clarifying beer

so i brewed my first hefeweizen. i just kegged it, its a little cloudy. is it going to clarify with time? is there anything i can add to it to clarify it? if its too late to ad something, i am brewing a cerveza tonight. is there something should add(when) to make it clarify well

How long did you let it sit before you kegged it? Also, The first glass or two will be pretty cloudy if you let the keg sit for a little while. All the sediment will dropout to the bottom and corny kegs draw from the bottom. Irish moss is a good clarifying agent, just add some with 10-15 minutes left in your boil. Crash cooling works pretty well also and from what I've read around here gelatin does as well.

its been in the frementer for 3 weeks. now its gonna sit in the keg for at least 2, should i wait 3 or more?

hefeweizens are supposed to be cloudy. That's part of their character, hence the name (hefe means yeast in german)

If you refrigerate it for two weeks I don't see why it wouldn't clear up quite a bit more. The cold temps will cause the yeast to go dormant and go to the bottom. Did you just draw one glass from the keg or more than one. I'm pretty sure that the first glass or two is always a little cloudy.

It should be cloudy, that's a major part of the style. The yeast will take quite a while to drop out.

As long as by "cloudy" you don't mean "chunks of goop" or anything gross, you should be fine. Clearing it would require lots of time or a filter, and make it a different style of beer. It will clear a bit over time, but don't avoid drinking it because of that.

I'd start drinking as soon as it's carbed and tastes good, hefe's are meant to be drank cloudy & young.

i didnt draw anything from the keg yet. i was just looking at my sample for my final hydrometer reading.

What yeast did you use? Most hefe yeasts are very poor flocculators and that style of beer is intended to be cloudy.

it's supposed to be cloudy.

ok i didnt realize it was supposed to be cloudy. ignore the question and how would i clarify my cerveza then

Irish moss, finings, gelatin or crash cooling. I've never personally used gelatin just irish moss and crash cooling.

I'm a big fan of whirlfloc, which goes in the boil with 15 minutes to go. Another couple of points for beer clarity- get a good hot break (kind of like when you cook spaghetti- big foamy head, then finally it stops doing that) and then chill the wort as quickly as you can, and get a good break. A good cold break will look terrible with lots of big gobs in it. But that coagulated protein is what can cause lack of clarity in the beer. If you get a good hot and cold break, you'll have less haze in your beer.

Another thing to consider is choice of yeast. Some strains, like the hefe mentioned above as well as some other strains (wyeast's German ale yeast, # 1007 for example) are noted to be poor flocculators, which mean the yeast tends to remain in suspension.

Cold crashing (putting the carboy in the fridge for a couple of days) can help with those stubborn yeast strains that don't want to flocculate.

Some yeast strains, like Nottingham, are noted for their particularly high flocculation rates and are very useful in helping to give the best clarity to the beer.

ok great. the yest for my next brew is nottingham. i'll give it a good cold crash, and go from there

I'm confised, you say you are brewing a cerveza tonight, but cerveza simply means "beer" in Spanish. What exactly are you brewing? I think that what you are brewing will naturally dictate how clear it can be (haze, et al. aside).

see here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/filtering-84407/

Also, if you search for "clarifyers," "gelatin" and "crash cooling" you will get more info on various techniques and such.

RedIrocZ-28 said:

I'm confised, you say you are brewing a cerveza tonight, but cerveza simply means "beer" in Spanish. What exactly are you brewing? I think that what you are brewing will naturally dictate how clear it can be (haze, et al. aside).

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Maybe by cerveza he means a corona "type" beer. I think that coopers, muntons, and some LHBS have beers called cervezas which are corn, rice, and barley lagers.