Extract brew is sitting in secondary dry hopping. Is there a way to clarify it?

[whoward]

I just bottled my third batch today, it's a witbier. It sat in primary for 17 days and when I bottled it it was cloudy, like muddy water. My batches before this I had moved to secondary after a week and they were also cloudy.

Right now I have a Centinial IPA clone extract that I brewed 17 days ago and moved to secondary fermenter 8 days ago. It's in a glass carboy and I'm dry hopping it with pellets in a muslin bag. I plan to bottle it in another week or two.

So is there a way to easily clarify it so it doesn't look like muddy water? I know it probably doesn't affect taste, but I'd like a more presentable beer. It's a very dark ale.

I also have an Oktoberfest extract I brewed 5 days ago and it is in primary right now, I'd also like to clarify it before bottling. I'm going to let that one age at least three weeks before bottling.

Any suggestions on the easiest or most effective way to do this?

 

[shortyz]

take room temp water, like 300ml, sprinkle gelatin in there and wait a couple minutes for it to hydrate, microwave it for a minute to sanitize it and dump it in your carboy. if you can can cold crash the carboy that will help aswell..

cheers.

 

[Gytaryst]

take room temp water, like 300ml, sprinkle gelatin in there and wait a couple minutes for it to hydrate, microwave it for a minute to sanitize it and dump it in your carboy. if you can can cold crash the carboy that will help aswell..

cheers.

Ditto on gelatin and cold crashing for clarity. However, gelatin works best when the beer is cold. If you aren't able to cold crash your carboy then you're probably not going to notice much difference with or without the gelatin. I'm sure it will help some - but it's not going to be that drastic.

 

[whoward]

By gelatin do you mean something like Sure Gel or jello gelatin? Does that affect the taste or consistency of end product?

 

[Gytaryst]

By gelatin do you mean something like Sure Gel or jello gelatin? Does that affect the taste or consistency of end product?

Unflavored gelatin. You're only going to use 1/2 tsp for a 5 gallon batch so it doesn't affect the flavor or the consistency. You're heating the water up to 160 degrees ONLY to sanitize it and kill bacteria. You do not want to make wiggly jiggly "Jello". It should still be liquid form when you pour it into your carboy, and the beer in your carboy should be cold, (the colder the better). The combination of cold and the gelatin will coagulate a lot of the proteins and other floaties and cause them to fall out of suspension and settle at the bottom, leaving the majority of your beer nice and clear.

The next obstacle comes when you transfer your beer to the keg or bottling bucket. You want to leave that trub that has settled on the bottom as undisturbed as possible. If you slosh the carboy around moving it or scrape the bottom up with the racking cane or auto siphon, then the gelatin and cold crashing was pretty much a waste of time.

Good luck

 

[Francus]

Get some Polyclar from your brew store. Yeah, it's basically ground up PVC but it works in an emergency. Give it a week to settle out before bottling. It works when the beer is room temp.

For future brews use isinglass or whirlfloc in the last 10 minutes of the boil. That helps a lot. But whirlfloc coupled with cold crashing seems to work the best for me.

 

[Calder]

If you use Irish Moss or Worfloc in the boil, that is supposed to help clear the beer. My Daughter is allergic to Carrageenan, so i don't use these products.

I almost always use secondaries. I like to harvest the yeast before adding things to the beer, like dry hops, fruit, spices, etc. It is just how I do it.

Most times when I rack to secondary, the beer is cloudy. After racking to secondary, I add gelatin. All my beers come out clear. I do not cold crash.

You should add the gelatin before dry hopping, as the gelatin can pull some of the dry hop compounds out of the beer. Not sure if you would notice though.

How to add gelatin. Look it up and you will find a thousand different ways. I don't know what the right way is, but this works for me:

- Sprinkle half an ounce on an ounce of cold water in a shot glass and leave for about 20 minutes to bloom.
- Whil that is happening, boil 4 to 5 ozs of water and let cool to 170 F. Boil to sanitize and reduce the O2 content. I use an 8 ozs pyrex jug covered with clingfilm (with a small hole in it) and heat in microwave. I set on counter with thermometer thru the hole until temp gets to about 170 F (150 - 180).
- Pour 'bloomed' gelatin into hot water and stir.
- Add straight to fermenter.