So clear it scares me.

[lgilmore]

Since I like to share my beers with nonbrewers I want a clear beer. While "we" may not be bothered by cloudly beers, non brewers are. To someone who doesn't know all the little aspects of homebrewing, a clear beer carries more weight than a cloudy one.

I understand it is a matter of taste, for me, I want my friends to enjoy what I brew with confidence not doubt.

 

[cb2100]

When I get a really beautifully clear beer in my glass, I will drink it slowly, and study it through the light until my wife tells me I am a fool of a man. I will do anything to get brilliantly clear beer. It is a mark of skill of the brewer.

I agree. There is just something that tugs at my soul when I hold up a glass of homebrew and it is brilliantly clear... I feel like I truly accomplished something refined. I understand the appreciation for the somewhat "raw" element of a cloudy, unfiltered beer, but in my mind true greatness is accomplished when you have a beer that looks brilliant but still reaches out and punches you in the face with flavor. Obviously, just my personal opinion, but something in my head translates the extra effort, knowledge, or whatever you want to call it, that it takes to create such a beer qualifies as fundamental properties of a "better" beer.

Also, side note I should add... I almost always get a clear beer, and have never filtered, so I don't want to give anyone the impression I support filtering, that couldn't be farther from the truth.

 

[afr0byte]

I think filtering removes alot of the flavor from beers. We don't get either of those beers here but I basically only drink microbrew unfiltered stuff. It's a preference and an opinion. I'll never be convinced otherwise. Lol

Where are you that you can't get a Sierra Nevada or a Stone beer? Sierra Nevada is big enough that they're opening a new brewery on the east coast. I'm in Vermont an I can get both of those beers, which are both from California. Stone has been looking in to opening a second brewery in Europe.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

When I get a really beautifully clear beer in my glass, I will drink it slowly, and study it through the light until my wife tells me I am a fool of a man. I will do anything to get brilliantly clear beer. It is a mark of skill of the brewer.

For me its all about getting an idea for a brew in my mind and working to put it in my glass. If your idea is clear beer go for it. Most of my pale brews have been quite clear and i have never whirlpooled my wort, never used finings and never filtered the product at any stage. The only thing I do to "clear" my beer is use a ss seive to drop the cooled wort from the brew kettle to the fermenter, but that's to pull out the hops and aerate.

 

[Hauntedyards]

Where are you that you can't get a Sierra Nevada or a Stone beer?

We don't get that in Ontario that I am aware of...

 

[Yooper]

Didn't mean to stir the pot this much with my comment. I've personally always felt clearing, or filtering which is what is most commonly done to commercial brews, removes a lot of body and taste compounds and the point of clear beer doesn't make much sense to me other than trying to copy the look of today's common commercial beers just so you can say you we're able to achieve the same. Clearing beer, again most modernly done commercially via filtering, or done via fining agents is mostly a non-natural process, I mean... gelatine? That's an animal derived byproduct.

Not saying I don't marvel at times how clear I've had some of my brews come out naturally, but I could care less overall so long as it's not uber opaque - @Yoop, orange juice is a big stretch, none of mine have ever been that opaque. I only get a light haze.

Rev.

I don't use any finings, except for whirfloc in the kettle, and certainly never gelatin as I want my beer vegetarian friendly.

I don't think my beers lack flavor because they are clear. I work at making them that way, but not through filtering or fining. It's harder with a non-flocculant yeast like wyeast 1007 but it will clear. Keep in mind that if it's yeast haze (like with 1007), the only "flavor" that will be stripped when the beer is clear is the yeast bite. Which is a good thing.

Protein haze doesn't give the beer good flavor, either. Removing chill haze won't remove flavor from the beer. Perhaps sterile filtration removes flavor (and I know it does), but cold crashing and using whirlfloc in the kettle certainly does not. In fact, cold storage (lagering) can reduce polyphenols and excess tannins, but the worst that will do is mellow the beer and reduce unwanted compounds. It's not like a pilsner that is crystal clear after lagering is suddenly going to be flavorless, over the same beer that has a haze.

I would argue that clear IS the natural way for most beers to appear. The only way it would be possibly hazy is with a hops haze, but even then a hops haze is very slight. A protein haze is NOT supposed to be there, and if the beer has a protein haze it has other issues.

 

[Raenon]

Clearing beer, again most modernly done commercially via filtering, or done via fining agents is mostly a non-natural process, I mean... gelatine? That's an animal derived byproduct.

Y'know what else is an animal derived byproduct?

Alcohol.

 

[Pie_Man]

Y'know what else is an animal derived byproduct?

Alcohol.

Yeast is a fungi, so it's not classified as being an animal byproduct.

 

[PoorBoy]

I've heard that Stone filters their beers through the cleavage of a thousand naked Norse Goddesses. But, I could be wrong.

I can verify this. It is why my Stone clone's never come out how I want. Not enough Norse Goddess cleavage.

 

[oldschool]

Heady Topper is the dirtiest, haziest, beer I have seen and is one of the best. That is all.

 

[bottlebomber]

Heady Topper is the dirtiest, haziest, beer I have seen and is one of the best. That is all.

Yes, it is. You'll notice that it's in a can, and they urge you to not remove it except by way of drinking.

 

[idover]

I can verify this. It is why my Stone clone's never come out how I want. Not enough Norse Goddess cleavage.

And if you try to substitute with German Goddesses you just end up with their chest hair in your beer.

 

[Rev2010]

And if you try to substitute with German Goddesses you just end up with their chest hair in your beer.

Have you ever been to Germany? Outside of far up north the women are quite attractive, and in Bavaria many are super hot. In the north there are some ugly ones but German women are not at all known for hairiness, Greeks maybe.


Rev.

 

[idover]

Have you ever been to Germany? Outside of far up north the women are quite attractive, and in Bavaria many are super hot. In the north there are some ugly ones but German women are not at all known for hairiness, Greeks maybe.


Rev.

Unfortunately I've never been, but would love to visit. I'm sure everyone realizes it was a joke. Heidi Klum dispelled the myth of hairy German women a long time ago.

And when I do visit, I'll avoid the north since "there are some ugly ones"

Thanks,
Isaac

 

[PoorBoy]

Have you ever been to Germany? Outside of far up north the women are quite attractive, and in Bavaria many are super hot. In the north there are some ugly ones but German women are not at all known for hairiness, Greeks maybe.


Rev.

I loved every little place I went in Bavaria. Hell, I loved Germany. But for wimmens, I'll take the Med any day, and for beers...my three years in Belgium were well spent!

 

[brian2can]

When I get a really beautifully clear beer in my glass, I will drink it slowly, and study it through the light until my wife tells me I am a fool of a man. I will do anything to get brilliantly clear beer. It is a mark of skill of the brewer.

You are a poet.

 

[Mindhop]

you are a poet.

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