whirlfloc didnt clear my beer?

had great results with whirlfloc in the past. ususally add it at 15min left in boil. this time i added it, but also for the first time added BrewVint Yeast Fuel (austin homebrew yeast nutrient) at the same time of 15 min left in boil. my beer is not clear and pretty hazy. anybody know if there is relation between the yeast nutrient and whirlfloc? or any other reasons why the whirlfloc didnt work? every previous beer has been clear until i tried it in correlation with this yeast nutrient....weird

How fast did you chill to pitching temp? I have noticed that the whirfloc does not start taking effect until the wort has cooled down quite a bit.

I use Wyeast yeast nutrient and chill my wort to pitch in about 20-25 minutes. Has not failed me so far as I always get huge chunks of break material!

Of course I may be way off base so don't take my word for it!

im about the same. usually chilled in about 25-30. i noticed there was not a huge amount of break material this time, hence why im wondering if this yeast nutrient had any impact since its my first time using it.

bump, anybody else?

This is a coincedence. Did you notice a faster healthier fermentation, even if it is cloudy? Did you use any different ingredients or yeast this time? In brewing 20 years, I have had this happen to me twice. It just took longer to clear. After the secondary I put the beer in a tertiary and it started to clear within an hour of transfering. It was cool. You can see the beer at the top getting darker and the darkness heads down the carboy.

Forrest.

Austinhomebrew said:

This is a coincedence. Did you notice a faster healthier fermentation, even if it is cloudy? Did you use any different ingredients or yeast this time? In brewing 20 years, I have had this happen to me twice. It just took longer to clear. After the secondary I put the beer in a tertiary and it started to clear within an hour of transfering. It was cool. You can see the beer at the top getting darker and the darkness heads down the carboy.

Forrest.

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wow thats crazy. fermentation actually took about 30 hours to take off from pitching time. thats the longest ive waited ever to see signs from the airlock (i understand airlock is not a gauge for fermentation readings). it ended pretty quick as well. i hit my OG and FG right on target so i see no problems. i used wlp004 irish ale yeast for the first time as well so im a little confused as what happened. otherwise, the beer tastes fine, im only about 5 pints into the keg so im curious if it will start clearing as i drink. time will tell...

This may be slightly off topic, but...

I've been using whirlfloc now for some time, but I'm still a bit unsure how I should 'use' it after adding it to the final 15 mins of the boil.

Let me clarify a bit (no pun intended!): I do notice all the 'chunky' proteins settling at the bottom of the brew kettle after letting it sit awhile and cooling it down.

Am I to leave all that behind when I rack to fermenter? (I hesitate to do so because that seems to be one heck of a lot of wort to be leaving behind at that point.) Then again, if I transfer it over, then the proteins come with--and then settle down there later. But even if I do that, and ultimately don't rack that--and leave it as part of the trub--it still seems like one heck of a lot of beer is still mixed in that I'm saying 'see ya!' to.

Is that simply part of brew losses when using whirlfloc? Or am I missing something?

Cheers,
Chad

Chad,

Yes, you want to leave the vast majority of that goopy stuff behind, though a little bit is okay and possibly even good for the beer. The easiest way to avoid this is to get a vigorous whirlpool going once it is cooled, allow it to settle a bit (I wait 30-45 minutes, keeping it covered), and siphon from the side. If you are running off of a spigot you can use a hopback or another strainer.

kevmoron said:

Chad,

Yes, you want to leave the vast majority of that goopy stuff behind, though a little bit is okay and possibly even good for the beer. The easiest way to avoid this is to get a vigorous whirlpool going once it is cooled, allow it to settle a bit (I wait 30-45 minutes, keeping it covered), and siphon from the side. If you are running off of a spigot you can use a hopback or another strainer.

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Ah ha. So that may be my biggest issue--not whirlpooling after it cools. Generally, I've been doing the whirlpool at flame out, but then that always gets disturbed due to the addition of either the immersion chiller or sometimes purified ice--or if I'm doing a stove top brew, by pouring it all through a basket strainer into the plastic bucket prior to primary.

Most of my brews are 10 gal, for which I do go through the spigot off the brew kettle. While I do have a filter on that, I've still not been whirlpooling after cooling. I will for sure do that next time and hopefully remedy the issue.

Thanks for the advice!

Chad,
first let me begin by saying everyones results vary...
I use Whirlfloc at 15 minutes. I run my wort through a fine chinois to remove hop material and add the entire batch to the fermenter. After 3 weeks or more (usually) in the fermenter, 2-4 weeks in the bottle, and a week or so in the fridge I get commercial style crystal clear beer out of the bottle.
Whirlpooling makes me tired and angry. I think it is a waste of time.
Give your beer enough time and it will clear.

ChadLeBald said:

Ah ha. So that may be my biggest issue--not whirlpooling after it cools. Generally, I've been doing the whirlpool at flame out, but then that always gets disturbed due to the addition of either the immersion chiller or sometimes purified ice--or if I'm doing a stove top brew, by pouring it all through a basket strainer into the plastic bucket prior to primary.

Most of my brews are 10 gal, for which I do go through the spigot off the brew kettle. While I do have a filter on that, I've still not been whirlpooling after cooling. I will for sure do that next time and hopefully remedy the issue.

Thanks for the advice!

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Whirlpooling might have something to do with how much crap ends up on the bottom of your primary, but it shouldn't have anything to do with how much remains in suspension in the final product.