How long for Altbier to clear?

[IwanaBrich]

I brewed a batch of German Altbier (a Brewers Best kit) and it won't seem to clear.

I started it on 1/25/14 and it seemed to ferment nicely and I racked it into a glass carboy on 2/5/14. It smelled great and tasted great. After about a week I moved it into my unheated basement workshop (which is in the 50 degree range) and within one day all of the stuff floating is gone, but the beer looks very cloudy and has not cleared at all.

I also noticed that airlock (I use 3-Piece airlocks) was all sucked down and I'm afraid that the liquid (Starsan mixture in the airlock) may have sucked into the beer. That shouldn't effect the beer....should it??

Also....how long will it take to clear..or at least start clearing?

 

[Holy_Hops]

As for the Star San - no it shouldn't be a big issue. It's happened to me before, too.

What kind of yeast did you use? If you used a kolsch yeast like wlp029 or similar - they're notoriously slow floccers.

You could either lager for a month or so or you .

That's what I've down on Kolsches that I've brewed in the past for competitions & it works great.

 

[IwanaBrich]

I'm not sure what yeast it was, but I think it was Nottingham Sachet.

I'm going to try the Gelatine. Can I just make up the batch and pour into the secondary or wait until I keg it?

 

[C-Rider]

I have a crystal clear one. 3 weeks primary, 1 weeks cold crashed at 33*.

 

[Holy_Hops]

I usually rack it to the keg and then pour in the gelatin with good results.

 

[solbes]

I would chill your beer in secondary as cold as you can get it, hydrate the gelatin, and add to the carboy. Wait a week or two until it clears and then rack to keg.

Notty should clear readily with that setup.

 

[IwanaBrich]

I have it as cold as I can get it right now, I added the gelatin to the carboy today, so we shall see.

Thanks for the help!

 

[IwanaBrich]

I put the gelatin in 2 days ago and I still don't see any clearing at all..... How does this take to work?

I also noticed that starsan in the air lock seems to have been sucked into the Carboy.... AGAIN! I'M wondering if there is to much temperature change in my basement. Should I just put it in the Keg and make it very cold and hope for the best??

I have a feeling that all maybe lost!

 

[solbes]

Did you search for the gelatin hydration procedure? Hopefully you got the gelatin into solution with a cup or two of water first. There are some heating and cooling steps involved.

Might take awhile for it to work, 1-2 weeks. Usually it will clear from top down, so start looking for the top to clear in a week or so. Yes you could rack to a keg now and it might clear faster, but all of it would go the bottom of your keg so it would be pretty yeasty for a few pints.

 

[jhawk2415]

Curious as to the outcome? Did it clear eventually?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[IwanaBrich]

It worked out fine. I took the shelves out of our second fridge so I could fit the carboy in it . The wife wasn't too happy, but it worked! The beer cleared in a few days, I Kegged it (my first attempt at using a keg) and its already gone. It was real tasty! Every one 's advice paid off.

Thanks