Glossary
Hot break
Protein and polyphenol complexes coagulating and dropping out of wort during a vigorous boil.
A good hot break is visible as flakes suspended in the boiling wort. Removing it improves clarity and stability in the finished beer; leaving it in is one of the causes of persistent haze.
Related
- Cold break — The equivalent on rapid cooling.
- Chill haze — What insufficient break contributes to.
More vocabulary
Arrested fermentation · Barrel ageing · Batch sparging · Biotransformation · Blending · Bottle conditioning · Bottom fermentation · Burtonisation · Cask conditioning · Centrifugation
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.