Irish Moss

[sok454]

What exactly does this do? A lot of recipes I've seen in the 200 Clone book say to use 1 oz of Irish Moss. SO I bought a bottle of the tablets today. Is it to clear up the beer?

 

[matthewgardner]

Yes, but it is mostly just propaganda. Totally unnecessary IMHO. Happy Brewing!

 

[edds5p0]

I've just started using whirfloc and I have been making clearer beers. I also have much thicker sediment layer in the kettle when I rack out to the fermenter.

 

[YeastHerder]

It is for cosmetic improvement of beer clarity. Add it at 15 minutes before the end of the boil.

 

[Yooper]

It works great! If you've got "tablets", though, I suspect you have Whirlfloc. It is really wonderful for coagulating proteins, and leaving a very clear wort and hence a very clear beer. I love it, and highly recommend it.

I don't use other finings like gelatin, but I have superclear beer just from the Whirlfloc in the boil.

 

[sok454]

It def says Irish Moss on the package... Going to try it tomorrow in my milk stout!

 

[frazier]

Well -- you won't see much benefit in a stout! That stuff won't be clear no matter what you do!

That said, I also use it (whenever I remember, which is most of the time).

Cheers!

 

[sok454]

Wish I would of had it for my IPA

 

[Calder]

What exactly does this do? A lot of recipes I've seen in the 200 Clone book say to use 1 oz of Irish Moss. SO I bought a bottle of the tablets today. Is it to clear up the beer?

1 ounce is way too much. If you use that much, you are likely to get a fishy taste in the beer. I use about half a level teaspoon for 5 gallons.

 

[menerdari]

I use 1 teaspoon in every batch, usually somewhat heaping, my bottles of Irish moss are 1 oz and I just finished my first bottle, I got 8 batches out of it.

 

[Yooper]

If it's Irish moss, the flaky stuff, I've found that it works better if you rehydrate it when you start the boil, and then add it when there is 15 minutes left in the boil.

1 teaspoon of Irish moss into 1/4 cup hot water will work great. The Irish moss absorbs the water and just seems to work better that way.

The whirlfloc tablets are my preferred kettle fining. I just drop a tablet into a 10 gallon batch with 10-15 minutes left.