I have been considering a cold break filter in my set-up…
I currently run from the kettle to a hop back to a plate chiller to an in line oxygenator to the fermenter.
I would like to run an in line cold break filter with my current set-up.
Don’t want to go to a sedimentation vessel.
Anyone use a cold break filter?
I think one of the main reasons that Pro’s worry about cold break is shelf life. I believe the lipids can be detrimental. I don’t worry about it for ales. For lagers I have always seperated the cold break by either using a transfer prior to pitching yeast (settling tank method) and now I just open the dump valve ;D.
I do this for lagers because I learnded to brew lagers from Noonans book and he recommended it - so it ended up in my process.
I have given this a lot of thought over the years. Here is a good article.
I concur that removing some cold break can be helpful, but I’m not sure that homebrewers need to do it for the reasons that pro brewers do. Their packaged beer is more often mishandled than ours and that affects shelf life.
James makes an interesting distinction between ales and lagers. Would the point be that lagers have a cleaner flavor profile that cannot hide the defects that cold break might produce?
Some cold break is good for yeast growth and development, but too much, especially in a lager can have a negetive affect on beer flavor and stability. This and other factors like the beer handling, tannin extraction (oversparging/overcrushing), fermentation temp/environment, etc… will also come into play where beer flavor is concerned. If you process is really tight and one of the only mitigating factosr is excessive cold break in the fermenter then I would focus on some removal. Otherwise, I recommend enhancing your sanitation, mashing process and fermentation temp control first.
Some years back, a guy on Brews and Views did an experiment where he produced 2 lagers, leaving all the break in one and removing it from the other. His conclusion was the the beer with the break was clearer and tasted better.
My main thought for lagers is that I often repitch the yeast for multiple generations and I think removing the trub is beneficial. Second, my lagers tend to sit on the cake longer so I’ve rationalized that it’s good to cut down on trub contact time.