Can't get my beer to clear

I brewed a Rochefort 10 trappist ale clone right before Labor day. This, of course, is a very high gravity brew with lots of crushed grains and sugars and DME added. I left behind as much trub as I could out of the brew pot when siphoning to the primary, then I racked to secondary after about 2 weeks, leaving behind a more of the trub. It's been in there about 2.5 weeks now. The secondary is a 6 gallon ale pail with spigot, so I've taken a couple samples via the spigot and they are still completely cloudy with sediment at the bottom of the glass. Should I be worried? If I bottle when cloudy will there be major sediment in my beer?

Can you cold crash the fermentor? That's probably the best way to clear your beer in short order.

Yeah, you could either crash the batch in the secondary Ale Pail or you can also transfer to a carboy with gelatin added. I love using gelatin to clarify my beer. Give it about three days and it should be quite clear. You can then transfer to the keg or bottle if you're going that route.

well you said that you are taking samples from a spigot. I use a secondary as well, which is not needed, as many people will tell you. I use a glass 5 gal carboy and there is always about an inch of trub on the bottom. When you take it from the spigot, you are almost definitely getting some of that trup. Trying using a thief or turkey baster (sanatized of course) and take a sample from the top. It will propbably be a lot clearer.

Also, cold crashing it will defintely help.

Also, remember that your pulling samples from the bottom, if you're pulling them from the spigot. That's where all the trub and stuff goes. Try opening the top and using a sanitized baster to pull out a sample from the top. Beer clears from the top down, and the top is clearer first.

As was previously mentioned, cold helps alot, too. Get that baby cold, and the excess yeast and proteins will fall out much more easily.

what yeast did you use?

I used a primary with a spigot, and used the spigot to rack to my secondary (better bottle). The fermentation was already over - below the expected FG, stable for 3 days, 1 week at 80F (belgian yeast), and I didn't even budge the primary.

It was cloudy as hell, and a couple hours after racking, the better bottle had an inch of trub in it.

So yeah, You're racking trub from your spigot. Don't use a spigot for anything other than bottling clear beer. Lesson learned.

So when I bottle, I will need to rack to another pail, dump the trub, then rack back to the spigot pail so I can bottle clear beer?

How do I cold crash? How cold does it need to be and for how long? Can I just leave it on the back porch overnight when its 45 degrees?

bbriscoe said:

So when I bottle, I will need to rack to another pail, dump the trub, then rack back to the spigot pail so I can bottle clear beer?

How do I cold crash? How cold does it need to be and for how long? Can I just leave it on the back porch overnight when its 45 degrees?

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You don't HAVE to bottle from your spigot bucket, you can just bottle from a racking cane with a bottling wand on it, but you will want to rack to a new bucket to mix in your priming sugar at least.

Leaving it on your porch over night won't quite do it, but it's a start and if it's all you can do then it is better than nothing. Just make sure there aren't any critters that might get a whiff and come looking for a sample...

qvantamon said:

I used a primary with a spigot, and used the spigot to rack to my secondary (better bottle). The fermentation was already over - below the expected FG, stable for 3 days, 1 week at 80F (belgian yeast), and I didn't even budge the primary.

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Do you know the specific yeast? How does it flocculate?

bbriscoe said:

How do I cold crash? How cold does it need to be and for how long?

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I have never cold crashed, but I have taken notes on what others have said to do. Based on what I have in my notes, once the beer has been in the secondary for roughly 2 weeks, you cold crash @ 40 degrees for 3 days. As others have suggested, adding gelatin before you cold crash seems to help as well.

ok, i took a sample last night from the top and one from the spigot. Big difference. The one from the spigot was murky but very sweet. The sample from the top was a lot more clear, though very dark of course as trappist ale is. Still there were floaters near the top. I'm not sure if it was pieces of crushed grain or the irish moss I added at the end.

OGravity was 10.3. On 9/19 it was 3.3. Now it is 2.7. How much longer should I give it before I bottle? Also, the recipe said to pitch more yeast 3 days before bottling, but my LHBS only gave me one pkg of yeast. Should I go back for more, and if I do more yeast, will this make the beer even more cloudy once again?