ESB + No irish moss = Problem?

[burnsie]

I brewed up an ESB last night, cloned from my favorite ESB at my favorite brew pub - The Broad Ripple Brew Pub in Indianapolis.

This is my favorite beer and I really want it to turn out. After getting started last night, I found that the recipe calls for Irish Moss, and rehydrated yeast. I had never used rehydrated yeast before, and it wasn't all that hard, just an extra 5-10 minutes of work. I had also never used Irish Moss, and I don't own any.

Will my lack of Irish Moss in this recipe cause any problems? Is there anything I can do at this stage in terms of adding Irish Moss to the carboy?

Thanks for your responses!

 

[Lou]

the irish moss is a clarifier...it needs to be added to the boil, not the carboy... if you don't use it, nothing bad will happen.

 

[Darth Konvel]

As Lou mentioned, Irish Moss is a clarifying agent added towards the end of the boil. If you miss it or forget it (or in your case, don't have it on hand) at the time, it's no biggie. Often enough, if you give your beer some time in secondary it will come out clear enough.

 

[God Emporer BillyBrew]

There are some other clarifiers you can add in the fermentor. Sorry, I'm super busy right now and can't think of the name or find time to look them up.

 

[Walker]

gelatin, isinglass(sp?), polyclar....

I know there are more, but those are the ones on the tip of my tounge.

-walker

 

[SteveM]

But none are essential unless you strenuously object to a bit of haziness in your beer...and as others have noted, that will decline over time anyway.

 

[burnsie]

Ok, cool. I don't mind the haziness really, and I'll probably use a secondary anyhow. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

The way I've managed to clarify my beers pretty well is to put the secondary into cold storage before bottling (a week or two at 50-55F). This will cause the chill haze to form and subsequently precipitate.