Whirlfloc tablets...

Do many people here use them? I have used them in 2 of my last 3 batches with great success. The one thing I don't know is if it would actually affect flavor. I have heard both Irish Moss and Whirlfloc can potentially affect flavors though?

Any others I could try if they would?

It is hard to tell if they did because I haven't made the same batches twice.

They dont affect flavor at all, no need to worry. Stick with either Whirlfloc or Irish Moss and you'll be fine.

Oh heck yeah! I don't brew without it.

Rick

Essentially how both products work (Whirlfloc is a pelletized form of irish moss) is by binding themselves to proteins in the beer and making it easier for those proteins to precipitate out of solution.

Any time you are dropping things out of solution you can affect flavor.

I usually use a whirlfloc tablet in the beer, cold-crash the beer in primary, and depending on style, may also add in gelatin. This ensures I get very clear beer into my kegs.

Where I don't use gelatin is on an IPA, and on hefeweizen/roggenbier. Gelatin can strip out some hop compounds, and on a hefeweizen/roggenbier you want to keep yeast in suspension. So it's very much dependent on exactly what kind of beer I'm making. But for lagers, or standard American ales, or even Belgians and the like, I like to drop the yeast as much as possible for clarity, so I use whirlfloc + cold crash + gelatin.

1 Whirlfloc tab is good for 12 gal. of beer, so you can save yourself some money by only using 1/2 a tab per 5 gal.

Cheers thanks guys!

Whirlflock keeps my lagers crystal clear. I encourage you to look at some photos of what your wort looks like when using it. First time I used it I about **** myself when I looked at the Carboy.

DenverUSMC said:

Whirlflock keeps my lagers crystal clear. I encourage you to look at some photos of what your wort looks like when using it. First time I used it I about **** myself when I looked at the Carboy.

Click to expand...

Here is my lager using whirlflock tabs, and a strict lager schedule.

I have tried them and they work well. I went back to irish moss recently as I have a huge bag of it that needs to be used up. Works just as well just a tad smellier