Best Taste/Clarity

OK so this seems to be coming up on almost a daily basis here lately.
For all the questions of: "when should I move my beer to the (secondary, keg, bottles, clearing tank) and the "How do I best clear my beer" here is my take on it all.

When to move: Own a Hydrometer and know how to use it. If you stay at a stable hydrometer reading for several days.....you are safe. To go farther into this subject, I will also lead into the clarifying question. Patience is a virtue. I know it is hard to leave that beer sitting alone in the dark for so long, and none of us want to give our beer a complex, Let it sit. 1 2 3 is a guideline NOT a rule. The longer you can let it sit, the better it will turn out (with few exceptions). You will not pick up off flavors because you let your beer sit on the cake for 13 days. As is becoming ever more a popular idea, the primary is ideal for flavor conditioning. If you are really paranoid, then let the hydrometer settle out for a few days then rack to your clearing tank (carboy, keg...what have you)

As for clarity...again TIME is your best friend. Let that beer sit and it WILL clear itself up. That is the nature of the beast. If you want super clear beer, let it sit then cold condition it for....you guessed it....more time. I promise it will work better than any finning agent you can buy, and it just might taste better too. This is a hobby that has very few short cuts. It takes time for beer to taste it's best (again with a few exceptions). RDWHAHB really is an important mantra here. We all want to drink that killer batch of brew the same week we brew it, but it just doesn't work that way. Yeast are a strange creature. They need time to set up house, then sweep the floors. If you rush them, it might be good beer, but it will be BETTER beer if you can just let em work!

Let experience guide you, not rule you and never be afraid! This is one of the best groups of people I have EVER found for information, but a little preliminary research will answer most all of your questions. Thousands of years can't be wrong.....live long and enjoy your brew!

Agreed. This is not a hobby for the impatient, whiny or lazy. Do your homework, read the forums instead of posting every five minutes when you have a question (read: beat to death questions). Please at least attempt to speak coherently. Not everyone's a master of grammar, granted, but the more lucidly you can relate your tale, the better chance we have of helping you. Respect those that have come before, take your time and learn to enjoy the journey. It's often more fun than the destination.

The obsession with clear beer somehow never made sense to me. Clear doesn't mean good and cloudy doesn't mean bad. Time heals all wounds and clears all beers. Your mom was right on one count and your pal Drunkensatyr's got the other.

-RS

'taint some of this covered in sticky threads already?

It is sad but true....waiting has improved every one of my beers.

RedSun, I am guessing that those who aren't grammar masters probably don't know what 'lucidly' means either..... :cross:

As a noob, and an impatient one at that, why do all the sales brochures, and marketing campaigns for BMC, stress the "Freshness" of their brew? Why does the Williams Brewing catalog say that it's so important to enjoy the freshest beer by making it yourself? (just playing devil's advocate here)

I know I have to wait a couple more weeks to get my Scotch Ale into bottles, and another number of weeks after that before it'll be properly carbinated. I know that 3 weeks into my primary on the Apfelwein I've got a couple more to go, as the damn carboy's still bubbling away and I'm beginning to think it's never going to stop. I don't think I'm whining here, because I was fully aware what I was getting into, but I am sharing my impatient feelings with a bunch of other people who share the same enthusiasm to actually sample some of their own product.

And how come BMC even goes bad? Shouldn't something that's been so far removed from the craft beer to the mass market, and pasteurized and homogenized, and had all sorts of other unnatural acts bestowed on an innocent wort, last as least as long as a can of condensed soup on the shelf?

I think homebrew is different from commercial beer. Homebrew, for some reason, needs to sit and age and many commercial beers don't.

Example: A few weeks ago I went with some other HBTers on a tour of the Carolina Brewing Company in Holly Springs, NC. They make a fabulous Winter Porter. It ferments for 4 weeks, then into bottles it goes. Its filtered, so it doesn't bottle condition. Its ready to drink and delicious after only 4 weeks.

I brewed a porter on Aug 18, almost 3 months ago, and it still needs more time to get really good.

Why is that?

comparing BMC to homebrew is like comparing donuts to apples.

I barely consider BMC to be beer at all, with all the filtering, the heavy use of grains other than barley & wheat, the light use of hopping, and the beechwood aging to further strip out the flavor of beer....

I'm not trying to be rude to you...really, the vasts majority of BMC drinkers don't know what defines a beer...they are not connoisseurs. some will never develop a taste for traditional styles any more than I will start liking dry white wines