Unitank clarity

[cyoung1833]

Recently picked up used Spike Unitank. Made an ipa that had 3 oz of hops in the boil and 1 oz dry hops. Used hop spider for the boil and added the dry hops loose into the unitank. Crashed after fermentation at 38 degrees for 3 days. Force carbed after crashing for 12 hours. Just took a sample to taste before kegging and it tastes great but is not clear and can see floating hop material in my glass. Will keeping this in the tank longer help clear it up or is it too late with the carbonation? How can I prevent in the future?

 

[SonomaBrewer]

Consider adding finings while cold and settling. Gelatin/Biofine/Silafine along with more time to let things settle.

It will definitely clarify with more time (although clear beer probably overrated).

 

[micraftbeer]

I don't know if gelatin/etc clarifies hop debris. I don't use gelatin because an opaque beer doesn't bother me. Floating hop bits do bother me (especially when they clog keg ball lock posts). But your regimen of 3 days cold crash is all I do and the hop debris falls out. And that is true for beers when I hop at much higher rates than you mentioned.

That said, I break this into additional vessels. My process when doing IPA in my unitsnk:

- In fermentor, I cool crash to like 50f for about a day, then transfer via a floating dip tube to a dedicated cold crash keg.

- I put that keg in my 35F keezer for 3 days on set it and forget it pressure, then transfer it to a serving keg. My cold crash keg also had a floating dip tube.

- My serving keg has a normal dip tube, and I never have hop particles in my beer.


So maybe in your process you should transfer to a keg before carbing. And if you can hook up a floating dip tube in your fermentor, that would help, too.