Does Irish Moss Really Work?

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IPYay

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I was in my local homebrew shop the other day and I mentioned to ye olde master brewer that I always add irish moss as a clarifying agent. He laughed and said that irish moss doesn't actually do anything. I'm inclined to believe him, since he's pretty well-respected, but I wondered what you veterans have to say about this.

Any scientists out there that beg to differ? What's the word on this?


Good fermentations,
IPYay.
 
I'm by far a veteran but I can tell you that when I add 1 tsp of Irish Moss in 5 gallons, I can watch my beer clear in the sight tube. The wort goes form hazy to clear with coagulated break in the last 15 minutes.
 
cant say but I use it and I make very clear beer... it doesn't screw up flavor and costs very little by the tbsp. (I use a tbsp per 5 G boil). i also use gelatin when I keg but that is to settle the yeast. gelatin- settles yeast, Irish moss binds with proteins that cause chill haze. If I had more spare cash I'd try filtering too but I'm a bit hesitant because I like to dry hop and am afraid I'll filter out my flavor.

end game.. it don't hurt, it's cheap, and seems to work.
 
Listened to a basic brewing podcast the other day regarding this very issue.

Several brewers brewed different batches of beer, both extract and all grain. For the most part, dis not have much of an effect on extract brews. There was a slight increase in clarity on a few of the all grains.

It was a good episode. If you haven't listened to it before, check out basic brewing radio
 
I use it because I have it on hand but I don't notice any difference between when I use it and when I don't. If there is a difference in the final product I am guessing it is pretty small.
 
Apparently it is oppositley charged to the protien floaters in the wort. It will coagulate everything so it will settle out to the bottom.

I can definitely see it work when I toss it in the last 15 mins. If anything it separates more trub at the end of the boil on the way to the primary.
 
It does speed up the settling, but if you primary for the recommended 2+ weeks, the difference is not noticeable.
 
I notice it in the fermentor, the break material is noticeably in large chunks. I use for all my beers, why not. Its super cheap. Even if the effect is minimal, it seems worth it.
 
Usually when I use Irish moss in the boil, after I drain the kettle there are gooey jelly-like globs of who-knows-what stuck to the IC and the bottom of the kettle. I have to believe that's the stuff that gets coagulated by the moss.
 
JonM, look close and you'll probably find that those gooey blobs are actually bits of the irish moss that have been hydrated. They stick to my IC as well... if you don't rinse them off right away they're a PIA to get off the chiller.
 
I just made a Pilsner last night and used Whirfloc tablets (which I was told is a pill form of Irish Moss, but may be misinformed), but I think I will NEVER use this stuff again. It does coagulate everything good, but it just takes up WAY to much room in the wort. I only had like 3-3.5 gallons of wort out of a 5.5 post-boil batch. The whole bottom was just coagulated junk! I was so pissed! Everytime I use this stuff it just gives me a headache, because it pulls everything to the bottom but it makes half the wort a thick golosch of trub! I have to end up sucking in all this trub to my carboy so I can try and at least get 5 gallons of "liquid". I may be doing something wrong, but I don't see how you can mess up 10 minute drop and a hard stir at FO. I'm going all natural from now on, like I did my first few batches. Hate looking at my carboy and 1/4 of it is trub! Not sure how this is going to affect my Pilsner (first lager) as it is bottom fermenting and has all this trub on the bottom to fight with.
 
I think it helps. I have a bag of it I use when appropriate for the style. I don't think the difference is so night and day I would buy more unless I sent beers off for competition and thought it might pick up an extra point or two on appearance.
 
I haven't decided if it works or not, given long primary fermentations, but as has been said, it's cheap, so what the heck.
 
I pre-soak a heaped teaspoon of irish moss in hot water for an hour, then use the wife's double curved blade thingey with wooden board that has a concave surface to chop it up really fine, on the basis that this gives more surface area. My beers are really clear, but if I put them in the fridge, I often get a chill haze.
 
As noted above, Irish Moss is an electrically charged agent that helps coagulate and precipitate hot break trub from the wort. The hot break is stuff that you want to avoid taking into your fermenter. Having a proper wort pH is important for improving this precipitation action.

As Chris mentioned above, Whirlfloc tablets are a refined form of Irish Moss and they reportedly do work much better than plain old IM. As he noted, he had a lot larger trub pile. He is fortunate that the trub was left in the kettle instead of just getting run off into the fermenter. With some amendment to brewing practices, a brewer can work around the increased trub formation. The payoff is in a cleaner and finer tasting beer. Irish Moss is not used to improve the clarity of the finished beer...its to strip more hot break in the kettle.

