Homebrew Clarity

[Smitty]

Hello everyone. Complete rookie to the homebrew world, just started my first ever this morning. Thought I'd try a Mexican Cerveza kit from Brewhouse. My question is about clarity after bottling. The store I purchased from sold me a product called Turbo Clear. After reading about this at home, my question is can you use this product with beer? I was planning on using carbonation drops instead of batch priming, but now I'm unsure if enough yeast will be left to carbonate. Has anybody used this product ? How'd it turn out?

 

[Pkrd]

The instructions say it's for spirit making, I wouldn't let it near my beer.

Welcome to HBT.

 

[Jag75]

With bottling your gonna have some settlement at the bottom . Using whirfloc will help out dropping stuff cold break . Once you bottle try not rouse up the yeast and trub crud at the bottom of your fermenter as you transfer to a botteling bucket . After a couple of weeks of bottling try one . If its carbed good put some in the fridge and the settlement will drop to the bottom. When you pour into your glass just leave the last bit of slurry stuff behind.....unless you wanna drink it too , it doesnt hurt ya. I dont know what that stuff is but it sounds like I wouldn't use it either as it will probably rid you of any yeast to bottle prime.

Welcome to the HBT forum .

 

[Smitty]

The instructions say it's for spirit making, I wouldn't let it near my beer.

Welcome to HBT.

That's what I thought but the sales associate insisted it could be used.

 

[Smitty]

With bottling your gonna have some settlement at the bottom . Using whirfloc will help out dropping stuff cold break . Once you bottle try not rouse up the yeast and trub crud at the bottom of your fermenter as you transfer to a botteling bucket . After a couple of weeks of bottling try one . If its carbed good put some in the fridge and the settlement will drop to the bottom. When you pour into your glass just leave the last bit of slurry stuff behind.....unless you wanna drink it too , it doesnt hurt ya. I dont know what that stuff is but it sounds like I wouldn't use it either as it will probably rid you of any yeast to bottle prime.

Welcome to the HBT forum .

Thank you. Any thoughts on bottle priming as opposed to batch?

 

[Amadeo38]

With bottling your gonna have some settlement at the bottom.

If you’re not careful, the organisms resident to that settlement will become civilized. They may eventually develop nuclear weapons, at which point you’ll have bottle bombs. I’ve seen it on South Park when Cartman kept Sea Monkeys.

Seriously though, Jag’s advice regarding sediment is sound, and clarity can be further increased in addition to what he said by leaving the carbonated bottles at low temps in a fridge for several weeks, a.k.a. Lagering.
Just make sure you carefully pour the bottle into a glass and leave the last 1/2” or so in the bottle, as this contains the sediment that will make it cloudy again.

Cheers and welcome.

 

[Jag75]

I've never done the carb drops so I cant speak of that. I've only done priming sugar when I bottle.

 

[BassBabiesBeer]

Thank you. Any thoughts on bottle priming as opposed to batch?

I'm a fan of batch priming. I used to make the simple syrup and put it in the bottling bucket so it mixed itself during beer transfer from the carboy. I did still stir to make sure it was as well mixed. Just be careful to sanitize everything you use at this point, and do your best to not make tons of bubbles and you're solid. I had some ale batches from 5+ years ago my friend saved and brought to a party I held that bottle conditioned really well.

I never personally did individual bottle tabs or drops because I mostly heard stories of bottles exploding or popping, and some being far under-carbonated.

 

[BassBabiesBeer]

If you’re not careful, the organisms resident to that settlement will become civilized. They may eventually develop nuclear weapons, at which point you’ll have bottle bombs. I’ve seen it on South Park when Cartman kept Sea Monkeys.

Seriously though, Jag’s advice regarding sediment is sound, and clarity can be further increased in addition to what he said by leaving the carbonated bottles at low temps in a fridge for several weeks, a.k.a. Lagering.
Just make sure you carefully pour the bottle into a glass and leave the last 1/2” or so in the bottle, as this contains the sediment that will make it cloudy again.

Cheers and welcome.

Isn't it possible to cold crash the sediment out, then transfer after warming just slightly for bottling? Or is the yeast basically done once cold crashed?

 

[Smitty]

Isn't it possible to cold crash the sediment out, then transfer after warming just slightly for bottling? Or is the yeast basically done once cold crashed?

Great question.

 

[BrewInspector]

Cold crashing will remove a significant amount of solids (including yeast) from the beer before bottling. There is no need to warm before bottling.

You will then be adding sugar for priming when bottling. The remaining yeast (yes there are still enough to carb the bottle) will produce additional particles (their dead) that will then settle at the bottom of the bottle. Chilling the bottles further causes the particles to settle and clear the beer.

The cold crashing and leaving as much trub behind during transfer will reduce the overall amount of debris that will accumulate in your finished product but there will always be some amount of settlement when bottling.

 

[brownni5]

Cold and time will cure all your cloudy ails (ales?).
This spring I brewed a Wit with flour in the boil just to see if it would keep cloudy. I kegged this batch and within a couple weeks my Wit was pouring brilliantly clear. Damn.

I have used priming tabs, but don't really like to. For a small batch (1 gal), I think they're fine. For a bigger batch, they're a pain (and expensive). Batch priming it is!

 

[bracconiere]

The instructions say it's for spirit making, I wouldn't let it near my beer.

Welcome to HBT.

reminds me of the guy on the morebeer forum that wanted to use turbo yeast...lol, Mmmm, urea/urine, i prefer to drink it once first before it tastes like that.....

 

[Smitty]

Thanks to everybody for some great advice and not badgering a newbie (well except for one dick!). Turbo Clear will be a big "No go".

 

[fizgig]

You can use it in beer. It's Chitosan and Kieselsol.

https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/lq-chitosan
https://www.morebeer.com/products/super-kleer-finings-kieselsolchitosan-65-ml.html

Normally used in wine, mead and liquor, they probably don't use it in beer as it's more expensive than isinglass and gelatin. There's other finings like bentonite that can be used in beer but normally just aren't.

https://www.morebeer.com/articles/clarifying_homebrew

 

[Smitty]

So just an update on the process, after having the airlock bubbling away for a day it abruptly stopped. On closer inspection I found a very slow leak from the spigot. Lost maybe 250ml. I'm just hoping it's not going to hurt the final product. The leak was promptly rectified however no action in the airlock since.