most all the break material stays in the kettle.

[chris_reboot]

just to add to that, I run-off really slowly from the boiler, and that helps keep it behind in there too.
I've noticed a big difference in amounts that way.

this was saturday's crud left behind so you can see what I mean


at the end of the day, it should settle out in the FV within a few days, then I rack off to secondary Fv for a few more before kegging.

my current regime is 1-2 weeks in FV, then rack to 2nd FV till 4 weeks is up, then into cornie.
If I was bottling or secondary fermenting in the keg, I'd probably halve that

[Kev75]

Let it stand for 30 mins after switching off the chiller. This will allow the break material to coagulate, sink to the bottom of the boiler and collect on the hop bed. Then run off into the FV as usual.

After doing this take a peek in the boiler, you'll notice alot more break material sitting on the hop bed than usual.

Baldawg - that is such a simple piece of advise. I normally just draw mine off after. An extra 30 mins standing time is nothing when your brewing. I'm going to check it out on my next brewday.

[mysterio]

You do leave some cold break behind with a hop filter but if you use a see-through FV a large amount always precipitates. There is no problem leaving this behind for most beers. I think if you're brewing a delicately flavoured lager, and you don't have much time for lagering, then you could rack off the sediment before pitching the yeast.

[befuggled]

I'm with booldawg here.
After the 80C steep hops (30 mins) I cool very fast from about 75C to 25C, recirculating through a CFC.
It takes about 11 minutes with current ground water temperature.
You can watch the cold break forming, but now I seal the boiler lid after adding the last hops.
Once at 25C, I wait for 30-60 minutes depending on what else I have to do.
I then gravity drain very slowly, 30-45 minutes. The wort is always crystal clear (now!).
Some of my FVs are translucent and I used to watch the cold break forming and dropping in them as Mysterio describes.
Now I can not detect any cold break at all - although there must still be a very small amount.

Due to this, I no longer feel the urge to rack off until the fermentation is well and truly finished.