Protafloc is available in tablets or granules, so what do they do?
Protafloc Tablets & Granules are carrageenan products that are added to the wort in the kettle to enhance protein removal as the wort cools. The build-up of proteins comes from the malt or adjunct in your recipe. Protafloc is best described as a clarifier and it ensures you get the carrageenan to bond to the proteins and be removed at the end of the boiling process via settlement in hot and cold breaks, this then simplifies further downstream fining requirements and prevents haze in the beer.
What is Protafloc made of?
The active ingredient in Protafloc is a polysaccharide called carrageenan which is derived from seaweed. Carrageenan in solution is negatively charged, owing to the sulphate groups along the polysaccharide backbone. It is these charged sites that interact with wort proteins. Whirlfloc is fairly similar, both are effective kettle finings
When do you add Protafloc?
Usually nearing the end of the boil with approximately 10 minutes before you finish the boil. The dosage rate for homebrewers is half a tablet for 25 litres
What is hot break in brewing?
Hot Break comprises proteins and polyphenols that coagulate during the wort boil, eventually clumping together in large enough pieces to break out of the solution and fall to the bottom of the kettle. The hot break usually occurs anywhere from 5 to 30 min after a vigorous boil has begun, these protein pieces are responsible for chill haze in the finished beer
What is cold break in brewing?
This term covers all the solids that precipitate out of solution when you rapidly cool wort after the boil
This handy tablet format can be used easily used to produce a clear wort going into the fermenter. There are some brewers that want no solids going into the fermenter and others to want a little cold break as it is said to be nutrient-rich. The other solid that may travel into the fermenter is hop debris.
Kettle finings optimisation procedure
The exact rate for a given wort will vary according to the brewery, the recipe and the types
of malt and adjuncts used. Typical rates vary from a range of 0.75g to 4.8g per hl, but a
kettle finings optimisation should be carried out to determine this more accurately. Rates
of use should be checked when you change supplier or move to new seasons malt.
When the dose rate increases, the clarity improves, but the level of sediment increases.
Over-fining will give rise to beer losses in the fermentation vessel. The optimisation procedure
is as follows:
- Make up a solution of kettle finings by dissolving 1g of carrageenan product in a litre of boiling water. (This gives a 0.1% solution)
- Label seven 100 ml measuring cylinders in 5 ppm increments, including a 0ppm control up to 30ppm
- Add a range of finings rates to the 100ml measuring cylinders using a 10ml pipette 0.5 ml of kettle finings solution = 5ppm).
- Take a wort sample (approx. 2L) 15 minutes before the end of the boil and just before the addition of kettle finings.
- Fill the measuring cylinders with 100ml of hot wort.
- Record the wort clarity and appearance of the hot break.
- Cool by immersion in cold water in the bucket for 20 minutes.
- Allow to settle for 2 – 4 hrs and observe the appearance of the cold break, recording the wort clarity and cold break volume.
- Allow to stand for a full 24 hours to get a final result.
- Decide on the optimum rate of kettle finings addition for the beer in question, there should be bright clear wort and compact sediment.
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