OK, back to first principles: hot and cold break

[inthedark]

Just reviewing everything I've read so far about hazes and getting a clear wort and I'm not so confident now that I really know what I'm looking for during boil / cool phases, so if you'll bear with me, I'd like to check how to recognize hot and cold break with you guys.

I'd pretty much been going by Palmer's description, in that he basically recognizes hot break as soon as the initial foaming drops back into solution, but re-reading it tonight, he is referring to extract only and says that the extract will have been boiled once already, so there's less break happening.

Graham Wheeler's Home Brewing, in my 1990 edition recognizes the hot break after an hour or more - I'm not sure I've ever watched for anything at this stage, and probably don't know what I'm looking for. Anyone able to describe the visible signs I can look for?

I think I'm happy with cold break, because as soon as I start cooling with my IC, great clumps of stuff start forming and lurking in the wort - if this ain't cold break it's an alien lifeform - can anyone please confirm this?

Cheers

[brewzone]

The hot break looks like pin head size pieces of the same looking stuff as in the cold break.

If You take a sample of the boiling wort in a trial jar or similar, You will see the hot break as pin head or larger size clumps of protein.

You can do this at various points throughout the boil to see how it develops.

Too much boiling can send it back into solution.

90 mins is plenty enough.

Chris beat Me to it

BZ

[inthedark]

Cheers guys, that helps a lot. I'll look out for the match head-sized clumps next time round. I might invest in some Whirlfloc tablets too, as I'm pretty sure the best brew I did last year used the free sample Whirlfloc tab I got from H&G.

Just ploughing through the 'Haze' thread at the moment and trying out the Vossy1 'feck' test on the last few pints out of my previously hazy brew - as you said Chris it settled back down again a few days after moving it. I can now see Vossy1 and his text as clear as day...

[agentgonzo]

The hot break should look a little like this:

[booldawg]

I read somewhere not to add the copper hops until the hot break has finished - is this correct?

[Stonechat]

Not if you practise First Wort Hopping when you put your copper hops straight in while the wort is still running into the boiler. Some people swear by it as a means of preventing boilovers and it also gives a smoother hop finish to the taste of the beer.

[Aleman]

I read somewhere not to add the copper hops until the hot break has finished - is this correct?

That depends on if you are taking Palmers definition of 'hot break' as gospel . . . If you use the Wheeler/Line/Alexander definition that would mean that you would be boiling your wort for 60-90 minutes before adding hops.

Personally Palmer is talking twaddle and has got totally the wrong end of the stick, the foam at the start of the boil is just that , , , and adding hops prior to this does help to prevent it getting excessive and boiling over . . . you just have to accept that you loose a little of the bittering power of the hops.

This is a picture of hot break which is from my Brewday thread