Question about cooling and 'Art of Brewing'

[fivetide]

I was looking to buy a Brupaks hop strainer earlier, and while shopping about I read this on the Art of Brewing website and it's confused me. It's in the sales blurb for a copper immersion chiller and it reads:

"Cools wort down to yeast pitching temperature from boiling point in a matter of minutes. This unit fits into a standard 5 gallon fermentation bin. The forced cooling also has the further advantage of producing a "cold break" where more protein is precipitated leading to a cleaner taste in the finished beer. Please note it is important to have run off the wort via a Brupaks hop strainer before using this wort chiller otherwise you will put all the proteins, coagulated during the 'hot break', back into solution."

Now, if that last bit is correct I've been understanding the whole process incorrectly. I thought you put the chiller in the boiler to sanitise during last fifteen minutes of boil, then cooled the wort in the boiler to 25 degrees, THEN drained through the hop bed and hop strainer. Is this site suggesting you strain the hot liquor then cool in the fermenter? If so I have had completely the wrong end of the stick!

[bandit]

You are correct. Have you had a beer?

[SiHoltye]

Right first time. The cooling releases the cold break which is then trapped by the hops and strainer running clearer wort to your FV via the boiler tap. It's not crucial to have crystal clear wort before running to your FV. Some cold break carry over may even be beneficial. One thing that wouldn't be beneficial is stratches all round your FV from a Brupaks chiller!

[fivetide]

So what are they going on about then?

You are correct. Have you had a beer?

Maybe.

[bandit]

Si has hit the nail on the head. Chill with the immersion and run off through the hop bed. You can't filter the hot wort prior to chilling as the second set of proteins wont coagulate until they are cold.

[fivetide]

That's what I have always known, but everything on this page(description on Bruheat boiler and immersion chiller) say chill after draining from the boiler otherwise its bad. Why are they saying this if everyone I know chills in the boiler?

"Leave the wort to settle for 15 minutes after turning off the heat and then run off the wort through the tap, the hops will now form a natural filter bed around the Brupaks hop strainer to ensure you leave the proteins behind. The collected wort can now be force cooled using the Brupaks immersion beer wort chiller which not only cools the wort to yeast pitching temperature in about 10 minutes but also produces a further protein dropout known as the 'cold break'."

[fivetide]

It was this bit I found odd, which suggests quite strongly that you can't have the hot break then the cold break in the boiler prior to draining into the fermenter:

"Please note it is important to have run off the wort via a Brupaks hop strainer before using this wort chiller otherwise you will put all the proteins, coagulated during the 'hot break', back into solution."

[bandit]

If its any use, all of my beers are cooled with a CFC and all of the cold break goes into the fermenter. I dont skim the yeast head and my beer tastes reasonably good Dont forget this is a sales page you are reading. You dont have to buy everything to make real ale. Des and I are inventing an 8 element plastic boiler with a pre determined switching regime that will create the ultimate convection rate for hot wort in a boiler. How many do you want

[fivetide]

Hehe.

I was only buying a hop strainer, but when i read the other stuff and it was almost the exact opposite of what I had accepted as the best method I thought I just had to mention it.

I'll have one of those eight element boilers though. Can you put them into a 1 gallon pot please, so I can mini-mash?

[bandit]

That will be the 3.5 element version you require then with the counterflow hydration unit for integral wort modification. I am sure Des has one he made in November for a lager recipie. I'll pm him now I am sure he will be in his garage converting more starch into lovely beer.