Clearing Wheat Beers

[Duffman53]

I've read that wheat beers tend to be cloudy. When brewing a wheat beer or a Belgian white ale should I still be using Irish moss to help it clarify?

Thanks,
Duffman53

 

[pompeiisneaks]

You do not need to clarify wheat beers. They are supposed to be cloudy.

 

[Nova5]

No. Wheat Beers must be cloudy! its the law! actually my white ale from AHS says Do Not Add Irish Moss in the recipe.

 

[zepolmot]

I've even read about people throwing a tablespoon of wheat flour into their worts to aid in cloudiness

 

[Hammy71]

I don't worry about irish moss or other finings when I'm doing a wheat beer or a stout. No reason to bother.

 

[pjj2ba]

Unless you want a Kristal - there are clear wheat beers in Germany. The Frankenmuth brewery in MI (original one) brewed a Kristal wheat beer in the late 80's - early 90's that was really refreshing.

 

[BrewsClues]

I'm brewing a beer similar to blue moon. I just took a hydrometer reading(my first one because I just got my hydrometer). This is after 5 days in primary my reading was 1.017. I'm not really concerned about the reading, but the dried Orange peel and coriander seeds are just floating on top and I was told they should drop to the bottom. And the beer has sediment floating all around in it, I know its not supposed to be clear, but it seems like there's a lot of stuff floating.

 

[EarlyBirdBrew]

5 days in the primary isn't really long enough for much to drop out. Leave it be for another 2-3 weeks and you should see some clearing. However, it is a wheat beer so it will be hazy.

 

[BrewsClues]

Alright, I was told by the guy at my lhbs to let it sit for 7-10 days in primary then bottle and let it sit for another week to carb, what you are saying makes sense I'm just trying to get some more input, thanks.

 

[mlyday]

Well if the guy at your LHBS told you it would carb with only a week in the bottle, I wouldnt listen to much of what he has to say. No way it will carb up in just a week.

 

[BrewsClues]

Alright well that's a scary thought I mean I would think he would know what he was talking about. So how long should my primary/carbing take?

 

[EarlyBirdBrew]

I wouldn't say there is no way it wouldn't carb in a week, it is just unlikely. My first brew was a wheat and after a week it was carbed and drinkable...it was not fully carbed but it had a nice head and noticeable carbonation to it. I think the general rule of thumb is three weeks unless you've got a stout, porter, big beer, etc, then you may need longer. Like mlyday said, most likely one week won't be enough and you might want to take your LHBS advice with a grain of salt.

 

[rwmiscik]

depending on how you are carbing the bottles it could definitely be carbed in as little as two or three days. if you go with the 3/4 cup of sugar and 1-1/2 cup of water method it will be carbed 4 or 5 days tops as long as you keep it at room temperature.

 

[mlyday]

depending on how you are carbing the bottles it could definitely be carbed in as little as two or three days. if you go with the 3/4 cup of sugar and 1-1/2 cup of water method it will be carbed 4 or 5 days tops as long as you keep it at room temperature.

2 or 3 days is not enought time, unless your quick carbing in a keg then bottling from the keg. Priming sugar carbonation is never going to happen that fast.

I was maybe a little harsh saying I wouldnt listen to anything the LHBS guy said, but a week and you wont be fully carbed.

 

[BrewsClues]

Ok I have 5 ounces of priming sugar he told me to mix this with a pint of water for my 5 gallon batch. So I guess ill let them sit at room temp for a little over a week. So it needs to sit in the primary for 2-3 weeks?

 

[dorklord]

Just a note, generally if you are using a seasoning like coriander or orange peel, it helps to either use a hops bag (so if the recipe says coriander 10 minutes, put it in a hops bag, put it in at 10 minutes left, then pull it it out when you shut off the burner) OR use some kind of filtering when you transfer to primary.

I don't think there is any problem with getting the coriander/orange peel in the primary, but it can be a pain when it comes time to transfer to your bottling bucket, and if you get some in your bottling bucket, they'll end up clogging up your spigot, your bottling wand, or whatever they can find.

Not that I've ever been trying to figure out why my siphon is so slow, only to discover an errant coriander stuck in the tip...

So just keep an eye on those buggers when you do get ready to bottle.

 

[michigator04]

Ok I have 5 ounces of priming sugar he told me to mix this with a pint of water for my 5 gallon batch. So I guess ill let them sit at room temp for a little over a week. So it needs to sit in the primary for 2-3 weeks?

As far as bottling time, read Revvy's post on the topic: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/#post1030387

You will see some carbonation at 1 week, but very likely it will not be done.

"3 weeks at 70"

 

[upperNY01brewer]

I'm brewing a beer similar to blue moon. I just took a hydrometer reading(my first one because I just got my hydrometer). This is after 5 days in primary my reading was 1.017. I'm not really concerned about the reading, but the dried Orange peel and coriander seeds are just floating on top and I was told they should drop to the bottom. And the beer has sediment floating all around in it, I know its not supposed to be clear, but it seems like there's a lot of stuff floating.

I wouldn't worry to much 5 days isn't a whole lot of time for anything to dropout. Even if it doesn't don't worry yourself to much about it, when you rack it over to your secondary (if you use a secondary) it will probably remain behind. And if not it certainly will be left behind in your bottling bucket since it will be below the spigot

 

[BrewsClues]

Ya I won't be doing a secondary. What if I let it sit like it is now at about 73*F for another week to give it a chance to ferment a little more, then put it outside so it can get colder. Wouldn't that help everything to drop out?

 

[mafeeker]

It really depends on what type of wheat beer you are trying to brew. If you are making a hefeweizen or wit beer, the style dictates they should be cloudy with yeast. The thing is, these styles are usually cloudy because the yeast are not very flocculent and remain in solution. Irish moss i believe helps the protein settle out, so I don't think it will be a huge deal if you use irish moss.

 

[BrewsClues]

No I didnt, it is a wit beer something similar to blue moon, ill just take a sample before I cold crash it and see what I think. It's only been 5 days but the way its looking now I think I'm gunna want to cold crash it for a couple days. Another question I'm pretty sure the guy at my lhbs told me to squeeze the bag of flaked oats after I got done steeping them. Was this a bad idea?

 

[zepolmot]

No I didnt, it is a wit beer something similar to blue moon, ill just take a sample before I cold crash it and see what I think. It's only been 5 days but the way its looking now I think I'm gunna want to cold crash it for a couple days. Another question I'm pretty sure the guy at my lhbs told me to squeeze the bag of flaked oats after I got done steeping them. Was this a bad idea?

No, but this can be another one of those issues that incites a riot...

 

[BrewsClues]

Ya I've read on here idk how many times not to squueze out the bag because it will release tannis. I think they are referring to an ag batch mine was an extract batch with the flaked oats as a specialty grain. So idk if that makes any difference.

 

[BrewsClues]

If it helps answer any of my questions about fermentation times and cold crashing I'm using safbrew t-58 yeast.

 

[BrewsClues]

Yupp... That's t-58.