Clearing up beer

I have read that you can use things like gelatin to clear up your beer. I was wondering what that would do to the carbonation? Doesn't some (if not all) the cloudiness come from the yeast suspended in the beer. I only bottle and not keg my beer using CO2 created when I add priming sugar to carb up my beer. Would I have to use carb tabs if I put gelatin in. also, I don't usually do a seconary fermintation.

I wouldn't use gelatin if I were bottle conditioning.

You can use Gelatin and still bottle, there should still be enough yeast in suspension to carbonate your bottle, but it may take a little longer.

Chromados

If you don't secondary, then how long are you leaving it in primary? I primary for a month, and besides the normal sediment needed in bottle conditioned beers in order to carb them, they are beautifully clear. Also the longer you leave them in the fridge the tighter that yeast cake will be and again, your beer will be extremely clear....

I've never added geletin to my beers to clear them, heck half the time I forget moss during brewing, but my beer is uber clear.

Have to agree. Finings are a short cut but most beer will clear eventually. Had a bottle of Schneider hefeweizen in my fridge for a good while that I without thinking defaulted to homebrew pour for and got a practically clear pint!

If you use gelatin to clear, you'll still have enough yeast for bottle conditioning. A lot of the haze that you're pulling out with gelatin comes from proteins, not yeast.

Throw some irish moss in towards the end of the boil next time. I've been doing this for awhile now, and it helps alot. My first few beers were pretty cloudy even after been in the fridge for a couple weeks before being drank. But then I started using irish moss and they are getting pretty clear

Strange though it may sound, I've found that since I've been doing good water adjustments that my beers drop bright every time. I use 1.5 tsp of Irish Moss too, but the water correction is really what's made the difference with me. I primary for three weeks, then bottle. I drink one test bottle every week and even the first one after 7 days in the bottle is crystal clear, not even any chill haze. No finings, no filtering.

Can't remember the science behind the water correction thing, but I seem to distantly remember that it might be the calcium helping out with this. Anyone wanna step up on the science?

I bottle as well and have never used gelatin, but the time I used Irish Moss made a big difference in clarity over what I've seen before. So another vote for that.

time/ or cold temps clear bear the el-natural way.. i've never used any fining aside from gravity.

Hey

I'm kinda new to homebrewing but once i stated lol im how would you say addicted

In regards to MattHollingsworth point with the calcium.
The reason finning agents work is because they are actually positively or negatively charged molecules that go into the liquid and attach themselves to proteins, yeast etc that have gone into solution. When the calcium (which has a 2+ charge) is higher it will actually do the same to the yeast aggregating them all together and pulling them out of solution.

And ive never used irish moss (lol bought it a while ago and always forget to use it) but i have used gelatin and it cleared up very well. all i did was boil about a cup of water, then throw it in a blender, add a pack of knox gelatin, blend and then add. I let it sit for about 1-2 weeks and it was awsome.

Im also right now trying to cold crash a beer and seeing if that will help grab some yeasties out of solution. Anyone have any expierience with this?

I use 1 tsp of irish moss, but I also use a secondary which results in clear beer!

How exactly does usong a secondary fermenter clear up beer? I have thought about getting a car boy and I am still learning and haven't invested in one yet.

beerguy2009 said:

How exactly does usong a secondary fermenter clear up beer? I have thought about getting a car boy and I am still learning and haven't invested in one yet.

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A secondary doesn't result in clearer beer, actually. The yeast drops out whether it's in primary or secondary. The yeast don't care where they are in this regard. It's not like when you rack to secondary the remaining yeast say "oh, wow, there's more room on the bottom of the fermenter now, guess I'll drop out."

I don't use a secondary at all and have totally clear beer every single time. And I DID use secondary for about 90 batches. The batches since I stopped using secondary aren't less clear.

Whirfloc tablets (which are Irish Moss in tablet form I believe) did wonders for my IPA. They're cheap and effective. I just added them at the last 15 minutes of my boil and they worked like a charm.

