Yes I know that time is good for beer… but there’s a time and a place for time. This week ain’t it.
Saturday night I need to perform and deliver a keg with drinkable beer in it. So, on 1/20 I brewed the house APA, and with a re-pitch of 1056 it went nuts and now it is done with the primary…in fact it was done yesterday. FG right where I want it, taste is excellent! So, I would keg it and force carbonate it and slurp it up with the others at the party…
But, as much as I myself like green beer, I was thinking I’d clean it up a little. So as I was strolling around the interweb I found this…
Now, since I need this tomorrow, I can go to Home Despot and cobble something just like it together. In fact, two filters in series, 5 and 1 or less micron…Do the two keg thing an presto, she done.
Remember this won’t be a sipping beer, this will be a “bunch of people having a party” beer…
Green beer is better than no beer. You can also try a fining agent to help clear it up a bit. I use gelatin to clear my beers. It’s cheap and easy to use. Let me know if you need instructions for use.
Crash cool it and carbonate it. Now is not the time to be messing with filters and such. Get it REALLY cold and it will help clarify it. If you really want it “aged”, pump some air into it and let it oxidize
Also, it’d be best to deliver the keg to serving location as early as possible to allow it to settle out there, day before if you can. If it’s still too cloudy for your liking by Sat., provide opaque (dark red or blue) plastic cups along with beer. Don’t say anything about clarity, and likely no one else will either.
I disagree. Crash cool as low as you can go and add some gelatin and from my experience you will clear in 24hrs. The key is to get the beer super cold without freezing it.
and even if they don’t get the trots, those whose systems aren’t used to the yeast in homebrew are very likely to have the uhh, errr, “airs”. I took my first batch of homebrew to a family party in Philly and we drove back to Virginia afterwards. It was a very “fragrant” ride home.
Bluesman,
How do you prepare gelatin for 30 deg beer? I would think it would clot right up immediately. I’ve used Polyclar and I filter, but I have never used gelatin.
Heat gelatin and water in microwave until the first bubble appears and remove. Chill mixture in refrigerator until cool to touch but don’t let it gealatinize. Add chilled gelatin mixture to chilled keg and stir in very gently as not to introduce oxygen into beer. Allow beer to chill for 24-48 hrs and blow out gelatin from bottom of keg. I usually lose a half pint to blow out. More often than not I get very clear beer using this method.
I’ll just add that every single time I try to rush a beer to meet my schedule, I’ve been disappointed. Do you really want to serve people beer that isn’t the best representation of what you can do?
Food for future thought. If you are brewing a beer you know will need to be rushed out, hefeweizen is a good style to go with. Ferments crazy fast, doesn’t need to be clear, and is great young.
Agree with gelatin working in 24 hours.
I use one pack of knox for 10 gallons. Put it in 1 cup of room temp water and leave for 20 minutes so it blooms. Put it in the microwave until I see that first bubble of boiling water and stop immediately. Add it to keg of 32 degree beer (I use a 10 gal corny with the dip tube cut off). Wait 24–48 hours and transfer to serving kegs.
I used to do the gelatin in the serving kegs, but when I moved them to the kegerator or if I had to transport them to a party, the stuff that I had worked so hard to get to drop out would get stirred up again. This way, that still happens, but there is much less there to get stirred up after the transfer.
Yes. If there is some sound advice I can give to a new homebrewer. It’s goes something like this…sanitize well, pitch plenty of healthy yeast into a well aerated wort at cool temps, ferment cool and exercise alot of patience. Oh…one more thing…keep a decent stock of some good micro’s (emergency stash) to hold you over. ;D
Thanks for all the input. It has been kegged and force carbed, the large chunks have settled down, and been tapped and discarded. I am skipping the filtering, for the simple reason that the particular system that I was considering has a lot of loss in the filter itself…
It is hazy, but it tastes great. It will be “marketed” as a “Green IPA” (Ultra fresh with lots of nutrients).
It will be consumed by 30 people, cramped in a hotel room, stuffing their faces with delivery pizza. I have a feeling it will be most appreciated. ;D
One thing I did confirm, is that you need to reduce your bittering hops when you convert an extract recipe to AG… :o
Styrofoam cups (I think someone already mentioned the red plastic ones).
Study the likes and times and philosophy of P.T.Barnum, my personal hero and mentor.
Practice this is a mirror: “Do you realize how much you would have to pay for beer of this quality in a store?..and you’re getting it for free? Very few professional breweries can produce beer with this character. Notice the slight haze? They can’t do that even with all of their several million $$$ worth of equipment and I did this in my basement! If you want more you better get it now because its going pretty fast”.
