Finings before secondary fermentation

[feralCheese]

Hi all,
I have been well and truly bitten by the brew bug, and have lost count how many kits I have done. All have turned out well (in terms of taste anyway), but I was thinking about using finings to get the end result clearer (some have turned out fairly clear and others not so).

Im currently doing the Evil Dog IPA kit and was thinking about adding some finings before bottling and secondary fermenting. Is this possible? do finings kill off the remaining yeast? I want the beer to be carbonated. Any advice would be welcome.

Thanks. :pray:

 

[J]

Finnings won't kill the yeast, but if your not selling it they aren't really necessary. Clarity is more an aesthetic issue. If it tastes great then no need to worry.

Time alone will often allow the beer to clear more of course. If you desire crystal clear finnings are needed though.

I all-grain brew and add Irish moss ten minutes before the end of the boil, this results in very clear beer after a couple of weeks conditioning.

 

[J]

Another quick tip. Don't use islinglass finnings for bottle conditioned ale as they prevent the yeast sediment from settling into a firm and compact bed.

 

[feralCheese]

Thanks for the info. All the brews I have done so far have tasted great. I may try finings on my next brew out of curiosity. My problem is that I have trouble waiting too long before demolishing the batch

 

[IPA]

Hi all,
I have been well and truly bitten by the brew bug, and have lost count how many kits I have done. All have turned out well (in terms of taste anyway), but I was thinking about using finings to get the end result clearer (some have turned out fairly clear and others not so).

Im currently doing the Evil Dog IPA kit and was thinking about adding some finings before bottling and secondary fermenting. Is this possible? do finings kill off the remaining yeast? I want the beer to be carbonated. Any advice would be welcome.

Thanks. :pray:

This is acopy of a reply I made on another thread

It's perfectly alright to fine beer that is going to be bottled but you have to do it like this.
Ferment to your target FG
Transfer to secondary and after three days add finings ( gelatine is cheap and works fine, no pun intended)
Leave it another four days and transfer to a third vessel.
Batch prime then bottle or keg your beer.

Do the transfering by means of a length of silicone hose that reaches to the bottom of the vessel that you are transfering to thereby minimising the loss of co2 in the beer
The problem that most people have is that they bottle or keg direct from the primary FV which just does not work and results in a beer that takes forever to settle down and leaves a large deposit of yeast that would have been removed if the above process had been followed

 

[feralCheese]

Thanks for the info. I may struggle with a secondary vessel, as I took it upon myself to use all three of my vessels at once for starting different brews (stocking up for Late summer). I will give your instructions a go on my next brewathon

 

[Chris2304]

I'm glad you asked this feralCheese - I'm still learning the ropes myself, and I'm trying to change or add one process on each brew. This time it is adding finings to see if that helps with clarity. Great answer from IPA too, thanks.

 

[IPA]

I'm glad you asked this feralCheese - I'm still learning the ropes myself, and I'm trying to change or add one process on each brew. This time it is adding finings to see if that helps with clarity. Great answer from IPA too, thanks.

This is how your bottled beer will end up if you follow my advice. It is a photo of a bottle turned upside down showing the yeast (WLP 037) tenaciously clinging to the bottom.



Another quick tip you might find helpful is when you bottle, if you batch prime, fill a small carbonated water bottle with your beer. You will know how secondary fermention is progressing by how firm the bottle is when you squeeze it. No need to peer at the bottle to see if there are any signs of tiny bubbles rising to the top.

 

[Touchstone]

Hi IPA
I do a similar method to you but ferment for about 10 days in fv, then chill down at 5c for about a week, then into bottling bucket & finings then after 2 days bottle. How do you consider the risk of infection transferring to several different vessels, as that is my fear ? Thanks for all your info

 

[Robbo100]

I also cool my beer in the FV before bottling and don't bother with finings (apart from Irish Moss at the boil).

My DIY computer controlled brewing Fridge will allow me to set a day by day temperature profile. After about 9 days at 19 deg C, I crash cool to -1 deg C for a day, then bring back up to 1 deg for another 3 days.

This results in a crystal clear beer when I batch prime, and bottle. Since it is so clear when I bottle, the only sediment at the bottom of the bottle is the newly spent yeast from the priming sugar, which is barely a sprinkling of sediment at the bottom of the bottle.

Before I had the brewing fridge, I would always have a good couple of millimetres of sludge at the bottom of the bottle, which made pouring carefully more important.

 

[Chris2304]

Interesting, thanks.

What role does cooling the liquid play?

 

[Robbo100]

It makes the yeast go inactive, so there is no convection of the fluid, then all the yeast particles fall to the bottom with gravity.

 

[Chris2304]

Great - thanks for clarifying.

P.s. Just had a pint after a long week at work. To anyone else it would be a mediocre beer, but to me - knowing that I'd made itself - it was the best damn pint in the world. That's why I love homebrew!

 

[Robbo100]

I'll drink to that!

 

[IPA]

Hi IPA
I do a similar method to you but ferment for about 10 days in fv, then chill down at 5c for about a week, then into bottling bucket & finings then after 2 days bottle. How do you consider the risk of infection transferring to several different vessels, as that is my fear ? Thanks for all your info

This is a fear held by many homebrewers but have a look here at a commercial brewery using open fermenters.
http://www.undergroundartproject.com/blog/2007/11/25/the-nuance-of-open-fermentation/

Have you ever taken the lid of of your FV once fermentation is fully underway? If you are using top fermenting yeast give it a go and you will see that the yeast behaves in a different way entirely. Make sure though that you put it back on once it slows down and use an airlock in the final stages. This is advice for top working yeasts. If you are making lager I suggest you fit an airlock at the outset. Now with regard to risk in transfering. Use a sanitised silicone hose that reaches to the bottom of the recipient vessel passing through the hole in the lid where the airlock goes. Sanitise the tap of the donor vessel by spraying with Starsan connect the hose and open the tap. Job done! with no risk of infection. One other piece of advice is don't brew in hot weather to reduce the risk of airborne bacteria. Hope this is helpful. Obviously remember that all equipment needs to be sanitised and if you are using a chlorine based sanitiser rinse thoroughly afterwards or you will end up with beer that tastes not unlike Dettol !!

 

[Touchstone]

IPA

Thanks for your tips, maybe I should be a little more relaxed then when transferring. I will have to take a chance brewing in hot weather as I need to keep stocks going !