Hot and Cold Breaks, Krausening,
Gypsum, Fining – BJCP Preparation
Derived from the BJCP Study Guide
Additional Information from How To
Brew, Brew Your Own, and www.beer-
brewing.com
Overview
• Core questions
• T10. What is meant by the terms hot break and
cold break? What is happening and why are they
important in brewing and the quality of the
finished beer?
• T9. Discuss the following brewing techniques.
How do they affect the beer?
– a) kräusening
– b) adding gypsum
– c) fining
Hot Break
• Hot break forms during the boil (may take 5-20 minutes to start
forming)
• The interactions of denatured proteins and simpler nitrogenous
constituents with carbohydrates and/or polyphenolic constituents
(tannins, flavanols, and anthocyanogens)
• Protein clumps form dependent on how much protein is in the
wort, use of adjuncts, mashing schedule, vigor of the boil, wort pH
and polyphenol presence
• Will precipitate out in large groups
– Become part of trub
• Removal of excess protein can prevent protein haze or other
protein induced off-flavors
– Some binding of hop contributed polyphenols with the proteins
Cold Break
• Cold break occurs post-boil
• As the clear hot wort is cooled, the previously invisible coagulum loses its solubility
and precipitates
• Referred to as the cold break and begins forming at about 60°C
• Rapid cooling promotes cold break formation
• Major cause of chill haze
• The cold break mostly consists of protein-polyphenol (tannin) complexes, whereas
the hot break is mostly proteinaceous
• The cold break also has a higher level of carbohydrates (primarily beta-glucans)
than hot break (10)
• Highly modified malts yield a higher percentage of polyphenols in cold trub than
do less-modified malts, while under-modified malts yield more protein and beta-
glucans and relatively fewer polyphenols
• Accounts for about 15 to 30% of the total trub material precipitated during cooling
and boiling of the wort
• The actual amount produced in a given wort depends on numerous factors, such
as malt modification, mashing program, wort temperature, the presence of hops,
rate of cooling, and the rate of hot break removal
• Assisted by Irish Moss (added late in boil)
Krausening
• Addition of freshly fermenting beer as is often practiced
with German lagers.
– For bottle conditioned beers, a 250 ml starter is usually added
for a five gallon batch along with the sugar; which provides fresh
yeast to metabolize the added sugar.
• In the case of kräusening, an actively fermenting batch at
high kräusen stage is added to the beer being primed.
• The volume of kräusen added is 20% by volume of the beer
being primed.
• Adding this actively-fermenting beer serves two purposes;
it carbonates and also helps clean up any off flavors
generated from the previous fermentation.
Gypsum
• Brewing salt - CaSO4 (calcium sulfate)
• Adds calcium and sulfate to a beer
• Calcium is essential for
– Reducing the mash pH to the appropriate range
– Keeps oxalate salts in solution (they form haze and gushing
if they precipitate)
– Reduces the extraction of tannins
– Assists in protein coagulation in the hot and cold breaks.
• The sulfate (SO4-2) ion accents hop bitterness and
dryness at the high concentrations found in the waters
at Burton-on-Trent.
Fining
• Fining is the process of adding chemicals/agents to wort or a finished beer in the fermenter to help
speed the flocculation process and promote the settling of haze forming proteins and tannins
• Although good clarity can be obtained from simple sedimentation, better results can be obtained in
less time by using fining agents
• The use of finings is not universal.
– They find their widest employment in the United Kingdom with some ale brewers but there has been
renewed interest in North America.
• Fining agents include isinglass (fish bladders), Polyclar (plastic dust, PVPP), and gelatin (among
others)
• Isinglass is a traditional "real ale" clarifier used in the United Kingdom, where the style of beer
benefits from a 48 hour clarification before or after casking.
– It is also used for fining chilled and filtered beers.
– Isinglass is a gelatinous substance derived from the internal membranes of fish bladders and comes in many
different forms.
– The currently accepted mechanism involves a direct interaction of positively charged isinglass with
negatively charged yeast to form flocs, which precipitate.
– Its effectiveness in settling ale yeast varies with the strain of yeast, and it is generally not recommended for
precipitating lager yeast.
• Gelatin works similar to Isinglass and is also rich in collagen, but it is not as pure as isinglass and is
not as effective at removing yeast.
• Polyclar works by latching on to tannins in the protein-tannin reaction.
– Known to work on chill haze
• Kettle finings like Irish Moss can assist in cold break formation
