Question about cloudy beer

[AngryAndy]

I brewed my first batch of American lite beer. Bought the Brewers best kit. Anyways, I followed everything. I used the hydrometer rather than the airlock to determine the fermentation. It sat in primary for 9 days. I calculated the FG and the beer finished at 4%. I racked it to my secondary and it's quite cloudy. I've read a lot of other posts and know I could have used Irish moss but didn't know about it until AFTER the brew. I'm hoping the secondary will clear up the brew. My understanding is that during secondary the sediments in the brew should fall and the beer should be a lot clearer.

My question is: I will need to add the priming sugar when I plan to bottle. When I stir in the sugar won't that disturb the sediment on the bottom and I'll be back to cloudy beer?

I know it's more work but just before bottling could I heat up the priming sugar and rack the beer from secondary to a third bucket (leaving the sediment at the bottom) add the priming sugar and bottle it?

Any thoughts?

 

[icebob]

before you rack from secondary to bottling bucket, add your priming solution in the bottling bucket, then rack to it, this way your priming solution will be well mixed in your wort. hope this help.

 

[flars]

I brewed my first batch of American lite beer. Bought the Brewers best kit. Anyways, I followed everything. I used the hydrometer rather than the airlock to determine the fermentation. It sat in primary for 9 days. I calculated the FG and the beer finished at 4%. I racked it to my secondary and it's quite cloudy. I've read a lot of other posts and know I could have used Irish moss but didn't know about it until AFTER the brew. I'm hoping the secondary will clear up the brew. My understanding is that during secondary the sediments in the brew should fall and the beer should be a lot clearer.

My question is: I will need to add the priming sugar when I plan to bottle. When I stir in the sugar won't that disturb the sediment on the bottom and I'll be back to cloudy beer?

I know it's more work but just before bottling could I heat up the priming sugar and rack the beer from secondary to a third bucket (leaving the sediment at the bottom) add the priming sugar and bottle it?

Any thoughts?

It is a fairly standard procedure to rack to a bottling bucket. Makes the process much easier because a bottling wand can be used. Much simpler process than trying to use a siphon.
Leaving your beer in the primary longer will have the same effect for clearing as the transfer to a secondary. Less work and risk also.

 

[Yooper]

I know it's more work but just before bottling could I heat up the priming sugar and rack the beer from secondary to a third bucket (leaving the sediment at the bottom) add the priming sugar and bottle it?

Any thoughts?

Yes, that is the proper technique.

You will rack from the carboy from above the sediment, and transfer the beer by siphon to the bottling bucket.

First, boil a cup or two of water, add your priming sugar to that and boil for a minute or two. Then, pour that into your sanitized bottling bucket, and start your siphon from the carboy. Put the tip of the tubing on the bottom of the bottling bucket, in a circle, so that the beer flows into the priming sugar in a circle filling from the bottom up, to mix the priming sugar without oxidizing the beer. You want to avoid any splashing or agitation of the beer at this point.

 

[jlg4398]

I'm a fairly new brewer and had the same question on my first batch. I use priming sugar in the bottling process. Just put the correct amount of sugar into the bottle before filling. I use PET screw top. Screw on the lid. Then some agitation to dissolve. Also, if you'll notice the commercial selling BLUE MOON ale is very cloudy after you pour into glass. It does not clear up. My brew is a light hybrid Blonde Ale.
It is slightly cloudy but tastes great.

 

[k1ngl1ves]

Before transferring to your bottling bucket, cold crash for a couple of days. That will clear the beer a lot, and compact the trub even more... making it easier to rack.

 

[AngryAndy]

Thanks very much guys. Appreciate it

 

[gregfreemyer]

I'm a fairly new brewer and had the same question on my first batch. I use priming sugar in the bottling process. Just put the correct amount of sugar into the bottle before filling. I use PET screw top. Screw on the lid. Then some agitation to dissolve. Also, if you'll notice the commercial selling BLUE MOON ale is very cloudy after you pour into glass. It does not clear up. My brew is a light hybrid Blonde Ale.
It is slightly cloudy but tastes great.

Wheat beers (Belgium Wits, Hefeweizens, Dunkelweizens, etc.) don't tend to clarify much so cloudy is expected.

In general, beers without wheat in them should clarify well.

The exception in my case seems to be a Maibock. I've had one conditioning for about 5 weeks now and it is still very cloudy. It seems to be charactistic of the style to take forever to clarify.