Clarity Question

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OblivionsGate

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Started drinking my first and second batch (brown ale from a kit and pumpkin ale) and happily they ended up being wonderful (getting a lot of praise for the pumpkin ale)!

I have one little question that is kind of nit-picky:

Why were both beers not very clear? Each beer had two weeks in primary, two weeks in secondary, and three to four in bottles. Tasted great, carbonated well, perfect head, but when looked at or held to light, was difficult to see through.

Its not a huge deal, but i'm a perfectionist
 
They'll never get to be as clear as commercial brew, for several reasons:

  1. Commercial breweries filter their beer, usually with plate filters, etc. Most homebrewers don't have that option.
  2. Commercial breweries mechanically carbonate their bottled beer, whereas most homebrewers naturally carbonate, facilitating the necessity of yeast still being in suspension, which results in "trub" at the bottom of each bottle, which gets roused when you pour and clouds it up.
  3. You probably don't have the ability to get rid of "chill haze". It's caused by proteins in the beer. It doesn't hurt anything but the look of the beer.

What you CAN do is add irish moss or whirfloc tablets 15 minutes before the end of the boil. That will help. So will finings such as gelatin or shellfish-based products. Lastly, if you have the ability, cold aging in carboy helps drop a lot of particulate out of suspension.

You say these are your first and second brews...and it's fine to be a perfectionist, but you've got a VERY long way to go from here, and clarity should really be one of the last concerns on a homebrewer's mind. I mean, adding irish moss is easy and I always do it, and I'll occasionally add a fining agent if a beer is particularly muddy, but usually, I just say "screw it" and worry about how my beer smells and tastes.
 
FWIW, I read somewhere that Irish Moss and Whirfloc begin to lose effectiveness after 5 minutes in the boil. I never put them in with more than 5 minutes to go. Some folks have used gelatin with great results, however, if you are bottling it may cause problems with lack of yeast to carbonate.
 
Already mentioned but worth repeating:

Finings in the boil.
Time in secondary.
Crash cool secondary for 2 days prior to bottling.
Gelatin in secondary.
Chill bottles undisturbed in fridge for a week before drinking, longer the better.
 
make sure your boil is rolling...not enough hot break means more proteins in the beer.

make sure you chill after the boil...cold break helps precipitate proteins.

and I've seen some of these guys' un-filtered home brew and its just as clear as any BMC out there.
 
homebrewer_99 said:
Leaving it in the primary for 2-3 weeks and the secondary for 1 month or more will also help.:D


Exactly! Patience Grasshopper. It's the one thing that most of us did not have in the beginning. I just bottled a wee heavy ale this past weekend that sat in the "secondary" for 2 months. It looks awesome and is probably the least cloudy ale I've bottled in 10 years of homebrewing.


loop
 
I'd have to second what hb99 said, I've been so busy lately with exams and all that the last beer that I brewed (which just happened to be Cheesefoods Caramel Ale, which callled for some irish moss to be used), I ended up leaving it in the secondary for a good 2 and a bit months and it's turned out being the clearest beer I've made (however I haven't really made all that many beers over the year, lol).

I don't really worry bout the clarity either though, I mean at the end of the day it's really about what it tastes like right? And anyway, I like to think that a slightly cloudy beer might be better for you, by having a bit of nutritional value, hehe, but then again I like to lie to myself sometimes :D
 
homebrewer_99 said:
If you are REALLY concerned about serving cloudy beer just switch to ceramic mugs...;)

Thanks for the help, although homebrewer99 was my favorite!

I was hoping for something magic though, since I already use irish moss :( but it still tastes great so I guess I'll have to live with great tasting cloudy beer :mug:
 
Time really does make a huge difference. If you can bottle the beer and let it sit for a month, and then chill it for a couple of weeks in the bottle, it'll be very clear. Especially if you use a yeast like Nottingham that forms a compact and tight yeast cake. Most people just don't have the patience, though.
 
Interesting bit about Whirlfloc. The manufacturer of the Irish Moss I use says put it in at the beginning of the boil. I suspect it is one of those things where is just doesn't matter.
 
+1 on time. It's the ultimate fining agent. In time, kept cold, your beer will clear.

I also use Irish moss for all my beers and gelatin in my ales to help out.


TL
 
YooperBrew said:
Time really does make a huge difference. If you can bottle the beer and let it sit for a month, and then chill it for a couple of weeks in the bottle, it'll be very clear. Especially if you use a yeast like Nottingham that forms a compact and tight yeast cake. Most people just don't have the patience, though.

This is even true in the bottle...

On Sunday I had a bottle of hefeweizen that I made over the summer, and it had been sitting in the fridge for about a month. The first glass I poured was clearer than most of my non-wheat brews!
 
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