Clarifing after kegging

So I kegged my first batch. Its a bit cloudy and I was wondering if I added whirlfloc to about a half cup of warm water and add it to the keg would it clear better, or should I just drink the cloudy beer?

I am not exactly sure how it became cloudy, but I remember about a tablespoon of well water accidentally may have leaked into my boil.

Any ideas or suggestions?

thanks in advance.

So many suggestions & comments....if you're already in the keg use gelatin to clarify. If this is your first batch, congratulations & welcome to brewing your own! Next time you can let the beer sit longer in primary, use whirlfloc when boiling, cold crash before racking over, or transfer to secondary before kegging.

That being said, you didn't state the style of beer you made or your methods. There are many steps along the way other and we need more information. The post above was kinda vague and if we can help with the cause, we can alleviate the symptoms. In the end, if the beer is good, enjoy! Clarity isn't the end all be all of brewing and the more you brew, the better it'll be.

My kegs always clear up after about 2 weeks in. It takes time for everything to settle out of suspension. Also, style and grain bill matter. My rye amber was cloudy to the last pint.

Whirlfloc is a kettle fining- that is, it works during the boil. If you want to clear a beer after fermentation, you'll need a post-fermentation fining. Some brewers like gelatin and say it works well. I want vegetarian-friendly beer so won't add animal products to my beer- I don't use any finings except for whirlfloc in the boil.

The recipe I used was called Abby normal. It used Belgian candy sugar, Cara Munich Malt, Biscuit Malt , Orange Peel, and white labs ale yeast in a vial. There was extract involved in it also, I don't think the extract had anything to do with it being cloudy,

I let it sit in the primary for about 15 days and then threw it in the fridge, before racking to the keg.

Does it sound like a cloudy recipe? Should I drink it (as is), or maybe use some gelatin on it?

By all means go ahead and drink it! There's nothing at all wrong with cloudy beer, it won't hurt you and it won't taste bad.

That said, a clear beer is aesthetically pleasing, and I have started working harder to clear my beers. As Yooper said, Whirlfloc won't work once the boil is complete. It would be useless at best and I wouldn't be surprised if it made the beer even murkier, and/or affected the taste.

You can wait awhile and see if it drops clear on its own. If you want to actively clear it, you might want to try gelatin. It's cheap and fairly easy, there's a good thread on it here.

Good luck.

I have an amber ale that is my first legged beer. Primary for 3 weeks. In the keg for 2. It's not really cloudy but there are chunks of something floating in it. Tastes ok. I've drawn about 6 glasses from it so far. Is this a wait and see situation? For legging would it age a few weeks before co2 then draw a few before carbonating?

Cloudy beer? Who cares! To each his own but "cloudy" isn't a flavor as far as I know.....

Get it clear before the keg next time!!

Now that I've stated the obvious, drink it as is. Not only will the cloudy not hurt anything, but when you add something to clear it, you cause all the stuff to settle out. When you rack it to the keg or put it in bottles, you leave it behind.
There is nowhere to leave it behind now unless you were to put it back into a carboy.

Add Gelatin Finings. 1/2tsp dissolved in 1 cup of 170* water. Dump into keg, put the lid back on wait 48 hours. Your first pour will have some sediment in it. I usually dump it out and than clear beer after that. I also use wirfloc in the kettle to help with hot break/cold break.

Yooper said:

I want vegetarian-friendly beer so won't add animal products to my beer.

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Strictly speaking, the gelatin doesn't make it into the beer, does it? Doesn't it just grab on to particulates in suspension and pull them to the bottom of the vessel? As I understood it, the gelatin never actually gets consumed.

I can appreciate wanting to avoid any animal-based ingredients ending up in the glass, but if you include things like gelatin in that list, then don't you also have to consider the items you use throughout the whole process? Is Star-San vegetarian friendly? Are there any animal products in the Iodine you use to test for starch conversion? The DME you used for your starter?

Just curious.

Certainly the vast majority of the gelatin does get left behind, but there is no way that I would believe that there is not some fraction (5%? 1%?) of the added gelatin that does make it into the final beer and remain in solution/suspension.

I'm an omnivore so I don't care. And someone who merely preferred to refrain from consuming animal products but didn't have a strong ethical position on it presumably wouldn't care either. But that doesn't describe most vegans or vegetarians that I know. I would never serve a beer I had fined with gelatin to a vegan.

And I'm pretty sure there's no animal products in any of the products you mentioned. DME in particular, is just the dried runnings from a mash that was made by the DME seller. So just grain and water (and minerals). StarSan is just acid and detergent (not soap, which frequently does have animal products).

starsman20 said:

.... I've drawn about 6 glasses from it so far. Is this a wait and see situation? ...

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Oh yes! wait some. Don't forget the beer comes from the bottom of the keg, you are still going to get some sediment/cloudiness/junk for the first couple of pours.

I doubt you are going to get crystal clear beer, but with time and a few more pours it will clear up a bit more. Gives you a reason to drink more: you're pulling out the sediment!!

The residual yeast and sediment will fall to the bottom of the keg. After a while the beer will begin to pour clear. Do not move or disturb the keg. If you could look inside the keg you would see the sediment that looks like a doughnut. The dip tube is pulling from the doughnut hole. If you move the keg around alot, you will stir up the doughnut and the beer will become cloudy again. I try not to move my kegs at all. Thats why when my beer kicks, I have seen the aforementioned doughnut yeast ring in the bottom of the keg when empty.

I use biofine clear in the keg. Biofine Clear is a clarifier made from SiO2, and is added to precipitate yeast and other haze-causing particles. Biofine is a vegan product.

My typical regime is to use Whirlfloc in the last 10 mins of the boil. I then ferment in primary, crash cool, and then rack to a keg. I add the Biofine before carbonating. If I don't plan on moving the keg I'll just leave it be in the kegerator and put on gas immediately. Otherwise, I'll leave it at 32 degrees and allow about 48 hrs for the biofine to settle out. Then I'll pull off a pint or two until the beer pours clear. Then I'll transfer to a new keg and then carbonate that one. This way the beer pours clear and if I move the keg around I don't get a bunch of sediment in the first few pints afterwards.

My beers are typically brilliant after this treatment.