In talking about cold crashing, gelatin, filtering, and sanitization, I think this thread has veered off in scope from the OP's original post, which said:
Not concerned with a hazy look but don't wanna see particles in a finished product
If the main gripe is "particles in the glass" as distinct from "haze," then we're talking about chunks of grain husk and/or hop debris, which in my experience is 90% about racking technique.
My $0.02 to the OP:
- be careful moving your buckets/fermentors around; if you lug them up stairs and slosh them around (for example), then you stir up stuff that has sunk to the bottom
- sacrificing a bit of beer in the kettle or in the fermentor can make it a lot easier for even a newbie to ensure the transfer of particle matter during racking is minimized if not eliminated. Whether or not that trade-off is worth it is up to you, as those "wasted" beers will still taste fine
- filtering, cheesecloth, and all that type of stuff is unnecessary if you're careful
- refrigerate bottles for as long as you can possibly stand it before drinking. Even if you're ridiculously sloppy in your process, enough fridge time will easily take all particles out of solution and will then start dropping out some haze-causing stuff as well. I know not everyone can do this, but the best option is to have a dedicated beer fridge and fill it up with your bottles as soon as they're done carbonating rather than doing a "chill as you go" with 5-6 bottles at a time in your kitchen fridge. When doing the latter, your beers are never getting more than a few hours or days of fridge time before you enjoy them, which means they're never going to be as clear as they could be. Anecdotally, I can say I see a profound difference in clarity of my beer that has been chilled for a few days and beer that has been chilled for 4+ weeks; night and day.
- store bottles upright in the fridge to ensure that stuff drops to the bottom of the bottle, making it easy to leave behind when you pour. If you lay them on their side, then all of the gunk piles up on the side and then pours right out into your glass
- pour carefully and practice leaving the undesirable gunk in the bottle; this becomes second nature rather quickly