Irish Moss

BYO's fat tire clone says to throw in the irsh moss for the last thirty minutes. Now from what I know about Irish Moss, it is just to help cold haze, and doesn't need to be in for more than 10 min. Couldn't I just throw it in with my 10 min hop addition, i don't want to end up with some funky moss flavor in my brew?

Some people put their moss in at 30 min, I've tried it and haven't tasted any mossy flavors. But I'm no expert, so I'm not totally sure if it makes a difference or not.

I've always been pretty haphazard about Irish Moss - sometimes I use it, sometimes I forget it, it seems to be pretty taste-neutral no matter what.

Kind of like feeding 1 sardine to a whale...no effect...

ilikestuff said:

BYO's fat tire clone says to throw in the irsh moss for the last thirty minutes. Now from what I know about Irish Moss, it is just to help cold haze, and doesn't need to be in for more than 10 min. Couldn't I just throw it in with my 10 min hop addition, i don't want to end up with some funky moss flavor in my brew?

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carrageen; carragheen
[KEHR-ah-geen]
Also called Irish moss , carrageen is a stubby, purplish seaweed found along the west coast of Ireland, as well as North America's Atlantic coast. When dried, carrageen is used in cosmetics and medicines and is greatly valued as a thickening agent for foods such as puddings, ice cream and soups.

From what I read I don't believe it has much flavor to impart one way or the other

my understanding is irish moos is just a clearing agent, almost all of my brew asked for it I never wassted my money to buy it and had no problems

Irish Moss needs to be boiled in order to activate it, most references say in the last 15 minutes of the boil. It won't add any flavor as homebrewer_99 says.

fwiw, you really don't need it unless you are doing something off the wall. Most beers that don't have fruit/veggie/etc added can usually clear on their own when cold conditioned for a good deal of time. I have used it, but typically only add it on beers that I want to assure come out crystal clear. I think all it really does though (aside from the aforementioned case) is expedite the clarifying process.