clearing the brew

I have been brewing for about a year now and I am having trouble getting my beer to clear. I have been making alot of Pale Ale's and some Ambers. When I started brewing it was not an issue because I was so excited to have home brew. That being said I want to get a nice clear beer, To impress not only myself but friends and family. I do use Irish moss in the last 10 minuets of my boil, but am at a loss to any other tricks that might be avalible. Any help would be appreciated.

Search for the use of gelatin in beer, which in addition to cold crashing your beer in secondary will yield a very clear brew. I'm going to be doing it with my dutch lager.

+1 to cold crashing.

I also use Whirfloc (Irish moss in tablet form)

2 tips form my experience:
if you cold crash, make sure you let it warm back up and gently "swish" the liquid in the fermenter before bottling. If the liquid is too cold, not enough yeast transfer and you don't get good results in carbing. (Not a fact, just my experience)
Aging longer in the bottle conditioning phase and also making sure you refrigerate them for at least a week or longer before opening also helps.

As seems to be the best advice for everything in Homebrew, time is your friend, longer primary, longer secondary, longer bottle conditioning, longer in the fridge before drinking.... more time seems to make better beer. Of course, that is always managed against our passion for consuming, so do the best you can.

But please note that I do not bottle, but keg all my beers:

Crash cool my secondary

Boil 1 cup of water in a pyrex container in the microwave

Set heated water aside until it cools to about 160 F

Add one pack of gelatin, stir w/ a sanitized spoon

Let rest about 10 minutes... stir again and add to secondary

Wait 2-3 days & rack to keg

What is it? Everyone seems to refer to it in secondary fermentation, is it only with lagers? What's the advantage?

First, I like whirlfloc better than Irish moss. Try it- it's the same substance but in a tablet form. It just seems to work better.

Another thing to do is to chill your wort rapidly. If you get a good hot break (during the boil) and then a good cold break (from the rapid chilling), that really helps with getting clear beer.

"Cold crashing" means chilling the finished beer quickly to precipitate any proteins or yeast that are still in suspension. It's easy to do. Just put the fermenter in a fridge for 48-72 hours.

I don't use gelatin or other finings. I think by using whirlfloc in my boil, chilling the wort to pitching temperatures (under 70 degrees) in 20 minutes, and giving the primary about three weeks is sufficient. I usually have crystal clear beers.

cold crashing is to help clear your beer prior to kegging/bottling. It helps the protien and yeast settle to the bottom, and generally settle harder to the bottom so its harder to disturb when you rack it off. It is used for ales as well as lagers. Other than adding Irish Moss at the end of my boil, that's all I do and get clear beer.

Tilldeath, I am going to save my yeast off my primary on my Rye Pale Ale. So going to a secondary is an advantage to me.

YooperBrew said:

I don't use gelatin or other finings. I think by using whirlfloc in my boil, chilling the wort to pitching temperatures (under 70 degrees) in 20 minutes, and giving the primary about three weeks is sufficient. I usually have crystal clear beers.

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Yooper, do you dry hop or add fruits/spices in secondary? I have noticed in my beers with secondary additions that I have to spend a lot more effort getting them to clear up, even with cold crashing and extra time. After a couple of batches with cloudiness in my strawberry blonde, I finally got the gelatin thing going and it gave me a really nice crystal clear beer.

Another vote for wirlfloc! Pez.

I recall reading that Whirlfloc and Irish Moss are not synonymous. Whirlfloc (according to the manufacturer) does contain Irish Moss, plus a couple of other ingredients.

There does not appear to be any clear "favorite" between the two from reading reviews of those that have used both.

Some recommend that the Irish Moss be re hydrated before it's added to the boil.




WHIRLFLOC BWS was developed not only to increase clarity in wort and beer but also to help increase the
compactness of the hot break of the wort.
Studies have shown that improved wort clarity with WHIRLFLOC BWS leads to a cleaner fermentation and markedly
easier filtration of the beer after it is fermented.
WHIRLFLOC BWS is classified as a processing aid for beer production. It reacts with colloidal, haze promoting
material in the wort and is removed with this material by settling or filtration before the beer is finished and packaged.
It does not remain in the beer.

It contains the following components:
Irish Moss
Sodium bicarbonate E500
Carrageenan E407

If you search on "Carrageenan" one of the uses is;

Beer: clarifier to remove haze-causing proteins

weirdboy said:

Yooper, do you dry hop or add fruits/spices in secondary? I have noticed in my beers with secondary additions that I have to spend a lot more effort getting them to clear up, even with cold crashing and extra time. After a couple of batches with cloudiness in my strawberry blonde, I finally got the gelatin thing going and it gave me a really nice crystal clear beer.

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Not often. I used to use a secondary, but I'm mostly using just a primary now. The beer is still crystal clear, and I just rack the clear beer off.

The IIPA I have in primary now will get a secondary for the 2 ounces of dryhopping. Not for clarity, though! Two reasons- one, I want to wash that pacman yeast cake. Two- I dropped the stirbar into the fermenter when I poured the yeast starter in, and I want my stirbar back before a month! Otherwise, I'd wait about 3 weeks, dryhop for a week, and then bottle or keg.