How important is clear beer to you?

[iijakii]

Not too important to me. Even on light beers a cold crash and week or two in the keg and they're pretty damn clear to me. Some chill haze maybe, but with glasses fogging up naturally it's hard to even tell. I've never understood why some people go through so much trouble and using gelatin etc.

 

[SeraW]

All about style. Protein hazes in wheats and ryes are good, so is hop haze in IPAs, but my lagers ought to be brilliantly clear.

Usually just Whirlfloc though.

 

[Beerbeque]

I definitely care about my homebrew clarity. Clear beer looks better and tastes better to me. Good looks is as important in beverages as it is in food. When I have properly lagered my ales they taste cleaner with less esters and are a joy to look at in the glass and to drink. That being said I have drank lots of homebrew before it has been well aged and enjoyed it almost as much.

 

[ShizuokaBrad]

I had a feeling that there'd be wide ranging opinion on this topic. For what it's worth, I don't think it takes too much extra effort to get beer looking clear... but you guys have a huge advantage over us homebrewers in Japan... there are no local homebrew shops here. None! We have to order everything online and pay quite a bit extra for it as well. Of course gelatin is easy to get but none of the other clearing agents are readily available.

 

[kh54s10]

Late to this argument... But, I like a nice clear beer. If I get one I am very happy, when I don't I don't lose any sleep over it. Some of my best tasting beers were not as clear as I would have liked......

 

[ChelisHubby]

Yeah, but then they will want all my precious, precious elixir of life so I will have to make even more of it. That sounds like since I spending more time and effort insuring clear beer I have to spend more time and effort to make more beer to spend more time and effort on it to make it clear. Where will the cycle end!

Increase your batch size or add a glass filling fee!

 

[CJ-3]

There is something nice about having a beer with nice clarity. Is it necessary to me? No - it isn't. But I sure do like to brag to my buddies when it happens. :rockin:

 

[unionrdr]

I have to reiterate some comments here. A wheat ale, kottbusser, & the like are a bit cloudy to a little hazy, per the style. Others, I like clear & use half a Whirlfloc tablet near the end of the boil. Well chilled top off water also gives a little cold break. I agree that many ales/lagers taste better when well-cleared, getting the yeast/trub flavors out of the equation to allow lighter flavor complexities to shine through. Besides aesthetics.

 

[kombat]

It's pretty important to me, although easily accomplished now. I do all the steps Gavin outlined, with the exception of water chemistry, and with the addition of a whirlpool in the boil kettle. But the biggest payoff comes with gelatin. After kegging the (relatively clear) beer and giving it a day to chill down, I pop the lid and pour in the gelatin solution. 2 days later, I get a pint of sludge, then amazingly clear beer for the rest of the keg (as long as I don't move it).

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

I like taking the time to clear the beer each time I transfer it from kettle, to fermentor, to keg. I found that cold crashing the fermentors a few days prior to kegging really lessens the chance of getting trub into the keg.

I force carbonate my beer cold and if I'm in a rush I will add gelatin to the keg after a few days to speed up the clearing. As far as getting a glass or two of hop jello from the first two pours, that is easily resolved by shortening the beer pickup tube length by a half inch.

 

[BigMack]

Just a tip for everyone, your beer will be crystal clear if you sacrifice a goat to Ninkasi every time you brew.

 

[unionrdr]

And whatever Ninkasi doesn't finish, we can enjoy with a home brew.

 

[Rev2010]

Just a tip for everyone, your beer will be crystal clear if you sacrifice a goat to Ninkasi every time you brew.

Gelatin is far cheaper than a goat


Rev.

 

[govner1]

If you're going to take the time to make good beer, why not make clear beer (per style). It may take a little longer but why not make the best finished product you can?
If all you're after is alcohol, go for it!

 

[TheMadKing]

If it's a pilsner, alt, or a kolsch, it's pretty important, anything else, nope. I care more about flavor, and I think a hazy amber ale, brown ale, IPA, etc has a certain charm. That being said, I don't usually suffer from a cloudy beer problem, and for the record I don't whirlpool, I dump my entire kettle into the fermenter, I BIAB so no vorlaufing, I don't use irish moss/whirlfloc, and I chill fairly slowly. No idea what really makes clear beer, but it's none of those things in my experience.

 

[unionrdr]

I've gotten clear beer with nothing but patience & a good process myself. Other times, Whirlfloc does the job nicely.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

If it's a pilsner, alt, or a kolsch, it's pretty important.

Interesting that you included Alt...I found about half of them to suspended yeast or some other haze (potentially a reaction witht he apple pectin?) the last time I was in Dusseldorf. And trust me, we tried plenty as we attempted to have one beer in every bar on the left side of the street...through the Alt Stadt center (do NOT try this).

 

[Onkel_Udo]

It may take a little longer but why not make the best finished product you can?

Because some of us think style is for chumps and posers :rockin: (totally tongue in cheek)! Seriously though, I really do not brew to style. I use a style I like as a guide to the (basic) ingredients I need and just go from there.

It is the same argument as all bottles must be de-label and the same style with custom printed labels. To some, this point presentation is important. To some it is not. My bottles are mostly de-labeled (I was bored and drunk one snowy night), are all brown (different shades and shapes) and just have a code on the cap.

A couple guys got indignant when said it was totally unimportant and does not reflect badly on the brewer as lazy, inattentive or sloppy in his process. My example of presentation being low on the list in lots of areas of great taste was...BBQ...best pulled pork sandwich most folks have ever had likely came in paper boat or on cheap paper plate. Ribs...likely came on a paper plate half the size it needed to be with a pepper, slice of onion and a piece of white bread most adults would not be caught dead eating anywhere else.

