8 replies to this topic

[Fatman]

Brewing the Annual Maibock today, with a new sack of Pilsner malt. It's Best Malz from North Country. Run off from both mash and sparge were almost milky. I've never had a hot break like this - I scooped long strands out of the kettle that look exactly like snot. 10 minutes later, and it's ready to scoop again. Added the 60 min hops now, so what's there is there.Oh well, so much for my new clarity kick.

[Slainte]

Did you check for complete conversion?Why did you runoff the wort if it was "milky?" Do you not vorlauf until the wort is clear before lautering?

[Fatman]

No conversion check, but I almost hit my OG - aiming for 1.070, got 1.069.I vorlauf'd, but after a half gallon, my pitcher was full and there wasn't any change.

[beach]

I vorlauf'd, but after a half gallon, my pitcher was full and there wasn't any change.

I'm with Slainte, I wouldn't have runiff milky wort either. I use a 1 gallon pitcher and I'll fill it as many times as I need to until I get nice clear wort. I've had mashes that took close to 2 gallons before it was ready to go. IMO there's no hurrying this part of the process, you simply draw as much as it takes until it's clear. In my system I usually need to pull ~3-4 quarts out to get it nice and clear, pour that back into my MLT and then take another quart or 2 out just to be sure and to have a taste of the first of the runnings.As for the snot, I've never had that. So, no help there. Will unconverted starches do this?Beach

[Deerslyr]

Lemmee get this straight... you had a massive amount of hotbreak in your kettle and you continue to be worried about clarity? That's a LOT of protein that DIDN'T get into the fermenter, which IMO is not a bad thing. I've actually been concerned about the lack of hot break in my kettle. I usually expect more, but it's been pretty minimal as of late. I know what you are talking about, in terms of the really big break. I've seen it before. It doesn't concern me. Did you use any Irish Moss or some other late addition finning???

[Fatman]

I'm not sure extra Vorlauf would have helped - even the last of the sparge runoff was only slightly clearer. Milky might be a bit of an overstatement, strongly cloudy is probably more accurate, and my perception was probably enhanced by the light color of the wort.This was my first shot at a 2-step infusion mash - 30 min at 132, then i missed my second infusion temp bigtime, 60 min (recipe said 30, but I can't see how that would make a difference) at 146 instead of 152.Even with all the break that remained in the kettle, the wort still looked like egg drop soup when I pitched (or would that be cold break?), though now that it's had a chance to settle I think it's clearer (and alot lighter in color). I did use a Whirlfloc tab, and after lagering I'll probably clear with gelatin. It's fermenting away at 52 right now - tastes good, smells great (anything I put Armoatic in seems to smell awesome while fermenting), so even if it never clears I think I'll still enjoy it.

[Big Nake]

The only thing that I have experienced that was even close to this is when I ran out of propane and I had to wait about an hour before I could get another tank. The brewpot sat there all that time and when I finally fired everything back up, I had these HUGE globs of break material floating in the wort. I couldn't believe it. It was a light-colored beer and I swear it looked like egg-drop soup or something. The break continued to look like that for the remainder of the boil (another 30 mins) and everything was fine in the end. IIRC, the resulting beer was clearer than usual. Cheers.

[Thirsty]

The brewpot sat there all that time and when I finally fired everything back up, I had these HUGE globs of break material floating in the wort.

I have heard of people doing this on purpose. Once break is noticed, shut off the heat, wait a little, fire back up and start timing the boil.