Irish moss?

I just started brewing, a week and a half ago, and just yesterday I upgraded to 5 gallons from one gallon and got two extract kits from Austin Homebrew supply (Roggenbier and an Oktoberfest). Im really interested in sticking with the German purity law and I was curious where Irish Moss fits into that equation. I'm not overly concerned about it right now, this is more information that I will utilize when I start all grain brewing in a month or so, but I've read that as far as getting a clear beer it is a good option. I personally don't mind a beer that is not crystal clear, but those I plan on sharing with may be underwhelmed by the cloudiness of the beer. Is Irish moss allowed under the purity law? I just want to know. Are rules meant to be broken?

sundaypapers said:

I just started brewing, a week and a half ago, and just yesterday I upgraded to 5 gallons from one gallon and got two extract kits from Austin Homebrew supply (Roggenbier and an Oktoberfest). Im really interested in sticking with the German purity law and I was curious where Irish Moss fits into that equation. I'm not overly concerned about it right now, this is more information that I will utilize when I start all grain brewing in a month or so, but I've read that as far as getting a clear beer it is a good option. I personally don't mind a beer that is not crystal clear, but those I plan on sharing with may be underwhelmed by the cloudiness of the beer. Is Irish moss allowed under the purity law? I just want to know. Are rules meant to be broken?

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I don't think finings are allowed under the Reinhotsgebot. But I don't brew according to it, so I use kettle finings all the time anyway!

I use whirlfloc (a tablet form of Irish moss) and then no other finings and get super clear beer. I know others use finings like gelatin later on, but I want a vegetarian friendly beer. Irish moss and Whirlfloc are derived from seaweed.

Thanks Yooper! I saw that gelatin was used and I was also interested in keeping the beer vegetarian since several of my friends are vegetarian. From the UP? My wife's family is from Negaunee and Ishpeming! Maybe you can help settle a debate we have often: who has the best Cudighi? Cheers!

sundaypapers said:

Thanks Yooper! I saw that gelatin was used and I was also interested in keeping the beer vegetarian since several of my friends are vegetarian. From the UP? My wife's family is from Negaunee and Ishpeming! Maybe you can help settle a debate we have often: who has the best Cudighi? Cheers!

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Best cudighi is in this little hole-in-the-wall dingy bar in Iron River. It seats about 6.

If you use whirlfloc in the last 15 minutes or the boil (or Irish moss, rehydrated), and chill quickly after the boil, you should get a pretty clear beer without additional finings. I never use anything else, as people would not expect beer to be non-vegan/vegetarian friendly.

Awesome, thanks for the info. Also, I need to find out about this dingy bar...

I used Irish Moss for the 1st time just the other day. I picked up a baggy of it for .50 cents at my LBS. I figured I'd give it a try.....Glad I wasn't pulled over taking it home, cause it looks like a small bag of weed.

For wheat beers, you shouldn't use finings. You might think the exception would be krystalweizen, but that clarity usually comes from other methods such as filtering. If you want to avoid using finings, you still have options. You can filter the beer. You can use a secondary chamber. You can cold crash. Or, you can select a yeast that is highly flocullating.

From what I understand, Coors doesn't use finings to clarify their beer (Designing Great Beers). As for lagers, I would assume that bottom fermentation and extended time at low temperatures could clarify your beer. I recently had a dunkelweizen that was in my fridge for 6 months and that cleared.

Reinhotsgebot only allows water, barley, & hops.

Roggenbier is a rye beer, so it instantly isn't a Reinhotsgebot-compliant beer.

So forget the German purity laws since any addition of a non-barley grain will make it non-compliant. And yes, adding any fining agent violates Reinhotsgebot.

Moss is great, definitely not Reinhotsgebot friendly, but it's the only fining I've ever needed to get a good, clean beer. I do wanna say a couple things though; first, I use a whirl floc tab in every beer, even hefe's and my hefe's are still cloudy and hazy. I think, and this is based on my experience alone, one would need more than a whirlfloc to drop all the proteins in a hefe. Second, not all German beers still adhere to the Purity Law, like rhamilton said, a rye beer, or a hefeweisse would violate it right away with their grain bills. It's a neat, historic law, and more power to brewers who can adhere to it, but I'd feel severely limited in my brewing if I did. Third, if your Irish Moss looks like your weed, you're doing one of two things wrong.

Yooper said:

(or Irish moss, rehydrated)

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You rehydrate Irish Moss??

Why?

IXVolt said:

You rehydrate Irish Moss??

Why?

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It seems to work better when I do. I just had a teaspoon to about 1/4 cup hot water when I start my boil and then add it when there is 15-10 minutes left in the boil. I've done it both ways, rehydrated and not, and the rehydrated worked better. The whirlfloc worked best, though!

ludomonster said:

For wheat beers, you shouldn't use finings.

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I do. I don't expect some wheat beers to be clear (life hefeweizen) but an American wheat is nice and clear except for maybe a slight haze. It should never be "muddy" looking and it's more appealing to me to not have a ton of suspended solids in it. I've seen some homebrew wheats that look like orange crush. Ick!

Yooper said:

I do. I don't expect some wheat beers to be clear (life hefeweizen) but an American wheat is nice and clear except for maybe a slight haze. It should never be "muddy" looking and it's more appealing to me to not have a ton of suspended solids in it.

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+1 for finings in wheats. It won't be crystal but you'll have a pretty haze.

I seem to be doing fine without it in my wheat beers. I guess I should have said that you don't need it.