A little clarity...

[foxy]

It isnt just about clarity, the beer has to look bright, as well as clear. It is the initial look of the beer which is the fist taste. The only ones I have had trouble with is the beers with malted rye in the grist, just cannot get them to clear.

The best aid to clear beer is time, patience is a virtue

Thats true, I have read of a brewery waiting 6 hours after flame out while the beer cleared. Can't produce a good beer if the brewer thinks it's a race.

 

[Eskimo John]

An update from my original post.
I have been using a bounce filter to the fermenter to keg transfer. This pulls out the larger debris and is essential if dry hopping with leaf hops. But it is not the whole cure.
Moving to leaf hops has helped a great deal. I get a much better colour and less fine debris in the beer. I am currently drinking a single hop, dry hopped Mosaic APA. The colour is just as I hoped for an a vast improvement on an equivalent brew I did using pellet hops.
I have also added a sheet of gelatin to some of my brews, dissolved in cooled boiled water directly into the keg. This seems to work very well in clearing the beer, the most successful method so far.
So in future I will ditch pellet hops, use the bounce filter and use gelatin to clear my beer.
One thing to note though, the main purpose of the bounce filter is to prevent leaf hop debris getting in to the keg for no other reason than in the past I have had particles of leaf hops getting caught in the out valve of the keg. Not easy to spot when cleaning and has caused a disastrous infection in the past.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Dehydration is a killer!

Yup - can't be too careful
Whilst in principle I like the idea of not using additives, in practice I'm not a patient man...

The NBS Clarity stuff is excellent on that score: I brewed this on the 5th March so it's had 8 days in the FV on WLP1187 Ringwood (4 days active at 21ºc + 4 days D-rest)
Whilst it's obviously going to improve with conditioning it's already clear enough to be kegged and (ahem) sampled...

 

[Braufather]

From one of the brulosophy experiments.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

From one of the brulosophy experiments.View attachment 64748

I'm not sure which one that's from, but here's one they did looking at the effect of using Clarity Ferm (which I understand to be roughly the same as NBS Clarity): exBEERiment | Impact Fining With Clarity Ferm Has On A German Pils (incidentally the outcome was no perceptual difference in flavour)

 

[Braufather]

I'm not sure which one that's from, but here's one they did looking at the effect of using Clarity Ferm (which I understand to be roughly the same as NBS Clarity): exBEERiment | Impact Fining With Clarity Ferm Has On A German Pils (incidentally the outcome was no perceptual difference in flavour)

that was testing leaving all the trub in vs filtering out before transfer from kettle to FV. The full trub version ended up clearer.

I’ve used clarity ferm a couple of times because my fatter in law is gluten interlorant but both times i had oats in the Grain bill so couldn’t really assess it from a clarity perspective. That experiment you linked to suggests a slight benefit?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

If you start with clear wort you have the best chance of clear beer at the end.

Interestingly, that would seem to go against the findings of https://brulosophy.com/2020/05/11/kettle-trub-low-vs-high-in-a-german-pils-exbeeriment-results/ et seq. though?

 

[moto748]

Do you leave the boil kettle to settle before transfer as a lot will drop to the bottom you can even whirlpool it by using a large spoon and stir it fastly to create the whirlpool and then leave to settle out for 30 mins

I started doing this simple thing a while back and it has made a world of difference. I give it a good stir and leave it for an hour or so before opening the tap. Then I tip the trub out into a large jug and leave that to settle, and a bit later there's another half litre of clearish beer to add to the FV.

As it happens, mostly because I was in Wilcos anyway, I bought some fining today and am using them for the first time.

 

[foxy]

Interestingly, that would seem to go against the findings of exBEERiment | Kettle Trub: Low Vs. High In A German Pils et seq. though?

Believing Brulosophy 'experiments' is like a chicken believing Colonel Sanders is 'an alright guy'
I don't have any worries about a man making a dollar for all the hits he gets on his site, but take the content with a pinch of salt.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Believing Brulosophy 'experiments' is like a chicken believing Colonel Sanders is 'an alright guy'
I don't have any worries about a man making a dollar for all the hits he gets on his site, but take the content with a pinch of salt.

IKWYM about the commercialism, but I don’t quite see the analogy with Col. Sanders … in any case, is it the design of that experiment (and the repeat here) that you find lacking, or the execution?

 

[foxy]

IKWYM about the commercialism, but I don’t quite see the analogy with Col. Sanders … in any case, is it the design of that experiment (and the repeat here) that you find lacking, or the execution?

Marshall Schott is a prison psychologist so he knows how to get the attention of brewers minds. Just about all his 'experiments' which he himself says are not serious just a bit of fun. The added attraction is the experiments are controversial, giving the finger to established scientific views. Good luck to him he is the one making the money from all the hits he gets on his site.

 

[Brewshed]

Once my fermentation has slowed down but is still going (usually day 3 or 4) I transfer my beer from the fermenter into a polypin with the tap end pointing up and an air lock in. I get a thick layer of yeast settling out in a couple of hours and let it ferment out for another 5 or 6 days. I then bottle from the polypin using gelatine fining and the beer clears very nicely. My only concern is that sometimes the beer is clear when I bottle and I worry there will not be enough yeast in it to bottle condition the beer. Has anyone had a problem with a beer not conditioning when it is very clear at bottling or am I just over worrying?

 

[Braufather]

Marshall Schott is a prison psychologist so he knows how to get the attention of brewers minds. Just about all his 'experiments' which he himself says are not serious just a bit of fun. The added attraction is the experiments are controversial, giving the finger to established scientific views. Good luck to him he is the one making the money from all the hits he gets on his site.

Do you think they are all rigged then? The results they publish ( all of the contributors not just Marshall)

not sure results suggestion one way or the other would maximise hits on their site as brewers just want answers. If the example showed that the trub free ones was much clearer that would be of equal use for me. BYO mag seems to respect them as they get a bit of coverage in there

That said one thing that weakens their findings for me is after dismissing something as not necessary though an experiment, most of the time they finish up saying they will continue doing it. anyway which does suggest they don’t entitirely trust their own results.

 

[Tommo 2]

Once my fermentation has slowed down but is still going (usually day 3 or 4) I transfer my beer from the fermenter into a polypin with the tap end pointing up and an air lock in. I get a thick layer of yeast settling out in a couple of hours and let it ferment out for another 5 or 6 days. I then bottle from the polypin using gelatine fining and the beer clears very nicely. My only concern is that sometimes the beer is clear when I bottle and I worry there will not be enough yeast in it to bottle condition the beer. Has anyone had a problem with a beer not conditioning when it is very clear at bottling or am I just over worrying?

Yes you are over worrying mate will be fine