Too much Irish Moss?

[Tom]

I'm brewing all grain, and I tend to boil about 18l or so, then top up with cold water. As per the instructions I use 5g Irish Moss 15mins from the end, chill with an immersion coil, strain into a FV with a tap to let the break material settle, then take the clear wort off the top and ferment that. I use a teaspoon of medium ground moss from HBC, which should be just under the 5g dose. The recipe was mostly pale, with some crystal malt only, and about 100g or so of hops.

In the end I had nearly a gallon of break material, even having let it settle for 18hrs. That is SURELY too much.

My problem is not that I'm losing wort, but that I could be losing some proper flavours with all the break material falling out of suspension. Am I putting all this effort into making tasty beer and then removing it all in the form of precipitated proteins?

Is adding too much IM the problem, is it going to precipitate anyway, or am I removing proteins that don't necessarily need to be removed?

Hope someone can help.

[JD]

The more cold-break proteins you get out of the wort the better. Any of these left behind will cause chill-haze and, according to Palmer, have an impact on stability. The use of Irish Moss or Whirlfloc are very useful for creating a good cold break. For Irish Moss, the dose of 1 teaspoon per 21 litre batch is the right amount.

Now that that's out of the way, there is something else in your post that is of concern. You are leaving wort to settle before fermenting. This is a bad idea, particularly if the settling time is 18 hours. Once the wort is chilled enough it should be aerated and the yeast pitched as soon as possible. To do otherwise will permit other microbiota the opportunity to get a head start. Typically this will be lactobacillus or similar which is definitely not what you want munching on your hard won wort. I would not be at all surprised that the one gallon of break material you got after 18 hours settling was in fact not cold break material but was, instead, a crop of rogue microbiota.

Apart from the infection potential, the efficacy of pre-fermentation settling is questionable anyway. Using Irish Moss or whatever, a good hard chill, and either using a whirlpool to separate the break from the wort, or using the hop bed as a filter will leave you with a clean wort. Pitch to that ASAP.

/J

[Tom]

I'm not really worried about the infection side of things, and the beer's fermenting away nicely now (but I will own up if it does turn out acetic). It definitely was break material, not infection at the bottom of the wort.

I think the thing you mention last is probably my best bet, and that's proper filtering through a bed of hops into the FV. I do strain through a sieve, but it doesn't do much to hold back the break material. The material had formed protein clumps within minutes of cooling, but the wort wasn't in a position for me to decant into the fermenter because it was still largely suspended. The 18hr gap was to let it settle to below the draw off tap so it didn't all get sucked into the FV. With a decent filter this step is probably unnecessary. I;m brewing on stone age equipment at the minute, and its' a miracle I make beer at all.

I'm working on a keg-copper at the minute, and I suppose with a proper dip tube below some sort of hop screen I'll see an improvement.

[RichC]

I BIAB and this can lead to quite a bit of break material into FV. Over a few days this settles and forms a compact bed with the yeast on the bottom of the FV. It's completely harmless. As JD said, don't wait for it to settle. Cool and pitch immediately.

[Tom]

I try to remove as much as poss before the FV as I like to repitch the yeast without repitching trub.

Nevertheless, thanks for the info.

[Eoin]

If it's an overdose of finings you'll see a large spongey sediment in the fermenter and that's where you'll notice the loss. The yeast fluffs up and you get no compaction of the cake. A longer settling period post boil might help. Otherwise it's stuff that should be removed from your beer for clarity and shelf life.

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[Tom]

So is there a problem with underdosing?

[Eoin]

So is there a problem with underdosing?

Rephrase the question. Why do we use finings? I'd say Palmer, How to brew will have a chapter, primarily clarity and shelf life.

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[Eoin]

Bear in mind Palmer makes a lot of stuff up and writes about stuff of which he has no personal experience. (can you tell I'm not a fan!)

It's an alright basic intro

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[Tom]

A lot of holes in Palmer's stuff alright.

I'm going to upgrade my copper and see if that makes a difference to the amount of fluffy protein crud that fills my FV.

[DEMPSEY]

I have a conical and any cold break that passes over to it I can drain off the bottom.