Do you get this?

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I have looked at the Enzybrew 10 but it seems very expensive and a does not go far to be used on a regular basis.
£15 for 750g and a recommendation of 10/20g per ltr - so if you fill a standard Fv @ 25ltrs thats 250g/500g or am I reading it wrong?
 
I work in Nuclear Medicine so dealing with radiation is my happy place 🤓.
I only used a 2g per litre solution just to test how good it was at cleaning the Fermzillas they both looked sparkly clean within 5 mins.
 
I had beer stone. It is attributed to very hard water areas.That is cured now with water treatment. It really is a bugger to clean.
The dairy industry have the same issue (with calcium oxylate) and "milk stone" remover is brilliant. Acid not so. I really thought I was going to have to ditch bottles at one point.

That article refers to beer stone being a compound of protein and calcium. I have removed the calcium element (with water treatment). Is the the other (the protein) - same issue just less sticky now 😁

Thank you
Adding some gypsum to the mash liquor will cause the calcium oxalate to precipitate in the mash and the boil, and it'll end up in the trub in the kettle.
I'd be suprisedt to be honest.if it's beer stone on your bottles , it takes a considerable time to form . My first thought was oxi residue , due to using it with hard water, and as others have suggested, a final rinse with an acid based steriliser like starsan should resolve this.
Edit, Beerstone normally forms in bottles as crystals, and causes gushing when the bottle is opened , due to the increased nucleation points .
 
Not sure if these are a clue.

This I quite a large jelly baby found in the bottom of the kettle.
 

Attachments

  • 20240330_133202.jpg
    20240330_133202.jpg
    31.7 KB
  • 20240330_133256.jpg
    20240330_133256.jpg
    36.6 KB
I would look at your whole brewing method, not long ago you were saying your beers are all hazy, and now this.
First off, one of the purposes of the boil is to drop out proteins and polyphenols, Irish moss helps by coagulating the latter. This is so they are easier to separate from the clear wort. But bizarrely you ferment in your kettle on top of what you are trying to get rid of!
Try running off the clear wort into a fermenter and leaving what is meant to stay in the kettle, in the kettle. This will help with your hazy beer and the bottles if Doc Anna is correct, quote. 'I’m fairly sure it will be an insoluble protein polyphenol chill haze' end quote.
 
Last edited:
A few years ago one of the lads in our local homebrew club , who had been regularly adding a full tablet of portafloc to his brew, added a full tablet to a wheat beer. He discovered this at the bottom of the kettle after the boil
 

Attachments

  • IMG-20170217-WA0000.jpg
    IMG-20170217-WA0000.jpg
    25 KB
A few years ago one of the lads in our local homebrew club , who had been regularly adding a full tablet of portafloc to his brew, added a full tablet to a wheat beer. He discovered this at the bottom of the kettle after the boil
I do wonder if brewers are adding Irish moss/protafloc by just throwing them into the brew and not dissolving them first. I repaired a Guten where someone had just thrown table sugar into the boil without first dissolving it!
 
I would look at your whole brewing method, not long ago you were saying your beers are all hazy, and now this.
First off, one of the purposes of the boil is to drop out proteins and polyphenols, Irish moss helps by coagulating the latter. This is so they are easier to separate from the clear wort. But bizarrely you ferment in your kettle on top of what you are trying to get rid of!
Try running off the clear wort into a fermenter and leaving what is meant to stay in the kettle, in the kettle. This will help with your hazy beer and the bottles if Doc Anna is correct, quote. 'I’m fairly sure it will be an insoluble protein polyphenol chill haze' end quote.
I have tested both, there is little discernable difference.

My current batch is exploring IM dosage.

Next up is conditioning. I am going to run the same but I will bottle after 14 days not 6/7
 
Last edited:
I do wonder if brewers are adding Irish moss/protafloc by just throwing them into the brew and not dissolving them first. I repaired a Guten where someone had just thrown table sugar into the boil without first dissolving it!
I just throw mine in, never heard of dissolving it first, I always assumed it just dissolved almost instantly in the hot liqueur... But there again I also use a full tablet although do keep meaning to pick up a pill cutter to make it easier to try half next time so maybe I will also dissolve it first if there are benefits
 
https://homebrewanswers.com/irish-moss-protafloc-copper-finings/#:~:text=Whirlfloc is pretty much exactly,a gram per litre difference.
"Whirlfloc is sold as tablets and both Protafloc and whirlfloc fizz as they hit the wort to aid their dispersion, this is caused by bicarbonate of soda in the tablet reacting in the wort due to the pH."
No need to dissolve the tablets beforehand apparently.
When i worked in a brewery , we added 25kg bags of Whirlfloc G , which comes as a powder, into a finings tank, which hydrated and mixed the powder with water before it was dosed into the kettle post boil at the whirlpool step. I remember that there was a fantastic smell of the seaside from the finings tank 😀

Edit: I split the tablet and grind the half tablet between two spoons to make it into a powder, before I add it at the last few minutes of the boil .
 
Back
Top