Clarity Without Finings

Yooper --
I read this thread with great interest & then studied your "Clear beer Clear Wort" article. Great work! I've been all grain brewing for 12 years & never understood the Hot Break / Cold Break reference.
My Boils are vigorous, I Whirlpool & Chill to 70's before I transfer to the Fermenter. There is never more than a 1/4" of "grit" in the bottom of the Kettle after the transfer. After the Transfer, Oxygenation & Yeast addition I often see a considerable settling BEFORE the 1st bubbles in the Air Check.
So, I guess my question is, What's in the bottom of your Kettle after you Transfer the Wort to the Fermenter?
 
56 Firedome said:
Yooper --
I read this thread with great interest & then studied your "Clear beer Clear Wort" article. Great work! I've been all grain brewing for 12 years & never understood the Hot Break / Cold Break reference.
My Boils are vigorous, I Whirlpool & Chill to 70's before I transfer to the Fermenter. There is never more than a 1/4" of "grit" in the bottom of the Kettle after the transfer. After the Transfer, Oxygenation & Yeast addition I often see a considerable settling BEFORE the 1st bubbles in the Air Check.
So, I guess my question is, What's in the bottom of your Kettle after you Transfer the Wort to the Fermenter?
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Trub, basically German for gunk. It's the precipitated proteins from the grains and debris from the hops. After transfer, you're seeing "cold break", precipitation of proteins that are soluble in water at higher temperatures but begin to settle out once the wort is cool, the "egg drop soup" looking stuff in the hydrometer jar. They precipitate and then settle out. Layers in the trub in the fermentor: Lowest will be hot break - protein and hop gunk - that gets transferred over. Second layer will be cold break, stuff that precipitates out once you chill the beer, then yeast that flocculates out.
 
Trialben said:
Um and then there is the humble micron filter:) no chemicals no animal products just co2 to purge sanitizer and to push the beer through the filtration membrane.o_O;)

Disclaimer I don't filter my beer.

And yes I've noticed since switching to electric my clarity has suffered slightly longer clearing times.
Boil ain't as vigerous but then @BOB357 I'm sure boils but with a gentle roll and his beers are so beautifully bright on the beer pic thread.
But a month on the lager will give a bright beer.
Great thread btw
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I really see no difference in clarity between my old propane system and the Digiboil, even though my boil now is indeed much gentler. I always get a strong hot break in spite of the tame boil, so don't see vigor as an issue. I do fine with gelatin if my pipeline is running low, which is way too often, but see the same clarity in most beers after a week to 10 days in the keg otherwise.
 
Keep in mind I've only been at this since July, but, Irish Moss seems to cut down the time it takes for my beer to clear up. Couple months at 1-2 degrees above freezing does WONDERS on its own, I figure you can cut that in half with Irish Moss, and knock it all the way down to 2 weeks if you are using a Top Draw along with it.
 
I transfer loads over to the fermenter. I do try and get the hop debris out as much as pssible but there's plenty makes the trip.

I do use kettle finings as well, either Protofloc or Irish moss. Maybe the title of the thread was a little misleading, it's the Isinglass and gelatine finings that I want to keep away from.

I found a product called Brausol which is silica based (I think) which seems to be giving me the results I was hoping for. It complies to German purity laws apparently which seems like an excellent endorsement to me.
 
HMM ... The bottom of the Kettle, after the chill to Pitch temp, is about 1/4" of grit about like sand, The stuff in the bottom of my Fermenter looks like the stuff in the bottom of the Starter Flask after I decant. Beige & about like gravy in texture. I pour the Yeast Cake into a sterilized 1/2 Pint Jar with a 1" layer of beer on top. After a week in the fridge looks the same.
I've used the recovered Yeast through 2 generations with no problems.
I always use a fine mesh Hop Bag so no debris. I use Irish Moss in the Kettle & I use Gelatin in the secondary. I hold in the fridge under pressure at 38 F for 2 weeks. The wash out of the Secondary is a bit gloppy but clear.
 
Cold crash and patience. I have a rough time with “patience” o_O usually a week sitting in the keg gives some bright clarity to my beer.
 
Some of my beers clear up better than others but I don't put any special effort into it, I'm leaning toward going away from fining it cause of O2 during chilling and just letting it clear in the keg, but again it can take a while. And I don't care terribly much how clear it is beyond a certain point.
 
I've done it every way possible and I've found the easiest way for me to clear a beer is with time and the cold but even better with a whirlfloc tablet at the end of the boil.
 
Add to that: Gelatin finings if I really want to polish the beer but the OP wanted to know how to clarify without finings. Can't beat OMB's method for that.
 
I can only add what I do. Whirlfloc in the last 10-15 minutes. I just did my first lager, a German Pilsner. It came out stunningly clear. Certainly the best I've accomplished to date with my 7 month old (then) Grainfather system. This was probably my 10 brew on the system. I did a 90 minute boil which shouldn't have anything to do with clarity. Pumping to the fermentor I put it through a fine sieve. This catches relatively little, but it has become part of the process. Fermentation was controlled 48 F going up to 51 F in the first 3 days. Diacetyl rest after 7 days. Bumped up to 60 F for 7 days. Crashed to 38 F for 4 weeks. Racking to keg, I made sure to keep the auto-siphon well away from the trub and sacrificed more than I normally would of the beer, but the keg was still very full. It was perfectly clear within two pours. I considered gelatin, but in the end I didn't use it. I have an Oktoberfest that is just lagering now where I attempted to repeat the process. Fingers cross for the same result!
 
Thorough. My last pilsner was in the keg on day 8.
 
Nosybear said:
More of a traditionalist here: Helles takes six weeks. Maerzen takes four months.
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I am not good with patience...and am definitely no stickler for clarity, but 2 months in the bottle at <10°C even clears up an IPA fairly well. (picture just taken on my porch) :D
bubbles.png
 
I'll leave a Marzen until October for tradition, but I wanted a pils now damn it! It is not however crystal clear.
 
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