Almonds in beer, need help clearing!! any agents recommended?

So I decided to make a Honey Lager. Bought a Munton's beer kit, and I put a bag of fresh toasted almonds and toasted coconut into a blender and poured in some water and hit 'blend'. Then i added the opaque almond mixed water into the primary, topped up to 23 litres and pitched the yeast. I used a little honey and a little sugar. Everythings going good, I managed to remove most all of the almond oil from the surface of the beer--if theres any left its just a trace. Fermentation went well. Its now in a glass carboy.

But! I've got a problem... The beer is still cloudy from the almond mix! The almond-milky water did not settle out. Can anyone recommend a clearing agent that will not kill the yeast? (I still need to put this kick ass home brew into bottles!

My friend recommended a seaweed mix, any other tips on clearing?

Cheers,
brewman1982
:fro:

If it's ready to bottle put it in the fridge overnight and add gelatin to it...but leave it in the fridge.

Maybe it'll help.

Thanks for the reply, homebrewer_99. I'd use gelatin but i'm trying to keep the beer free of animal products. But I appreciate the tip. If the seaweed doesn't clear it, I'll pick up some gelatin.

Cheers!
BrewMan1982

Bentonite is a clay fining agent that might work. The residual oils on the almond particles could be a problem, as fining agents work by 'latching' onto proteins. I don't use my filter very often, but sometimes it's the only solution.

This friend of yours sounds like a good guy.

First off, thanks to homebrewer_99 and David_42 for their suggestions, and DawsonH for the Seaweed clearing agent. :cross:

I bottled the Almond Honey Lager today.

Last night I added some Bentonite and a teaspoon of the Seaweed agent (boiled in a cup of water for 5 minutes). The seaweed mix went into the carboy without protest, the Bentonite caused a small fizz-up, but nothing serious. I decided to bottle today because I thought I'd let the bentonite and seaweed settle out in the bottles, that way I'll still have lots of yeast suspended in the brew to activate the bottling sugar.

Its still cloudy but I think a week or two and it will clear. This beer has a very profound roasted almondish taste, and I recommend anyone who loves almonds to try it, or some variation thereof.

RECIPE (in progress ):

Almond Honey Beer:

One Morgan's Brand Lager Kit - follow instructions
1 500g bag of fresh sliced almonds
1 cup of fresh coconut shredded or flaked
3 cups sugar
2 cups honey (domestic)
3 tbsp Bentonite
1 tsp Seaweed clearing agent
--------------------------------

Brew kit according to instructions. While topping up primary, toast almonds and coconut in oven at 350F0---pay close attention, and remove when almonds and coconut brown. Place almonds and coconut (now toasted) into a blender and top up with cold tap water. Hit blend. Add almond mixture to primary beer tub.

After seven days I added the last, 2nd cup of honey. I also syphoned the beer from the primary into a secondary carboy using a strainer, and being careful to leave out the almond oil which had by now risen to the surface of the foam in the primary tub.

Leave another 4 days in the secondary and then add 3 tablespoons of bentonite (crushed) and 1 teaspoon of seaweed clearing agent. Stir but watch for a foam-up.

Then Bottle--allow to clear further in bottles.

Cheers,
brewman1982.

You shouldn't be stirring anything in secondary. It sounds like you were rushing things a bit. How long did you let it sit in secondary? From the sound of it, it seems you added the honey which reactivated the yeast, and then when the yeast was still active, you decided to add bentonite and bottle.

I really don't think a cup of honey would be fermented out in just 4 days...

Damn Squirrels, thanks for the tip. I was trying to get the brew into the bottles before all the yeast had been cleared/settled to the bottom by the bentonite. So, in effect, there would still be enough active yeast (yes, also active from the additional honey) to activate the bottling sugar.

Incidentally, its been two days, and the beer has cleared remarkably. The sediments are collecting in the bottoms.

Unless you let the beer sit for more than 2 months, even if you can't see any yeast, there will still be plenty of yeast remaining to carbonate. Yeast are microscopic. You can definitely wait for the beer to clear before bottling. It's really not a problem.

Anyway, a cup of honey is about what you'd use to prime beer with honey. So I'm guessing you're about double-primed. On the bright side, it takes honey many weeks to ferment, so as long as you open them at regular intervals to check the carbonation level, the risk of explosion ought to be pretty low.

Cheers!!!

yeesh thats a long ferment cycle, i'll check it soon to see about the carbonation.

Cheers!
Brewman1982




:fro:

brewman1982 said:

...Incidentally, its been two days, and the beer has cleared remarkably. The sediments are collecting in the bottoms.

Click to expand...

You probably should have done a tertiary racking to allow the brew to clear there. This way you would not have as much sediment in your bottles or risk some bottles grenades from the honey not being fermented out.

REMEMBER: The clearer the beer that is racked to the bottling bucket the clearer/cleaner the beer will come out of the bottle.

Just to let everyone know,

The beer turned out great. Its got a good but managable head, and i think Dawson and beenjamin will agree, its got a unique, pronounced and very sustained aftertaste of almonds. At first this was overpowering, but now its mellowed nicely--and we're all delighted with it.

The bentonite and seaweed seem to have done the trick. I recommend this pair of clearing agents to anyone in a murky bind.

Bottoms up,
Brewman1982:fro: