Do you fine stouts?

[fun4stuff]

Making my first stout- chocolate stout with both cocoa (kettle) and nibs (in primary after reaching fg).

Question- for those of you who cold crash and fine (E.g. Gelatin), do you also do it with chocolate stouts?

 

[lumpher]

Cold-crashing handles Stouts well enough for me, since 1 of the main purposes of fining is clarity, and Stouts ain't exactly clear... I love Stouts, and I don't clear any of them. I do tend to use Irish Moss in the boil, though, just to pull out some of the proteins

 

[LBussy]

Depends. Is it for drinking or competing? If it's for competing then treat it like any other beer with which you wish to compete. Speaking as a judge, I mark down cloudy stouts just as if they were cloudy light lagers. You *can* see it.

 

[JBOGAN]

Cold-crashing handles Stouts well enough for me, since 1 of the main purposes of fining is clarity, and Stouts ain't exactly clear... I love Stouts, and I don't clear any of them. I do tend to use Irish Moss in the boil, though, just to pull out some of the proteins

I agree with this fully even if it is a competition beer, a cloudy appearance may knock you a point or two but I am more inclined to worry about carbonation and color. No need for fining in my opinion, I am not a certified judge but I would knock a point off at max for a cloudy stout that tasted great to style gudelines.

 

[LBussy]

Well let me qualify: I don't care if you fine your beers, so long as they are clear. Now if I come to your house and you hand me a beer, I'm drinking it. I won't score it.

 

[kombat]

I do, but more for flavour than clarity. Too much yeast left in the beer affects the flavour, and can impact your digestive system too.

As for competitions, appearance is only 3 points out of 50, and cloudy vs. clear, we're only talking about maybe 1 point difference. Flavour is 20 points. Focus on that instead.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

I do not fine my stouts. But its simply because I am going to be letting the beer bulk age/condition for longer than most other beers I make so they are usually going into the bottles with 2 extra weeks on them. More of the junk has time to settle out and I end up with only a fine film of yeast sediment at the bottom of my bottles.

 

[day_trippr]

Never.

Cheers!

 

[max384]

Nope! Why bother? It's a stout!

 

[Zepth]

Disclaimer: hammered.

Thought about this earlier today. More specifically before I tried my first (followed by lost count) pour of a stout wondering if it was carbed enough. Conclusion: who cares, its stout!

What was the question? Right! I forgot if I fined this or not. It's awesome. I blame its awesomeness for my current state. There's no sediment in the bottom of the glass, so that's got to count for something. I dont remember doing anything specific to try and make this as "clear" as possible. Turned out to be good enough for me.

 

[day_trippr]

You may find that stouts get "better" with time, and time brings clarity.
A conservative racking technique to final package can result in what would be "bright" beer - if the SRM wasn't off the scale

Cheers!

 

[ballsy]

Nope. Brown ale is as dark as ill go, anything beyond that gets no finings...

 

[fun4stuff]

Interesting. Seems to be pretty split. Hmmm... I guess i'll leave it to a coin flip.

 

[joshesmusica]

I do, but more for flavour than clarity. Too much yeast left in the beer affects the flavour, and can impact your digestive system too.



As for competitions, appearance is only 3 points out of 50, and cloudy vs. clear, we're only talking about maybe 1 point difference. Flavour is 20 points. Focus on that instead.

I agree with this. Also with the one who said you can still see cloudy in a dark beer. I like clear beers unless it's to style, because I prefer the flavor of cleared over unclear.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

it really depends on if I'm doing an average gravity stout or an imperial stout. imperial stouts don't get anything since I like to bulk age them. average gravity stouts get whirfloc in the boil and usually end up in a keg.

 

[CUrchin]

I don't add any finings to my stouts.