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cold break and protein

dabeer

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When I am cooling down my wort before putting it into my Fermentation bucket, I hear people talking about the cold break and keeping the protein that settles down to the bottle of the kettle out of the ferentation bucket. How do keep the protein out, and will it make a huge difference in the favor of the beer or mainly the clarity.
Thanks
Dan
 
Cold break is the formation of protein solids during the cooling of the wort after the boil. To get a good cold break you need to cool the wort quickly. Leaving more protein dissolved in the wort causes chill haze - a cloudy look in the glass at serving temperature.  It can also lead to somewhat bitter flavors if you have a poor cold break.  Use a wort chiller to achieve a good cold break.  Decoction mashes (all grain brewing) also help remove proteins before the boil - but this is fairly advanced level of brewing.  
 
How to break it out might include rapid chilling, low chilling down to below pitching temps, having enough calcium in water, kettle finings such as whirlfloc, etc.

How to keep it out depends on your setup.  Once cooled, a good whirlpool will forced the gunk toward the center.  Try to siphon away from the pile of gunk. 

Hot break is part of the gunk too.  Rapid rise to boiling helps there, as does enough calcium again. 
 
I put my kettle in a tub of ice water, and also use a wort chiller.  So I cool it down very fast.  What I guess I need to do is siphon out the wort into my fermentation bucket, and leave behind the protein.
 
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