beer clarity

[paulg]

I notice pictures of peoples beer being very clear going into the boiler and also the fermenter my beer always seems cloudy when I drain from mash tun even though I return several litres to the tun I have aa stainless false bottom bought from a german homebrew shop and when I drain from the boiler again it is not exactly the clearest wort ( I use a bazooka filter ) .I always get some muck in my fermenter which I have put down to the plate chiller /cold break.
today I kegged a youngs special that had been in fermenter 10 day and then 3 days at 2 degrees it was hazey maybe due to the cold but I ran a sample into a glass and even after a few hours the beer was still hazey,having said all this the beer usuallty does clear eventually in the corny
I should be going herms soon and maybe this will help me get clearer beer into fermenter and keg

I normally boil for 90 minutes and use protoflok 10 minutes before flamout

[far9410]

it must be a real shit watching the sun go down over the med whilst supping hazy beer I'm gutted for you!

[Morten]

Do you use pellets or cone hops?

Cones have an excellent ability to filter out a lot of "gunk" whereas pellets does not form as efficient a filter.

Wheat, raw barley, low flocculating yeast and other things will also make for longer time before clearifying your beer.

Of I want a crystal clear beer I will ad gelatine to my corny.

[JammyBStard]

One week at -1'c before kegging has made the biggest difference to the clarity of my beer.

[alix101]

Do you use whirlfloc in your boil?

[Goulders]

He said protofloc at 10 mins before flame out

[Eric]

Try as I like, my wort into the boiler is never initially what could call called clear. It eventually does, but obviously by that time there is some stuff in the boiler I'd prefer wasn't. Despite this, the runnings from the boiler are clear, subject to waiting for the contents to settle, gently recycle a couple of litres and not trying to run it off quickly. Chilling here is done in the kettle, so cold break material stays there, but I wouldn't have thought it would lead to haze in the finished product.
My beers are not as bright as filtered ones but not what I would consider to be hazy. They will throw a chill haze but I don't care for most beers at such temperatures.

[guypettigrew]

How much Protafloc do you use? After much trial and error I discovered 0.7 grams is adequate for a 23 litre brew. Too much gives problems.

I also use a bazooka hop filter, and run the cooled wort from the boiler into the FV through 2 layers of voile. The flow from the boiler has to be stopped once or twice as the voile needs a rinse off. This always gives me very clear wort in the FV, which means any subsequent haze has to be yeast. I drop the yeast out by using finings, others use a low temperature phase, others just give it time to settle naturally.

Like Eric, the wort from the MT starts cloudy but is clear after about 6 or 7 litres has been run off into the boiler, so I don't worry too much.

Guy

[orlando]

First of all recycling wort after the mash until it is clear is the starting point. Even if you don't have a pump (little solar pumps work brilliantly and are inexpensive) and just use a jug, make sure you don't disturb the grain bed when returning the wort to the tun. Even though I use a pump I lay tin foil on the surface pierced with multiple holes, I use a cake cooling stand and poke the holes with a skewer, this allows the wort to disperse without disturbance. Make sure your sparge water always floats abov the grain bed for the same reason. It isn't so important to have foil there if you fly sparge but for anything else keep it in place. As the grain bed begins to compact it forms a much better filter and it is possible to have the wort as clear as the finished beer.

The boil is then the next place to combat haze. A really good rolling boil to give you an excellent hot break I find to be essentila. I have tried it with one element and with two turning one off when it gets to the boil but by far the most effective has been with both elements going. The downside is horrendous boil off (8 litres yesterday) but it does mean that, along with a good cold break, I never get chill haze anymore even down to <5c.

Others have mentioned chilling the beer once fermentation is over and this does help. Racking off into a "conditioning" tank/vessel and allowing this to settle with or without finings will "polish" the beer even more.

[alix101]

He said protofloc at 10 mins before flame out

missed that

[paulg]

thanks for the suggestions I will be in reciept of a solar pump in a few days time ad I plan to build a herms brewery so initially I can just circulate the wort in the mash tun before draining .I batch sparge so maybe I am not allowing enough time after adding water before draining off (I allow 10 minutes)
I use 1/3 a tablet protofloc in 25 litres brew,I also do wonder about my boil is it strong enough ,I use a buffalo 40 litre boiler but am changing to a stainless stockpot and a blichmann gas burner so should be able to get a much more fierce boil.