[CTN]

Hello,

First time poster here. Pretty new to homebrewing but myself and my brewing buddy now have five brews under our belt. We've only ever done all grain brews.

It's been smooth sailing so far but we have encountered one "problem" which occurred on a couple of brews that we can't seem to find any info about.

I'll explain: After sparging our mash, and on the way to boil temperature, the wort inexplicably coagulates out massive chunks of who knows what. At first when searching this phenomenon, we could only find info related to the foam and microparticles in a hot break/trub.

This happened on the doppelbock we brewed a few weeks ago and on the IPA we did last week. We have also brewed two versions of a brown ale as well as an oatmeal stout without this phenomenon taking place. Now, we're doing a 2nd version of the doppelbock and this is what i'm seeing in the boil kettle, just as it hits about 208-210 F




What are these massive globules?! What's causing it? And do i need to be concerned about fermentation efficiency, off flavours or anything like that?

Thanks!
-Ryan

[Stevie]

That is called the hot break. It's totally normal and you can skim if you want. I don't bother skimming.

http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1/boiling-and-cooling/7-2-the-hot-break

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2012/09/do-you-skim-off-foam-as-your-wort-comes.html?m=1

[morticaixavier]

Yup it's hot break. I suspect that you see more of it in your lighter colored beers because you have a problem with your mash pH. If the pH in the mash were slightly lower a lot of that protein would coagulate out in the mash tun but because it's a bit too high it doesn't happen until the boil. With the darker beers with some roasted grain in them the mash pH is closer to ideal so you don't see as much hot break in the kettle.

Check out bru'n water for more details.

The good news is that it's not so out of bounds as too cause serious issues I would guess. Your alkalinity is low enough that just a bit of roast grain adjusts it for you.

That's my guess.

[CTN]

Ok cool. Thanks guys. Guess i need to get some pH testing strips and some chems to adjust.

Would putting the water through a charcoal filter neutralize it at all?

Sent by smoke signal from a covert location in the middle of the French North.

[hopfenundmalz]

Ok cool. Thanks guys. Guess i need to get some pH testing strips and some chems to adjust.

Would putting the water through a charcoal filter neutralize it at all?

Sent by smoke signal from a covert location in the middle of the French North.

Charcoal does not remove the brewing ions of interest.

Your pictures have the egg drop soup look, which is not a bad thing.