Tips on improving home brew clarity?

[Beerhog]

I bought some Sierra Nevada pale ale, and was surprised to learn that it was bottle conditioned. Beer is clear, and there is very little sediment in the bottle. That is 100 times better than what I get when bottle conditioning. So it got me wondering, how do they do it and how can I make my homebrews look like that? Any suggestions?

 

[Yooper]

I wrote this a long time ago, but it's still what I do for beer clarity: Clear Wort, Clear Beer - Tips from Yooper

 

[Sammy86]

Listen to @Yooper she's the God Mother of brewing around here.

As she says in that article you can also hit it with gelatin in primary 24-48 Before packaging and it will help clear it out.

you can use this method:

http://brulosophy.com/2015/01/05/the-gelatin-effect-exbeeriment-results/

 

[Vale71]

https://sierranevada.com/faq/what-is-bottle-conditioning/
Sounds like they're filtering the beer and then adding back both priming sugar as well as a small amount of conditioning yeast, presumably a highly flocculent strain.

 

[Beerhog]

Thank you for resources and an interesting read.

 

[Gregory T]

I have found a cold crash of 2 weeks using Gelatin then biofine clear will produce clear beer. It will also yield very little yeast settlement in bottles. no need to repitch yeast

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Cold crash and/or fine with plain geletin. Not rocket science or last least nearly as difficult.

 

[Beerhog]

Cold crash and/or fine with plain geletin. Not rocket science or last least nearly as difficult.

Wouldn`t finings knock yeast out of suspension and prohibit refermentation in the bottle?

 

[Gregory T]

Plenty of yeast left to carbonate after a 2 week cold crash and finings. I do that all the time with my Tripels and Blondes. After I add sugar to bottling bucket and rack beer I stir gently for 30 seconds, cover and let sit for 15 minutes before bottling to ensure even distribution of sugar. Yields clear beer with minimal sediment

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Wouldn`t finings knock yeast out of suspension and prohibit refermentation in the bottle?

Nope, enough yeast remains to do the carbonation job, however, the majority of haze causing items are stripped (by sinking and collecting at the bottom of the fermenter). Of couse, if one isn't careful when racking or stirs up the sediment then the cold crash and/or fining with plain gelatin was a waste of time.

 

[MrPowers]

They are probably centrifuging the beer and then adding back priming sugar and conditioning yeast (such as CBC1) to bottle condition.
There are a lot of things you can work on to get clearer though. Properly managing PH during the mash and boil, recirculating/vorlaufing the mash, separating hot and cold break by whirlpooling, having a healthy fermentation with higher flocculating yeast strains, etc...

 

[brewbama]

Here are the things I do:

Mash pH control
Brewtan B during mash
transferring crystal clear wort to the BK
skimming the scum at hot break
Brewtan B in the boil (I use a copper IM)
straining hop material during transfer to FV
Pitch Bry-97 w/Fermax
cold crashing
gelatin
floating dip tube.

I think they all add up.

 

[jdauria]

Brewbama just hit it...BrewTan B definitely. It leads to amazingly clear wort after chilling as the BrewTan B will cause proteins to clump together and whirlfloc will drop it out. My light lagers are so clear in the kettle that it you see see straight through to trub on the bottom. Clear wort into fermenter = clear beer. Cold crash after fermentation. I have not used gelatin in ages.