Just wondering what you all use Do you use any kettle finings? Do you use chill haze finings like beerbrite/pvpp etc Do you use post fermentation finings like isinglass or gelatin? Do you use auxilary finings in conjunction with isinglass/gelatin and if you do do you use organic ones or silicated ones? Does it depend on the beer? Do you care? etc I just ensure a good hot break through a decent boil which would get filtered out through the hop bed, add some irish moss and that's it basically. I am considering trying some beerbrite/pvpp as I tend to get a fair bit of chill haze. I don't add any isinglass/gelatin
To answer your question, "do you care?" On a homebrew level, for me, no. I've used Irish moss and gelatin with success. More importantly I've discovered that regardless of ale, or lager, time is the best fining agent. Be patient and your beer will clear.
How much time though? A lot of this depends on the yeast of course, some clears within a few days, others...take a long time to drop if ever. Some prefer high mineral worts, some lower mineral worts.
The only clarifier that I use is re-hydrated Irish Moss for the last 15 minutes of the boil. I prefer to not add any extra 'stuff' to the finished beer. Cheers!
I stopped using Irish Moss when I realized that I could not tell the difference if I forgot to add it. I used gelatin a couple times and decided that the little bit of effort was not worth it.
I don't always use finings, but when I do... Irish moss in the kettle and gelatin in the fermenter, but cold crashing is probably more effective than either, IMO. I mostly brew saisons, wheat beers and IPA's so often go without finings.
I use no kettle finings but always add gelatin to the fermenter after cold crashing. Never have chill haze problems.
Yes, in beers we want crystal clear. There is no routine, just a response to what is needed for each recipe and for many recipes, no clarification is wanted. Whirlfloc is my go to kettle addition. I used to try to filter with a mesh screen going into the fermenter but, oh how I got aggravated with that. But, I like clarityferm but only in beers that are already low protein. I've never been impressed with super kleer. Gelatin works better. And, occasionally, we filter.
I'm in the "nothing but time" camp. I don't particularly care if a beer is slightly hazy, and a month or two in a keg at 36°F will clear most anything up anyhow. Except those pesky NEIPAs, lol.
Whirfloc goes into the wort with yeast nutrient and the wort chiller with 10 min left on the boil. After chilling the wort I just use gravity, time, and cold to clear my beers.
Just whirlfloc these days. I have used gelatin in the past. It helped, but these days I feel like I usually get pretty good clarity and if I don't, I won't shed a tear over it. The taste is what matters. I have one incident where I thought gelatin did impact the beer beyond appearance. It actually seemed to help pull some persistent tannins out of a pumpkin beer, but it didn't save the beer, because, you know, it was a pumpkin beer . I haven't had the tannin issue since, so haven't had a chance to test if this is a reliable solution or just something that happened coincidentally with time and temperature effects. My other experiences have been with mead. I made a berry mead once that just wouldn't clear. It sat for about a year and still was hazy. I ended up using superkleer and bentonite. One of them worked, but I don't recall which. I brewed that as a birthday gift for my ex-wife. It didn't win her over; she had to wait an extra year and that she thought it tasted like nail polish. But it looked awesome!
I seemed to have the best luck with Irish Moss but haven't used it a lot, not sure why other than the Whirlfloc tablets I have and are so easy to use but I think the Moss is better. On my last brew I didn't write it down which means I didn't use anything which means I meant to brew something hazy, that and I was drinking while brewing but it looked nice and clear while bottling.
