I’m considering using fining agents on my next beer. Which of the options have worked best for you? I prefer something natural over chemical.
Secondly, will fining agents work any better on all grain vs extract brews? Thank you.
I use gelatin for beers that don’t like to clear on their own, mainly Kolsch. Never tried any of the others.
I use irish moss in the boil and that’s it. I tried the clarity-ferm because of it’s gluten reduction but I didn’t see a significant difference in clarity between the 5 gallons I used it in and the 5 gallons I didn’t, and it’s not particularly natural.
I’m a vegetarian so I don’t use gelatin our isinglass but those work quite well depending on what kind of haze your trying to get rid of.
But over all I’ve found that unless I did something really wrong like missed my pH badly the irish moss and time works even with a finicky yeast like WLP029
I use Whirlfloc for most beers, and occasionally gelatin. But I agree with Mort - good pH control, time, and temperature work pretty well.
All of this!
Didn’t even think of whirlfloc… I use it on everything but beers that I want a bit of haze.
I’m pretty sure clarity-ferm is for chill haze, so if you didn’t have that to begin with …
Here’s a nice article from BYO. Different fining agents combat different types of haze.
http://byo.com/recipes-tag/item/645-fining-your-beer-techniques
Whirlfloc on the boil (10 minutes left) in every beer, then gelatin in the keg for most. The Kolsch I just did I used gelatin in a keg with a cutoff diptube and then transferred using a jumper on the two out ports to another keg, and it is crystal clear!
I’ve had mixed results with Super Kleer.
I use gelatin to drop extremely stubborn yeast. I prefer to do it in the fermenter, rather than the keg but both work fine.
I always forget the Irish moss. I honestly can’t recall the last time I used it.
Nothing clears beer like extended conditioning, though. Of course, some beers need to be drunk right now.
Finally, I don’t think the fining agent cares if you used extract or not.
Biofine Clear A3 is “vegetarian” and works better than gelatin. Its the best fining agent I have used. That said, the kolsch in the pic in my avatar was fined with gelatin. Might be hard to see in picture but that beer is crystal clear.
Keith- It has always made me thirsty just looking at it, even at 7:30 AM.
I use Irish moss and gelatin, if needed.
Bruce
I strictly use Irish moss and and that’s it, it works great, 10 minutes in the boil, 1/2 tblsp to my 6 gallon batch. That and a few days of cold crash prior to packaging provides me crystal clear beer all the time.