 

[Gavin C]

Alt...I found about half of them to suspended yeast or some other haze (potentially a reaction witht he apple pectin?) the last time I was in Dusseldorf. .

Apple in an Alt? That's new to me.

German breweries are pretty restricted in allowed ingredients even for top fermented ales like an Alt. Not quite as restricted as with lager but apples or any part of them do not feature.

Alt should be crystal clear if it is to style.

www.germanbeerinstitute.com/altbier.html

 

[filthyastronaut]

Like most people I prefer whatever is appropriate to the style. I do really enjoy the feeling of drinking a crystal clear beer that I made, and it gives others a perception of legitimacy if I serve them a really pretty beer.

I have noticed flavor and aroma differences between a carefully poured, clear beer and a beer with the sediment dumped in. There's no rule about which is better though, and I think it depends entirely on the specific beer it is, not even the style. My IPAs will often have a brighter aroma with the sediment, but the flavor becomes harsher because of the added hop debris. And sometimes, the added hop aroma may be unwelcome if I was intending a stronger malt presence. I have a Brown Ale that tastes sort of funny with the yeast poured in, and I had a wheat that was kind of thin without it. It all depends.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

Apple in an Alt? That's new to me.

German breweries are pretty restricted in allowed ingredients even for top fermented ales like an Alt. Not quite as restricted as with lager but apples or any part of them do not feature.

Alt should be crystal clear if it is to style.

www.germanbeerinstitute.com/altbier.html

It is not an ingredient in the beer, it was the regional version of lime for your Corona...Dusseldorf itself did it less than the outlying communities, but apple chunks floating the beer was totally normal and the default at many locals.

 

[Gavin C]

It is not an ingredient in the beer, it was the regional version of lime for your Corona...Dusseldorf itself did it less than the outlying communities, but apple chunks floating the beer was totally normal and the default at many locals.

Gotcha.

I misunderstood. I thought you were saying that Altbier itself was a cloudy beer owing to apples in the brewing process.

So that would be crystal clear altbier + apples = cloudy apple altbier.

I still think a prior poster citing Alt as an example of a cystal clear style is entirely correct though. Wouldn't you aggree?

 

[Onkel_Udo]

I still think a prior poster citing Alt as an example of a cystal clear style is entirely correct though. Wouldn't you aggree?

Very possibly just because it is a distant enough memory I cannot separate if only the ones with a chunk or two of apple were cloudy or not. Having not had the authentic version, on tap since 1998, it is likely.

It was without a doubt my favorite style when I lived in Nordrhein-Westfalen (Arnsberg to be exact).

 

[Clonefan94]

Personally, clear beer isn't important to me. I have found it to be helpful to have clear beer though if you have people who are leery of trying homebrew for the first time or just aren't experienced craft beer drinkers.

I find that whirlflock in the boil, a good cold crash before kegging, then just letting it sit a week or so gives me pretty clear beer that goes crystal clear after about 2 weeks on tap.

I think kegging is a big help in clarity though, it's easy to mix that sediment up in a bottle, no matter how careful you are.

 

[Devon]

While it's not particularly important to me, it's cool to have another aspect of the process under my control. I may not do it every batch, but it's nice to know I can if I want to.

 

[BrewingTravisty]

I never go out of my way to get a clear beer, I don't cold crash or use anything besides a sprinkle of Irish moss towards the end of the boil. All of my beers so far have turned out Crystal clear, besides a couple wheat beers. Even beers that have gone 2 weeks grain to glass, bottle conditioned, generally come out clear. Though they sometimes have a slight haze that clears up with an extra week. Getting a clear beer isn't that difficult, really.

But to answer the original question, it's not super important to me. I'll never go out of my way to achieve it, but at the same time it is a good feeling when you pour a beer and it's a sparkling clear beer.

 

[Yooper]

If you're going to take the time to make good beer, why not make clear beer (per style). It may take a little longer but why not make the best finished product you can?
If all you're after is alcohol, go for it!

It's important to me. I don't like going out to a restaurant and having a pile of food glopped onto my place, and I don't like a murky beer. It's not hard to make the food on the plate appealing, and it's not hard to make a clear beer.

I don't use finings like gelatin (I want a vegetarian friendly beer), but it's still really easy to make a clear beer and takes no extra time.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/clear-wort-clear-beer.html

 

[BrewingTravisty]

It's important to me. I don't like going out to a restaurant and having a pile of food glopped onto my place, and I don't like a murky beer. It's not hard to make the food on the plate appealing, and it's not hard to make a clear beer.

I don't use finings like gelatin (I want a vegetarian friendly beer), but it's still really easy to make a clear beer and takes no extra time.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/clear-wort-clear-beer.html

The only finings I really use is Irish Moss. My beers all come out clear, except some of my wheat beers that aren't meant to be clear. There's nothing better than pouring a beer into a glass and it coming out crystal clear.

 

[MaddBaggins]

I like a reasonable clarity but I don't use any additives other than Irish Moss at the end of boil.
That being said, I'm always super proud when a beer comes out crystal clear. I'm also bummed when they're cloudy but enjoy them nonetheless.

Earlier this year I did a peach brew using WLP648. I still have it in a keg and it is still the dirtiest looking beer I have ever made. I kegged it in June. It tastes great but the look turns me off to it a bit. That stuff refuses to drop out. It is a filthy looking beer.

So, in a nutshell, clarity matter to me, but only a little.

 

[Iceman6409]

Personally I don't care at all. To me it is all about the taste. I am a bottler right now and give almost all of mine away but no one cares in my world. However I do see the importance of it if you are entering into a competition or something like that. In the end it is all up to the brewer. Each way is just fine.