Clearing Problems

[Will333]

I have been having clearing problems recently.. I'd really appreciate any ideas on how to solve this. Normally I add finings after the primary fermentation and leave it for week or so. Also, can you leave it in the primary for too long?

Any help would be greatly received!

 

[Dave1970]

You can leave it in primary too long but 3 or 4 weeks is fine

Try cooling to help the brew clear. If you have temp control you can crash chill, I usually give my brews a week at 2 degrees. If you can't do this moving to a cold concrete floor can help

 

[Will333]

Thanks for the help! If I haven't got room in the fridge and the house isn't very cold could I put in a bucket with icy water or will that not get it cold enough?

 

[JonnyD]

that would help, but you need to keep the ice topped up. a good way of doing it is to keep 500ml bottles of water frozen and change them before you go to work, when you come home and before you go to bed to maintain a steadyish temperature

 

[J]

If you want clear beer you will want to cool your wort fast after the boil. It is worth buying either a chiller-coil or a plate chiller to achieve this. They are fairly cheap these days (especially if you think of the money you will save brewing your own beer).

Adding Irish moss about 10 minutes from the end of the boil will do wonders for clarity. It is extremely cheap and you only need a little (8 grams does a 75 litre batch).

If you are brewing an ale then you will want to ferment it at around 22 Celsius. Two weeks in the primary would be plenty for this. Then you can rack to your pressure barrels or bottling bucket.

Once bottled/barrelled (and primed: 80g is plenty for a 5 gallon barrel) you will of course want to leave your beer for a number of weeks to condition after fermentation.

The higher the beer strength the longer it needs to condition. A 4% for example will generally be good after 2 weeks.

 

[J]

Also after conditioning (at fermentation temperature) real ale should never be stored below 8 Celsius. It should be stored a 13 Celsius ideally. Below 8 Celsius you will always get chill haze unless you filter your ale (which damages the flavour).