Just finishing up brewing a SMASH, which I’ve made numerous times. 100% Maris Otter OG around 1.06 100% Centennial Anyway, due to an interruption, the batch (11gal) was about 5 minutes or so from starting to boil and I had to turn off the burner. It sat with the lid on the kettle. About an hour later I was back in action and it was starting to boil. I have absolutely never had a batch with this much break!! I spooned out about 1.5 quarts of goo and there’s loads more in there. It will just have to meet its fate. Anyway, the big deviation was that big wait with the wort pretty hot. MO figures heavily in most of my batches, and I used north of 20# from this same bag in a stout (3rd time with the Averagely Perfect American Stout, actually) last month. There was the usual stuff a stout has during the boil, but no unusual break. Is this mega break to be expected with the long hold prior to boiling? Cheers!!!
That is really interesting. The only thing I can think of would be maybe the pH shifted during that time in a way that encouraged more break formation.
very interesting indeed. please update when the beer is finished. Do you have any ideas on how it may affect the beer, for example less head retention or body?
This is uncharted territory. I’m a little concerned about body (of the beer ). Will it be watery with all that stuff out of the picture? On the other hand, maybe it’s yeast snacks anyway, if given enough time for conditioning? The yeast is WLP-051. I actually pumped a fair about of the break into the fermenter. I used pellet hops and the trub had settled on the bottom of the kettle. This “break” was somewhat settled on on top of the trub, but really floating all about. I plan to keg half of this batch for a party in a few weeks. The remainder will be bottled. I’m planning to cold crash the keg prior to the party. The bottles won’t see that. Cheers!!
Served the kegged portion at a picnic last Saturday (same brew in the other thread about whether the beer was too strong). Nice head retention, lacing all the way down in clear plastic picnic glasses. No watery mouthfeel, but I think WLP-051 seems to contribute to mouthfeel, to some extent. I can’t tell how bright the beer is. I managed to pull some yeast into the keg, and it was only in there for a couple of days prior to serving, including a good shake and bake to force carb. (My keg delivered on Thursday, the picnic was Saturday. ) I’d guess the bottled version would be in the same ballpark for head retention, but I’ll be able to see how well it clears up. Cheers!
