I've been listening to the archives of the Brewing Network's Sunday Session show, a podcast and online live radio show about brewing. One of things that I've heard recently on an episode, entitled "Jamil #2 - Fermentation Tips," has to do with break material removal from lagers. Apparently having a little break material in an ale is not a big deal. However, most award winning brewers diligently remove break material from lagers before fermentation. One thing that I have not heard, though, is a reason why.
In the show, Jamil mentions that the way he removes trub is that he starts his whirlpool using a pump before the boil even ends. He keeps the whirlpool going during cooling, which moves the wort quickly over an immersion chiller. Once he gets it down to temp, 45 degees F or so, he stops the whirlpool, and lets it settle. He then moves the beer to a conical, leaving behind as much trub as possible. He then lets it sit in the conical for up to 8 hours at 43 degrees F. Finally, he dumps about a gallon on beer from the bottom dump, to remove the last remaining trub. Then -- and only then -- he pitches his lager yeast starter.
The last thing really surprised me. I have have always had a desire to pitch the yeast as soon as possible, to overcome any bacteria or other nasties that might get in there. However, I may try Jamil's way to see what happens.
Follow up:
I actually dropped Jamil Zainasheff an email about this very subject. Jamil Zainasheff, for those who don't know, is one of the few people who has brewed every style in BJCP's style guide. He is also a podcaster, brewing author, and one of the most award winning brewers on the planet. Not only that, cool guy that he is, he wrote me back. He mentioned a couple of good points.
First, to answer my question as to why to remove break material form lagers, he said that leaving break material in causes the beer to stale. That is good to know.
Second, on the subject of waiting eight hours to pitch, he mentioned that one should employ "flawless sanitation." The word flawless scares me a bit. I am diligent about sanitation, but I'm guessing that my sanitation is far from flawless. If I've learned anything from listening to the brewing network, it is that Jamil's idea of flawless sanitation is truly just that - flawless. This is a man who has a clean room in his house. I may shy away from waiting eight hours to pitch.
Finally, Jamil mentioned his website, www.mrmalty.com, where he outlines the details of his whirlpool chiller I talked about above. I checked it out. It was indeed cool.
On that subject, I guess his whirlpooling technique is so successful that he no longer uses a conical to dump the break material. He can simply leave it behind in the kettle.
That is all for now. More on my lager quest later.
I made another small equipment mod. The way this one worked is that I had a small screen that fit over a siphon nose that I no longer used. Low and behold, I found out that this screen fit perfectly in the drain hole of my Polarware kettle. I did find that I had to cut it down a bit so it would not bump into the immersion chiller when it is also in the kettle, but other than that it was perfect. 
