Advise on finings and clearing in barrel

[lateuk]

Hello,
I have sucessfully brewed a number of beer kits from cans. I use a wine fermentor and then i put it into a King Keg. The only thing that is a real issue to me is most of the time it takes 8-10 weeks to clear even if i have added Beer Brite finings.

Call me impatient but i would really like to reduce these times. What would you recommend?

 

[phettebs]

Hi,
I'm assuming you are using extract since you are using cans? You said you are already use Beer Brite. I haven't used that before but I use gelatin as you'd use to make jams or jellies. That has worked well for me. Do you cold condition at all? I'd throw the keg in the fridge (if you can) and get it down near 0 for a week or two. That really helps to clarify the beer a lot.

This might be of more use for all grain brewers rather than extract but do you use anything in the boil such as Whirfloc tablets or Irish Moss?

Finally, water chemistry can play a big role in the final clarity of a beer. My water is extremely high in bicarbonate and my beers were always cloudy. They never cleared up. When I started building my own brewing water with distilled water and brewing salts, my beers cleared up substantially. If you are using extract, it may not have as profound an effect. It has been awhile since I brewed kits and didn't do any experiments with my tap water vs. prepared water.

Good luck!
Barry

 

[Moley]

Hi Lateuk, if you're brewing kit beers the best thing you can probably do to improve clearing times is to throw away the kit yeasts and use something decent, like S-04 for ales.

I am currently trying Beer Brite for the first time, I've never used beer finings before but this batch is going into Cornies. I racked my brews to secondary and added the finings the night before last. That was day 10 and they were already fairly clear, one with S-04 and one with a Gervin ale yeast. I've just checked them and I can see through to the bottom of the fermenter.