Do use IM or Whirlfloc in your brewing. Do pre-hydrate the IM in water to get it ready for action. It will work even better then.
 
And from my experience, SuperMoss HB works better than either Irish Moss (which has components that gelatinize - the glob most IM users confuse for Hot Break) and Whirlflocc.

Readers Digest version: Irish Moss < Whirlflocc < SuperMoss HB.
 
I was in my local homebrew shop the other day and I mentioned to ye olde master brewer that I always add irish moss as a clarifying agent. He laughed and said that irish moss doesn't actually do anything. I'm inclined to believe him, since he's pretty well-respected, but I wondered what you veterans have to say about this.

Any scientists out there that beg to differ? What's the word on this?


Good fermentations,
IPYay.

Yeah, it works, but to use the term "clarifier" is a bit misleading. Irish moss is a "kettle fining" and when added to the boil it does help coagulate protein-like particles which gets more product into the break material settling out of the wort. However, don't expect to be drinking sparkling clear beer just because you threw a dose of Irish moss into the boil. It does contribute by what it does but other methods and materials such as cold-conditioning along with the use of a late fining agent (gelatin, isinglass, etc) used in conjunction with the Irish moss will help significantly clear the final product.
:mug:
 
Hi, I tried Irish moss for first time and I don't have very good experience. I added 1tbs 15min before boil finish, usually I do whirlpool and I get nice compact pile of hops and turb in middle, but now I get huge pile of hops and turb in half of the kettle (5 gallon) so I had to filter half of the batch, so I got really messy worth after that. What I done wrong? Thanks
 
I see that this is an old one. I hope the people who said it makes a gooey mess have learned how to use it. One used Whirlfloc tabletS and another used a tablespoon of Irish moss. The right amount is a teaspoon for 5 gallons if I recall correctly.
 
I just made a Pilsner last night and used Whirfloc tablets (which I was told is a pill form of Irish Moss, but may be misinformed), but I think I will NEVER use this stuff again. It does coagulate everything good, but it just takes up WAY to much room in the wort. I only had like 3-3.5 gallons of wort out of a 5.5 post-boil batch. The whole bottom was just coagulated junk! I was so pissed! Everytime I use this stuff it just gives me a headache, because it pulls everything to the bottom but it makes half the wort a thick golosch of trub! I have to end up sucking in all this trub to my carboy so I can try and at least get 5 gallons of "liquid". I may be doing something wrong, but I don't see how you can mess up 10 minute drop and a hard stir at FO. I'm going all natural from now on, like I did my first few batches. Hate looking at my carboy and 1/4 of it is trub! Not sure how this is going to affect my Pilsner (first lager) as it is bottom fermenting and has all this trub on the bottom to fight with.

Does it look a bit like this? If so, that's how it's supposed to be! All that junk is coagulated proteins and stuff, and it will all settle out and form a nice compact trub/yeast cake by the time your primary fermentation is over. My trub/yeast cake is usually less than an inch thick when its all said and done, and I dump every last bit of it out of the kettle into the carboy.

20160123_161250.jpg
 
Yeah looks same, except I had all hops in this part. So next time it will be better to transfer worth to different kettle and then cool it down.
 
I
I was in my local homebrew shop the other day and I mentioned to ye olde master brewer that I always add irish moss as a clarifying agent. He laughed and said that irish moss doesn't actually do anything. I'm inclined to believe him, since he's pretty well-respected, but I wondered what you veterans have to say about this.

Any scientists out there that beg to differ? What's the word on this?


Good fermentations,
IPYay.
I know it's an old topic but what's the point of using Irish moss before fermentation? Doesn't fermentation make the cleared beer unclear again?
 
Doesn't fermentation make the cleared beer unclear again?
It does, but at this stage it's not so much about clearing the beer. Irish Moss settles down protein particles in the boiling wort, so when you transfer the wort from the kettle to the fermenter you're able to leave more protein sediment behind, so you'll have less of it in the fermenter.
 
It does, but at this stage it's not so much about clearing the beer. Irish Moss settles down protein particles in the boiling wort, so when you transfer the wort from the kettle to the fermenter you're able to leave more protein sediment behind, so you'll have less of it in the fermenter.
I see, thanks for the reply can I use Irish moss post fermentation too? Will it work?
 
No, it works only in boiling wort and only for precipitating protein. Irish Moss must be boiled at least 10 minutes to work at all.
Post fermentation you don't need to precipitate protein, you need to settle down suspended yeast. For this, you use Gelatine (or, optionally, Bentonite).
 

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