MattHollingsworth said:

A secondary doesn't result in clearer beer, actually. The yeast drops out whether it's in primary or secondary. The yeast don't care where they are in this regard. It's not like when you rack to secondary the remaining yeast say "oh, wow, there's more room on the bottom of the fermenter now, guess I'll drop out."

I don't use a secondary at all and have totally clear beer every single time. And I DID use secondary for about 90 batches. The batches since I stopped using secondary aren't less clear.

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So what is the secret to clearer beer? I saw in a previous post that you made adjustments to the water and I have read about that. What kind of changes did you make? Where can I find more info on that? I have read that changes can improve flavor.
Do you use anything like Irish moss? Is it the rate of cooling the wort after the boil? I just would like clear beer not cloudy.

beerguy2009 said:

So what is the secret to clearer beer? I saw in a previous post that you made adjustments to the water and I have read about that. What kind of changes did you make? Where can I find more info on that? I have read that changes can improve flavor.
Do you use anything like Irish moss? Is it the rate of cooling the wort after the boil? I just would like clear beer not cloudy.

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I use 1.5 tsp of Irish Moss in the last 15 minutes of the boil (I don't rehydrate it, but some people do), and I now use the EZ Water spreadsheet but Palmer's also works. Google EZWater spreadsheet and I guess it'll show up there. For me, doing that, with a 3 week primary gives me totally clear beer. No filtering, no fining other than Irish Moss (which is kettle fining). Everyone has different approaches, of course, but that's what works for me. And it works consistently.

From what I understand, though, as far as clearing the beer up, you need to have above 25ppm calcium which I think most people do. But when I was in Portland, with very soft water, sometimes if I didn't adjust the water much, I had beer that was totally not clear. Now in Zagreb, I correct it and tend to get that calcium up to 70-100 ppm. But the water here's a totally different thing. It *forced* me to learn more about water and I'm glad I did.

Read what Palmer has to say about it here, read all of chapter 15:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15.html

beerguy2009 said:

So what is the secret to clearer beer? I saw in a previous post that you made adjustments to the water and I have read about that. What kind of changes did you make? Where can I find more info on that? I have read that changes can improve flavor.
Do you use anything like Irish moss? Is it the rate of cooling the wort after the boil? I just would like clear beer not cloudy.

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It's not always simple.

For me, Whirl-floc with 5 min. left in the boil, making sure not to bottle until the yeast drop clear, and a couple of weeks in the fridge make my beer crystal. It's a good idea to make sure your calcium is over 40ppm as the yeast need it to flocculate.

My beers made with Maris Otter malt have taken more than a month to clear in the fridge. My beers made with Briess 2-row clear in less than a week. My Belgians take even longer. I had a Dubbel be cloudy for months, now after 8 months in the fridge you can read a newspaper through it. I've read that A.J. Delange, a well known beer and water expert, has noticed the same thing with Maris Otter and other malts.

In summary, there is no single process that will give you clear beer instantly except filtering. Different malts have different protein contents and compositions which will affect chill haze. That being said, I've have yet to brew a beer that didn't drop crystal clear with some time cold conditioning in the bottle.

MattHollingsworth said:

...It's not like when you rack to secondary the remaining yeast say "oh, wow, there's more room on the bottom of the fermenter now, guess I'll drop out."...

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My ears were burning.

BierMuncher said:

My ears were burning.

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Tune in, turn on, drop out. ;-)

Revvy said:

I primary for a month, and besides the normal sediment needed in bottle conditioned beers in order to carb them, they are beautifully clear. Also the longer you leave them in the fridge the tighter that yeast cake will be and again, your beer will be extremely clear....

I've never added geletin to my beers to clear them, heck half the time I forget moss during brewing, but my beer is uber clear.

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+1!

I used to fret about all this - whirlfloc, Irish Moss, Whirlpooling, etc. Now I do as Revvy says and leave it in the primary for at least three weeks, bottle (well, keg now), and put it in the fridge for at least a week before I drink it. Crystal clear every single time.

The only filtering I do from the brewpot to the fermenter is through a paint strainer bag. Other than that, the trub goes in the fermenter and the yeast and gravity takes care of it.