My beer lacks clarity.

[Thundercougarfalconbird]

5 batches of good beer down and I'm getting pretty confident in my ability. But my beer has this mirkey and grungy tinge to it. It seems to lack the brilliant crisp clarity of commercial beers. I'm trying to figure out what could possibly make the difference.
I maintain a very clean setup so I doubt its that.
I'm a little frugal when it comes to racking beer, sucking everything out until theres no clear liquid left. Perhaps this trub is affecting the final product?
I use welding grade co2 when I keg, perhaps this plays a role?
Maybe its my water?I've tried using spring water and the results have been about the same.
Maybe a beer filter of some sort?
I let my beer sit 3-4 weeks before kegging so I think enough yeast drops out of suspension to keep the beer clear in those respects.
I use an aluminum brewpot, maybe that is affecting it?
Finally I've used whirfloc in every batch, I'm going to try Irish moss next batch but I don't think thats it either.

Suggestions/insight on how to brew with the clarity/crispness of the big boys?

 

[BryceL]

Have you tried cold crashing? I do mine for two days around 34 degrees then rack to the keg and let it carb for 2-3 weeks. That always seems to give me nice clear beer. Unless of course you are doing some kind of wheat beer, I'm usually doing IPA's.

 

[Hammy71]

How are you chilling your wort? For me a faster chill to pitching temperatures was one of the biggest keys to getting clarity. All of my beers are usually crystal clear after a couple of weeks in the keezers.

 

[wildwest450]

I lack clarity because of beer.

_

 

[viking73]

I'm drinking beer, therefore I have clarity.

 

[viking73]

Try a secondary.

 

[Yooper]

Do you reach a hard rolling boil? And how do you chill?

What is a typical recipe for you? And what type of water are you using? Lastly, what's the usual yeast strain?

We'll figure out what's wrong!

 

[frazier]

This is how I rank the attributes of my beer, in order of importance:
1. Flavor
2. Taste
3. Aroma
4. Flavor
5. Mouthfeel
6. Taste
7. Carbonation
8. Aroma
9. Flavor
10. Clarity

 

[Hammy71]

This is how I rank the attributes of my beer, in order of importance:
1. Flavor
2. Taste
3. Aroma
4. Flavor
5. Mouthfeel
6. Taste
7. Carbonation
8. Aroma
9. Flavor
10. Clarity

Ahhhh, yes....but the look on someone's face when they see the crystal clear home brew, then taste it for the first time.... priceless. For myself, I don't care, but presentation (just like in cooking) is part of the deal. (For me anyway).

 

[Thundercougarfalconbird]

Well its not just look so much as the mouthfeel even seems a bit off
I cool with a 25' immersion chiller
Its just tap water right now.
The latest one is a Dogfish 60 IPA,using ringwood ale yeast. I did secondary for dry hop.
I get to a meh boil because I'm an apartment brewer, I can get the 7 gallons rolling but not super hard boil.
I was looking into beer filters, they seem promising,I may buy the cylindrical kind.
Its hard to explain, but my beer just has this dirty feel to it that I don't get with commercial brews.
For example I can't even see through this glass of dogfish I'm sipping on, but the commercial version is brilliant and clear. I'm sure its the dryhops, but its not just this beer, but all seem to maintain this level of grit.
I know wheat beers are murky, I've never cold crashed, but I do let it sit for atleast 2 weeks before drawing the first pint.

 

[Slurm]

Try cold crashing and gelatin.

After the 3-4 weeks of fermentation you are allowing, toss the whole thing in the fridge to chill down for a day or two. Boil some water (1 cup is plenty), dissolve a packet of knox gelatin, pour it into the beer, put the bucket/carboy/whatever back into the fridge and wait a couple more days then keg/bottle as usual.

The gelatin will attract the small particles of yeast/etc that are floating around in your beer and form larger particles which will drop out of solution faster. Its not instant, and its not 100% but its a big improvement -and its a lot less expensive than buying a fancy filter.

 

[Yooper]

I'm thinking it's a boil issue. A good boil coagulates proteins, and you get an "egg drop soup" look after the hot break.

I don't use gelatin or other finings (some of my friends are vegetarians) except for whirlfloc in the kettle, and my beers are crystal clear.

A couple of keys are the good rolling boil, and a very fast chilling. Using whirlfoc helps both hot break and cold break.

Can you reduce the size of your boil a bit and get a good rolling boil?

 

[Thundercougarfalconbird]

Since Im Allgrain I can't really afford to decrease my boil size. I suppose I could make a heatstick but I feel the boils are about as intense as I can have them in my lil 7.5 gallon kettle. But I do get the eggdrop soup look from my boils now.
Gel sounds promising, I suppose I'll try it for my next beer. But I'm about ready for another toy so the filter is shiney.

 

[Hoppin_Mad]

I lack clarity because of beer.

_

Better than having clarity while lacking beer.

 

[zepolmot]

I had an issue with my boil being "meh" as well when I got my 8 gal kettle, I'm an apartment brewer, too. I found that making a "skirt" for the kettle out of aluminum foil helped a bunch. I wrap the foil around and then tuck it under the burner coils. Not sure if this would work with a gas stove, if that is what you have.

