Irish Moss

[msinning]

I have some questions about beer finings. I've always used irish moss 15 mins before the end of the boil but I've been reading a lot about gelatin and cold crashing. What exactly does irish moss do to clarify the beer and which method is better?

 

[hokieengr]

I can't really say how well Irish moss works because even though I've used it for most of my batches, I never really noticed a big difference with or without it. Rarely do I get a brilliant beer from just Irish moss. I would say I’m going to stop using it but its always hard to justify not just tossing in a teaspoon and hoping for the best.

Gelatin is a different story. I have used it a handful of times and have been very pleasantly surprised at the results. I typically sprinkle about a half packet of unflavored Knox gelatin into about a cup or so of warm (no hot/jello bad) water, let it sit for a little while, then swirl it up and dump it into a cold keg of beer. I've even used this technique on carbonated beers while on tap with success. In most cases, the beer will turn out brilliantly clear although it might take a few days.

As for your question, in my mind, if you really want repeatable brilliant beers, gelatin is the way to go.

 

[37OliveStBrews]

This is a great question. Does using Irish Moss at all help if your dip tube is on the bottom of your brew kettle? From my understanding the Irish Moss causes proteins to coagulate and fall out, but if they collect at the bottom of your brew kettle won't they just get sucked up into the dip tube? I have a false bottom but still unsure if that even aids. I empty the brew kettle from diptube to my CFC to my carboy so I am not quite sure if using Irish Moss is going to help at all here. Anyone know if it helps?

 

[rycov]

if you get the coagulated protiens in your fermenter then they should still settle to the bottom of that, then just take care not to disturb the trub when you transfer

 

[37OliveStBrews]

Thanks Rycov. Your post made sense, seems like using the irish moss will still help out.

 

[rycov]

your welcome. I'm also not for or against Irish moss, I used it once because it came in a kit,but it was a stout so it's kinda hard to judge clarity by that. I like cold crashing because I have the fridge space, it works, and just makes sense for my process. if you find that Irish moss works for you then use that. other wise look into the gelatin or cold crash method. it's all about what works best for you

 

[msinning]

Thanks everyone for the info!

 

[geezerpk]

I've not used Irish Moss, but have used Whirlfloc a few times and was unimpressed. Maybe it just doesn't fit my work flow. A little time and gelatin's been my goto method. My beer's never exactly Coors clear, but some of the recipes come very close if you disregard the sediment that's always going to be around in unfiltered suds.

 

[avidhomebrewer]

I used to use irish moss regiously for about 6-7 years. Every 15 minutes, add some, boil... Until the last 4 or so years, I haven't used it and really can't tell a difference in the clarity. I do let my batches sit in primary for longer now (about 6-8 weeks) vs. about every 4 weeks in primary, then rack to secondary when using irish moss I don't have any plans on going back to using irish moss and have no experience with the other finings you mention.