Maximum Clarification Without Adding Time to Bottle Carb?

#1 Use highly flocculant yeast, Wyeast 1968 as a starter looks like big chunks of cottage cheese it's so floculant
#2 Cooling quickly allows for the hot break to drop. Getting as little of that as possible into the fermenter contributes to clearer beer down stream
#3 healthy boil helps proteins coagulate so they can drop out as in #2.

 

• Proper water chemistry
• Re-circulated mash runnings produce clearer worts
• 90" boils
• Add Irish moss / Whirlfloc to the boil's last 15"
• Rapid chilling to produce a strong 'cold' break
• Avoid dry hopping
• Cold crash before bottling
• Add gelatin to the bottling bucket
• Two weeks (minimum) cold-conditioning

 

My preferred process for creating clear beer is a vigorous boil, adding rehydrated Irish Moss flakes for the last 15 minutes of the boil and a rapid cooling of the wort.

Here is a link for additional steps which can be taken to create clear beer: http://byo.com/recipes-tag/item/645-fining-your-beer-techniques

Cheers!

 

The difference in using Irish Moss or not is night and day. I am drinking on a keg of ESB where I ran out of Irish Moss. My beer is very cloudy where it is normally clear.

 

If you bottle, you can let the beer sit in the fridge for a couple of extra days. This helps lock the sediment to the bottom of the bottle. Pour conservatively.

 

I know you asked for how to do this quickly, but unless you want to start filtering your beer, time is absolutely the best thing to add to it. Irish Moss will help if you are not already using that.

 

Great. Keep collected data and refining your process. I have 0% experience with filtering, but I have 100% experience with not filtering and since I've really established a solid successful repeatable process, I've never once observed a beer that would have benefited from filtering. But home brewers do it so there is a place for it.

 

I'd say that about covers it, except: I'd also include choice of yeast and grist composition.

 

The filtration media is much like a very fine coffee filter material, in the one example I have seen in person. Picture something like that, made of a lot of layers, and the requisite tubing and a pump to force the liquid through. It's a pretty equipment-intensive endeavor by itself, unless you already run a pump on your system.

I have not seen any home brewing systems that do it, but I know of two microbreweries in my area, 1 that does, and 1 that should. Specifically related to your question, it gets clear beer on the line faster, as you don't have to wait for the yeast to drop quite as much before packaging.

 

I've used one before and it was actually pretty hard to get it to work right. None of the beers that went through the filter became much clearer for some reason. My beer placed 3rd in the comp and the judges said it would've been 1st if it was clearer. Lots and equipment and effort for nothing. Still, its not realistic for a homebrewer to have one anyway.

Why is that?

 

Well, one thing to keep in mind is that filtering removes yeast, so it's really not what you want to do if you're bottle conditioning. And once you're kegging, clarity shouldn't be an issue. I find that even beers that could be expected to be cloudy--those that are heavily dry hopped or have a large percentage of wheat in the grist--pour clear enough from the keg after the first few pints, and by halfway through, they are as clear or clearer than commercial beers in those styles.

My two cents would be that it is almost always a mistake to look for ways to rush the process. If it's hard to be patient while you wait for one batch to clear, just brew another batch.

 

"If it's hard to be patient while you wait for one batch to clear, just brew another batch."

There is THE answer right there!!

Cheers to @MLucky!!!!!!

 

I've had good luck with super-simple methods: a healthy pinch of Irish Moss at 15 left in the boil, allowing plenty of time in fermenter for things to finish and drop of, then being careful not to disturb it when moving to rack to bottling bucket. Once in place on the counter, I leave it be for an hour or 2 to let even that disturbed settle back. When racking I try to keep the end of the cane at the trub level, the cap picks from above its level. Never any complaints. Also chill and be careful pouring from bottle, btw.

 

90" boils

90 minute boils ==> better break material development ==> more better clarity.

 

This is basically the best single tip on this thread. A proper pour out of a properly chilled hombrew can make all the difference with clarity.

 

I skimmed and saw good advice. I'll add something I didn't see or missed: don't get greedy. Don't be afraid to leave a little beer behind if it is full of particulate bits that will mess up your clarity. I do all my transfers with a racking cane, from kettle to fermenter and from fermenter to keg (or bottling bucket). One of the advantages is I can adjust the height of the cane so it is above the trub (kettle) and yeast and other residues (fermenter). If I see some particulates steaming through my tubing, I just raise the racking can a half a cm or so until I'm no longer collecting those bits.