 

[jonmohno]

Better than having clarity while lacking beer.

But its hard to chill while lacking beer:cross:

 

[Thundercougarfalconbird]

I have a aluminum foil skirt I use on each batch as well as wrapping my kettle in foil.
Idk its not just the look, although my beer does lack that to some degree. Its like the mouthfeel is significantly different than the beers I'm attempting to make.

 

[Yooper]

I have a aluminum foil skirt I use on each batch as well as wrapping my kettle in foil.
Idk its not just the look, although my beer does lack that to some degree. Its like the mouthfeel is significantly different than the beers I'm attempting to make.

Well, if mouthfeel AND clarity a problem, maybe it's recipe related? Can you give us a specific recipe and example of your technique (mash temps) and we can see what's going on?

 

[Thundercougarfalconbird]

Well, the latest one is actually your Dogfish 60 Clone. My mashtemp was 155(tho Im starting to think I need a digital thermometer)
But my mashtun failed to strain and I ended up straining with a paintstrain bag and 95% efficiency. >_> But that was my first AG, things have improved for the Oatmeal Stout I just did.(hit 80% efficiency)
I think its mostly the hop particles in the dogfish that are getting to me.(its drinkable but doesn't remind me of the real dogfish much) But in the past extract brews (Sierra Nevada, Bluemoon, Honeyblonde) things seem off.
The only example I still have on tap is the Honey Blonde, which is AHS's. I dont recall how much extract, but
1lb honey
1oz centennial(60min)
1 whirfloc tab
1 pack Sf05

I boiled the hour with 3 gallons of water, added hops when boil started. Cooled with my immersion cooler,boiled and cooled the 3 gallons of water, added both to the fermenter. pitched at 70 degrees for 3 weeks, keg conditioned and carbed for 2 weeks.
Does everyone rack until they are pulling nothing but trub or am I being too stingy with my beer?

 

[Skarekrough]

Does everyone rack until they are pulling nothing but trub or am I being too stingy with my beer?

I would heed the spirit of the advice given by Dante in the movie "Clerks" to the guy with the Pringles can stuck on his hand. "Sometimes you just need to let those hard to reach chips go...."

When you're heading to secondary give the primary plenty of time to settle. Also make it a point to put it up on an angle so that you can maximize the amount you have access to but also be conscious of where the tip of the trub is and don't suck any of it up.

That will reduce some of it.

I would also suggest using gelatin. However my results with it have been somewhat different than others in that it can take up to a week to ten days for the results to show.

I'll gelatin my kegs after they've failed to clear in a few weeks in the kegerator. After I put it in I know it's going to be another week to ten before it's worth even trying again.

 

[jbrookeiv]

Well, the latest one is actually your Dogfish 60 Clone. My mashtemp was 155(tho Im starting to think I need a digital thermometer)
But my mashtun failed to strain and I ended up straining with a paintstrain bag and 95% efficiency. >_> But that was my first AG, things have improved for the Oatmeal Stout I just did.(hit 80% efficiency)
I think its mostly the hop particles in the dogfish that are getting to me.(its drinkable but doesn't remind me of the real dogfish much) But in the past extract brews (Sierra Nevada, Bluemoon, Honeyblonde) things seem off.
The only example I still have on tap is the Honey Blonde, which is AHS's. I dont recall how much extract, but
1lb honey
1oz centennial(60min)
1 whirfloc tab
1 pack Sf05

I boiled the hour with 3 gallons of water, added hops when boil started. Cooled with my immersion cooler,boiled and cooled the 3 gallons of water, added both to the fermenter. pitched at 70 degrees for 3 weeks, keg conditioned and carbed for 2 weeks.
Does everyone rack until they are pulling nothing but trub or am I being too stingy with my beer?

There's generally going to be some beer left behind. I typically have about 1" of beer on top of the trub at the bottom of my fermenters after I stop racking. Better to have fewer, clear beers than more cloudy beers IMO. Also, might want to leave your beer sitting in primary for another week or so, time will bring a lot of stuff to the bottom.

Also, when you are getting ready to rack, move the carboy to wherever you are racking from a few hours to days before you rack. This will allow the yeast to resettle after being kicked up from when you moved the carboy.

 

[C-Rider]

I lack clarity because of beer.

_

I'll drink to that!

 

[duffman2]

I lack clarity because of beer.

_

Clarity is overrated.

After battling with cloudy beer forever (and not really caring about it) I started tinkering with getting it more clear. I used irish moss and didn't get much out of it. I chilled it for a short day or maybe two days. Then I used gelatin for a couple days. But when I became more patient with clearing, and used moss, gelatin for a week, and chilling for a week my beer became dramatically more clear.

So once you dial your boil and process down, take the same time and consideration for your clearing stages if you care at all about how clear your beers are.

 

[Thundercougarfalconbird]

Right, so I'll rack more generously
Gonna go grab some gelatin
And maybe look into a nice heat stick for my boils