English Brown Ale won't clear

[rhythmsteve]

I have had my English Brown Ale in my secondary for 3 weeks now and it just won't clear. It tastes amazing, better than Newcastle in my opinion. Is this normal for this type of brew?


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[acidrain]

What yeast did you use?
Any fining like Irish Moss, etc.?

 

[rhythmsteve]

Munton and Fission ale yeast and Whirlfloc tab at 5 minutes of boil


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[acidrain]

Don't know about the Fission, but the Munton is definitely low floculating... it doesn't settle out well.

 

[MindenMan]

You might have some luck cold crashing for a week or so. I wonder, did you have massive, volcano type hot break both before and after the addition of the hops? I had that same problem once, and it took me a while to figure out what happened, I remember I used a slow boil to try to save propane. Even gelatin wouldn't clear it. Never again since. I hope this helps.

 

[rhythmsteve]

No volcano hot break, it was the standard boil. I will say that my second runnings brew cleared already and is bottled, which makes sense, but I did use the same yeast, only different hops


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[rhythmsteve]

I am wondering if I can use Sparkelloid powder in the Ale like I use in my wines. Has anyone ever used it in beer and does it have any negative effects?


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[DogStar]

I brewed a dark mild recently that took about 6 weeks to start clearing. It never did clear fully but it tasted great so it disappeared pretty quickly.

We get conditioned into thinking that all beers should be crystal clear like the filtered commercial brews. In my opinion they they filter some of the taste and character out of a beer. You can try Isinglas or gelatine based finings. I've used them in the past with mixed success so I don't bother now.

Nowadays I use copper finings and cool the wort quickly to achieve a good cold break then use a good floculant yeast. If there's still some haze I left it doesn't bother me. If other people are bothered by it I invite them to go drink some Miller Lite.

 

[rhythmsteve]

It's been in bottle for a week, popped one to test and tastes great, but it has a slight vodka smell... Any thoughts?


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[Yooper]

It's been in bottle for a week, popped one to test and tastes great, but it has a slight vodka smell... Any thoughts?


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A "vodka" smell generally means that fermentation temperatures were warm. My bet is that it got above 70 degrees, maybe a lot above.

 

[rhythmsteve]

It's strange because in my notes it says, pitched yeast at 68 degrees


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[Yooper]

It's strange because in my notes it says, pitched yeast at 68 degrees


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Ah, but oftentimes fermentation itself creates heat and if you pitched at 68, and the room was above 65 degrees, it could have easily fermented at 75-80 degrees.

Do you have a stick on thermometer on the fermenter so you can monitor that?

Fermentation itself produces heat, and I've seen an active fermentation be 10 degrees higher than the ambient room temperature, even if pitched at 60 degrees.

 

[rhythmsteve]

No, stick on therm broke, however I had it fermenting in a basement at 65 degrees year round, although I see your point about excited molecules causing excess heat. It's not strong vodka, very weak but it's there but gets squashed by the caramel notes


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