Beer clarity??

I have been brewing for a couple years now and most of my beers have come out pretty tasty, but not so clear. What are some tips to having a clear brew?

Depends on your set-up, cold-crashing typically gets the job done for me. If I am going for incredibly clear I'll also use gelatin, but cold-crashing is typically enough.

Whirflock or Irish Moss in the boil.... Quickly cooling the wort.... being patient and leaving your beer in the fermenter to allow the yeast to do it's job and for all sediment to settle out.... dark brown Beer bottles to prevent you from seeing that all those steps still left your beer more hazy than you would like!!!!!!

1. Letting it ferment to completion and then give it another week or so to settle(but you probably already knew that)
2. Cold crash. About a week or so before you package, get the temperature down to 45* or below.
3. Then when it's cold, add gelatin.
If you do #2 and 3 and let it sit for 3-4 days, almost guaranteed your beer will be clear.
4. Then I suppose #4 should be: siphon carefully so you won't stir up the trub and resuspend it(but you probably already have that one covered too).

Whirfloc, Cold Crashing, and fermenting at 68 degrees works for me

Do you bottle or keg? There is a difference in achievable clarity between the two. I ferment for at least 3 weeks. Cold crash for another could days to a week. Then I'm very careful on transfer to keg. Usually, within 2 weeks the keg is as clear as any commercial version.

I've found with bottles and naturally carbing some of that leftover sediment at the bottom always gets kicked up at least a little. So even commercial beers end up a little hazy after a pod for me. Yeah I can pour them clear, but I'd rather have that extra ounce of beer with a little haze rather than clear beer.

I'll admit, maybe I'm lucky when it comes to clarity. I don't really do anything special and still end up with pretty clear beer.

I wonder if part of it is just me leaving it sit for so long. I have a good pipeline, so a lot of it is just giving the beer time to settle out all the sediment. Unless I have a really hoppy IPA, rarely is anything tapped before its six weeks old.


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Give us some details on your process.

Do you use any Irish moss or whirlfloc? How do you chill? What yeast? What temp do you ferment at? How long?

My wort is usually pretty clear but where I run into issues is with dryhopping. For that I use gelatin.

For clear wort are you getting a good hot/cold break? Are you using whirlfloc toward the end of the boil (I usually forget this step even with the whirlfloc right next to the BK)? Are you cold crashing before packaging?

I wrote this up a few months ago about the subject: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/clear-wort-clear-beer.html

There are several things that go into making a clear beer, but the article isn't very long. In addition to the brewing techniques mentioned, yeast health is also important, and making sure your wort has a minimum of 50 ppm of calcium in it will help with yeast flocculation. Also, using a flocculant yeast strain means the beer will clear better as well.

When you cold crash, get it as cold as you can without freezing it. It works great. Otherwise the only advice I can give is to echo the others in saying:

-get a good hot break
-use Irish Moss
-get a good cold break
-cold crash after fermentation
-rack carefully
-try not to add things that cause haze (pectin haze from fruit)
-use something like knox gelatin if you want that extra clarity

It probably sounds like a lot, but when you start doing it on every batch it just becomes 2nd nature...or you just start getting lazy and not care about clarity

I never really tried to clear until recently. Being still young to the process, I was more concerned about taste and process over clarity.

I do not have irish moss or whirflock, although I suppose I should pick them up. On my last two batches I cold crashed with gelatin. The second beer is still in crashing, but the first one was a lot more clear. I bottle condition, so it's still not perfect. I'm sure if I pick up some irish moss, cold crash and begin kegging (soon!), it will be even better.

Below is a picture of two batches of the same beer. One just fermented and bottled the other fermented and crashed.

I use to try Irish moss and the. Other fining agents...ultimately decided time and cold crashing is the best. You can cold crash in a keg...just let it sit longer...but it you bottle then cold crashing after secondary would be my choice. Important to note...my tummy has no optical nerves...nor does my palate...then only taste the malty, hoppy goodness...hiccup...wait...what were we talking about?

JimRausch said:

1. Letting it ferment to completion and then give it another week or so to settle(but you probably already knew that)
2. Cold crash. About a week or so before you package, get the temperature down to 45* or below.
3. Then when it's cold, add gelatin.
If you do #2 and 3 and let it sit for 3-4 days, almost guaranteed your beer will be clear.
4. Then I suppose #4 should be: siphon carefully so you won't stir up the trub and resuspend it(but you probably already have that one covered too).

Click to expand...

Two thumbs-up.