Filtering?

[dshar]

@guy- Since the clarity of my beer was always good, i never looked fuether into finings (except for the irish moss which i already use), i didnt realise that finings also help to keep it stuck to the bottom! Clarity Is nice, bit of haze doeant bother me too muc, but i definitely dont like a yeasty taste!
I did some reading tonight and have ordered aux finings, isinglass and gelatine. Will try them all and see how i get on. Sounds like this will do the job for me.
Im quite excited about this- my brews are getting to the point where im quite happy with the quality. started adding salts/acids few brews back which made a big impact, have tuned some nice bitter recipes, head is just as i like it and it was just the sediment that was left to sort out!

@rob- i usually use wlp007 dry english ale.
Re mash separation, could you pls elaborate on what i should do?

Feels a bit of a eureka moment, glad i posted this!

Cheers all

[Robwalkeragain]

Off the top of my head, better steps to improve mash filtration - recirc after mashing until clear and allow a small dead space to allow trub to settle without disturbing the vessel. Small filter between mash tun and copper if possible as this is when a lot of starch is washed into the wort. Optimize your hot and cold breaks as much as possible - use the right dose of kettle finings, allow for 30 mins of settling time after flame out and again allow a small dead space to remove any coagulated proteins, make sure you get a nice cauliflower effect for the hot break by boiling vigorously. Same with fv, use a thimble if you’re drawing from the bottom or be very careful to not pick up sediment If you syphon from above. All of these steps will improve the taste of your beer and reduce the amount of crap in the bottle. Not saying it’s “the” answer, but positive steps anyway.

[Robwalkeragain]

Be careful with aux and isinglass btw. I use about 1ml/l with aux then 10ml/L isinglass, too much will create suspended solids that won’t settle at all and it’s fairly irreversible. Too much isinglass and you’ll have fluffy bottoms. With the right treatment they will lead to glassy crystal clear beer however, so definitely worth exploring!

[WalesAles]

dshar,
Have you looked at this stuff from Rob?
I`ve not tried it so I can`t comment on it.

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product ... cial-15ml/

WA

Sent from my Sofa.

[guypettigrew]

Be careful with aux and isinglass btw. I use about 1ml/l with aux then 10ml/L isinglass, too much will create suspended solids that won’t settle at all and it’s fairly irreversible. Too much isinglass and you’ll have fluffy bottoms. With the right treatment they will lead to glassy crystal clear beer however, so definitely worth exploring!

As RWA says, use aux finings and isinglass carefully. I use 2ml/l of aux finings and about 2.75ml/l of isinglass. The auxiliary finings are these from my local home brew shop. The recommended dose is 40-60ml for 25 litres of beer, so I use 50ml. Works well for me. The isinglass I use is Magicol 250 from The Malt Miller. The recommended rate of use of the made up finings is 70ml/25l, which has always worked for me so I've never seen a reason to alter it. Other sorts/supplies of isinglass may well need to be used a different dosage.

Never add the two finings at the same time. Auxiliary finings first and stir thouroughly but gently into the beer. I give it about 5 minutes before adding the isinglass and mix well again.

And, to repeat RWA's comment; too much gives you fluffy bottoms. And who wants a fluffy bottom unless you're a bunny!!!

Good luck with trying this out.

Guy

[dshar]

Due to children and family schedule, i only got round to brewing and trying the dining tips above recently - has been 18months since my last brew - at least one small positive of staying home!

So i tried using the auxillary finings (murphys) followed by isinglass a couple of hours later. All with recommended amounts circa 60ml.

But i think i did smthg silly.. i added them at the end of the cold crash but still in the fermentor. In hindsight (and re reading above) i suppose i should have added after transfering to the bottling bucket?

Anyways, result is mediochre im afraid. Not hugely different from before when i only used kettle finings and cold crashing. Yeast certainly doesnt stick to the bottomnof the bottle

Reasonably clear beer, but as mentioned, i like a yeast free taste, and i can still detect a hint of yeast.
Little cup in photo is the rest of the bottle poured out.

Any further thoughts would be appreciated.
Cheers all

[Tarmac]

Cold crashing, never had a clear pint resulting from this technique. Just chill haze, which is worse than had I left it to settle.

Gelatine works great.

[dshar]

I’ll have to give gelatine a try.
Was hoping aux finings + isinglass would be The silver bullet!

[guypettigrew]

You've solved the problem yourself!

Adding the finings to the fermenter would have brought down some of the yeast, but nowhere near all of it. Think about how much sediment there is at the bottom of a FV. If you stirred the finings in, as you should have, you'd have brought up all that sediment and the finings would have had no chance to clear it all! Running the beer off the yeast sediment and into a secondary/bottling bucket would have given the finings far less yeast to work on.

I keg, not bottle, but the same principles apply. I run nearly clear beer into the keg after cooling in the FV for 2-3 days. Finings are added to the keg and the beer is completely clear within 24-48 hours. The yeast sticks firmly enough to the bottom of the keg so that when the keg's tipped forward to get the last few pints out the yeast stays stuck to the bottom.

A quick internet check tells me that a lot of people fine in the secondary/bottling bucket for 24 hours or so before bottling. This will pull some yeast out of suspension, especially if the beer is kept cool. There will still be both yeast and finings in the beer, so the clearing process should continue once the beer is bottled. This last bit is a guess on my part as I've never bottled. Others may have more experience.

Good luck with the next brew!

Guy

[IPA]

I’ll have to give gelatine a try.
Was hoping aux finings + isinglass would be The silver bullet!

Try the method that I outlined in my reply to emperor_penguins post today. You will not be disappointed.

[dshar]

@Guy @IPA
thanks gents for your tips, they are very helpful. good to have confirmation of what was likely the cause so i can address in the next brew.
seems there were two things i did wrong - adding the finings to the FV and also leaving them to work for a couple of hours rather than a couple of days!

i was planning to do a stout soon, but i think i may change to a pale ale so i can better see/taste the improvement with the yeast. this is really the last hurdle for me, i will be quite happy with my ales if/when i crack this. almost there after 7 years!

[guypettigrew]

A pale ale is a good idea to check how the clarity is and how well the yeast is sticking to the bottom of the bottles.

Like you, yeasty beers are not to my taste. There's always going to be some yeast in suspension in the beer but, if there's enough to see, there's enough to taste! And it's not a nice taste to my palate.

Guy