Clarification

Quick question --- moved my 1st batch from a baron's beer kit into the secondary fermenter 3 days ago...I'm noticing the expected settling of yeast and sediment at the bottom of the carboy, but the beer still looks pretty cloudy (and much darker than I expected).

The kit says to wait for 2 weeks, and I know better than to mess with it before then, but when should I start to worry about the beer not clarifying properly? E.g., when should I be able to tell if something's gone wrong?

Dev

First question is: Was primary fermentaion complete? If it wasn't, I'd expect it to be cloudy. Just give it more time. The color is going to look darker in the carboy than in the glass. There's more beer that the light has to go through. It won't lighten in the carboy, but it will be lighter in the glass.

Devlan said:

when should I start to worry.....?

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never.
worrying won't help your beer. your time and effort are better spent making more beer.
and also, cloudy beer still tastes just as good as clear beer and isn't that the most important thing?

Devlan said:

Quick question --- moved my 1st batch from a baron's beer kit...

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So that's where my beer kit went...!

Clarity doesn't change the taste, but if it is important to you, add finings three days before bottling. There are a lot of choices, isenglass and polycler being two of them.

The darker color than you are used to is not an issue either, but with experience you will get better at controlling the color for aesthetic purposes. You can use lighter steeping grains (or skip them altogether) and leave them in your boiling pot for a shorter period. Assuming you are using extracts, you could get lighter colored ones or substitute something like rice solids for some portion of the malt extract. Your HBS guy should be able to give some specific suggestions, but both of these approaches have worked for me.

SteveM said:

The darker color than you are used to is not an issue either, but with experience you will get better at controlling the color for aesthetic purposes. You can use lighter steeping grains (or skip them altogether) and leave them in your boiling pot for a shorter period. Assuming you are using extracts, you could get lighter colored ones or substitute something like rice solids for some portion of the malt extract. Your HBS guy should be able to give some specific suggestions, but both of these approaches have worked for me.

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also, if you are using liquid extract... you can achieve MUCH lighter colored beers by changing to dry extract. I started using DME because I wanted my IPA to be as light-colored as possible, and now I just use DME for everything (darkening with specialty grains if needed.)

-walker

I agree with Walker about DME and color.

If you really want to use LME, 'cause it's a little cheaper or whatever, then your best bet is to order in bulk from a very high-volume retailer (like morebeer.com or Austin HB supply), so that the LME will be very fresh and not in a can. I've gotten very good results from morebeers extra light LME. You can get it shipped in whatever amount you need. You probably shouldn't use LME for a beer you plan to cellar for a year--some claim it develops off flavors sooner than DME-based beers. (I don't know from personal experience).

I just recently brewed a hefeweizen from two cans of Muntons wheat LME that I've had since Christmas. I'm sure it will taste great, but the color is definitely too dark.

cweston said:

You probably shouldn't use LME for a beer you plan to cellar for a year--some claim it develops off flavors sooner than DME-based beers. (I don't know from personal experience).

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I've been saying this lately, but I have not seen anybody chime in to agree or disagree with it. I've got three batches that I brewed with a particular brand of LME, and all of them have developed a nasty flavor recently (the batches were all brewed in/around October '05).

-walker

Who would ever know? The longest any of mine have lasted after bottling is maybe two and a half or three months. For 99% of us, I would bet it is a purely academic discussion!

I always try to keep a bottle or two of my brews for the long haul just to know if they got any better or worse as time passes. I'd hate to always drink up a particular recipe of mine in 4 months without knowing that it actually peaks at 6 months.

I've never kept a bottle of homebrew longer than a year, though.

-walker

From my experiance beer is always cloudy when I bottle it. After a week or two it always clears up. The yeast that is causing the cloudiness settles to the bottom.
If I put beer in the fridge for more than a day I land up with a chill haze which I believe is protein.