samc

Recipes 

I thought the point of Whirlfloc/moss is to remove the unstable proteins that lead to spoilage of the beer. So while they will naturally drop out with extended aging, they are still in the bottle or keg anyway. So if you are keeping the beer long term, it might go bad faster. Just guessing on this, don't really know for sure. I do use Whirlfloc.

avidhomebrewer

Recipes 

Not sure the above statement is correct or not, but I have several big beers aging/sampling now that have sat at least 9 months and haven't had any spoilage issues. From my experience, I haven't seen spoilage concerns when not using Irish moss (haven't used whirlfloc)

pfranz

Recipes 

I heard the same thing as samc in Palmer's How to Brew:
"While much of the emphasis on using finings is to combat aesthetic chill haze, the real benefit of dropping those compounds is to improve the taste and long-term stability of the beer. See Appendix C for more info." p91

rico567

Recipes 

I didn't use Irish moss or any of its derivatives for the first year I brewed. Most beers conditioned clear enough, but some (e.g., anything used with Wyeast 1056) wouldn't. I got a package of Whirlfloc tablets and have used them in anything other than hefes. I find that it produced uniformly clear beer. The Whirlfloc will be gone soon, and I'll switch to a Five Star product called Super Moss, which is pretty much just the pure active ingredient in Irish Moss (carrageenan).

__________________
“Malt does more than Milton can / To justify God’s ways to man”

-A. E. Housman (1859–1936). A Shropshire Lad , 1896.

MikeGottsch

Recipes 

Stopped using it long ago. There's been no noticeable absence. Recent issue of BYO has a study showing that, in most instances, it make beer MORE cloudy than not using it.

permo

Recipes 

In my last few batches I have kind of figured that you get things to settled out either way..if you use a kettle fining you leave it in the kettle, if you don't the stuff just settles to the bottom of the fermenter with the yeast.

Part of me thinks you may get a slightly more healthy fermentation without kettle finings, more food for the yeasties. I have no proof, just a theory.

Baldy_Beer_Brewery

Recipes 

I finally got around to tapping the IPA I brewed sans moss last night. It was much cloudier than I expected after chilling for two weeks. Something else I didn't do that I normally do for this recipe is dry hop in the secondary and dry hopped in the keg instead. I'm brewing the same recipe today and I'll likely add the Irish Moss this time.

woodstone

Recipes 

Been brewing 15 years, used irish moss, started using Whirlfloc, noticed a difference. Bottled, kegged, etc. Conditioned days, months, etc.

You know what...beer is great, don't care about super clear or not. Taste is everything.

You want to serve super clear to those who care...THEN, start worrying.

As always, ONLY my $0.02.

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On Deck Nada
Fermenting/Conditioning Simcoe IPA, Cascade IPA, Ginger Saison, Sour Brown
Almost Gone Steam, Midas Touch, Chile Lager, Chablis Mead, Sticky Red Raspberry Mead

Bubba

Recipes 

5-6 weeks in the primary and 4 weeks bottle conditioning usually clears up an average gravity beer......even a hefe will clear up with time. But like woodstone says taste is everything!!!!!!