Cloudiness, pectin, yeast and finings.

[Aethelstan]

I made a Wherry kit but modified it to try and achieve something akin to poachers choice and it has been four weeks in the bottle and it is very cloudy. It tastes fine and the bottles have a hefty deposit on the bottom, so I am not convinced the cloudiness in this particular instance is yeast. When I made the kit I added 800g of blanched plums and 6 Haribo Pontefract cakes. I think both of these could potentially cause the brew to not clear well, either pectin from the plums, or wheat starch from the licorice. If I were to attempt something similar again, would finings be enough, or would I need some enzyme at the start of the brew? Perhaps I should try extracts rather than fruit and sweets?

Secondly, I have made a Green Man kit and I am extremely happy with it. It has a very slight haze, but I am sure this will clear even more as time passes, but the bottles again have a very hefty sediment in. I did rack before bottling, so anything in the bottle was in suspension. If I were to use finings a couple of days before bottling, would I see a significant reduction in the bottled sediment, and if so, would it leave enough yeast for priming? Or can/should I leave it longer in the primary fermenter to throw out more lees?

Thanks :)

 

[schraderbrau]

Just posted on the Poachers thread- it's the fruit. A couple teaspoons of pectolase (pectic enzyme) will clear the haze and is cheap.
Racking into a secondary and cold conditioning for a few days would get more yeast dropping out- then bottle as normal and place at room temp to carbonate. Finings before bottling will work as well.
Either way there will be more than enough yeast to carbonate.

 

[Aethelstan]

Cheers, I will struggle with cold conditioning so I will try the finings :)