Thread: Homebrewing
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Old 12-02-2003, 06:25 PM   #16 (permalink)
Tophat665
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Location: Northeast Jesusland
Irish moss can be a good thing. It's seaweed, believe it or not. For one reason or another it has a charge opposite to the long chain protiens that get into suspension during the wort boil. They all stick to the flakes of irish moss and fall out to the bottom of the brew kettle, and get largely filtered out by the hops when you strain into the frementer.

Throw in a half teaspoon 10 to 15 minutes before the end of the boil and it will significantly help clear your beer.

Another neat trick for clarity: Chill haze is a group of protiens that precipitate out at low (c. 40 degrees) temerature. If you have room in a nice cold fridge, stick your secondary fementer in there two or three days before you bottle, then siphon it expeditiously into your bottling bucket. You'll leave most of the chill haze behind.

Other than that, if clarity is your thing, use a yeast with high flocculation (check out the White Labs or WYeast web sites for information on the characteristics of their strains of yeast. Yeah, it'll cost you 5 or 6 bucks a batch, but it's worth it.)

OK, I was going to go on about gelatin and polyclar and isinglass, but the rodents are yelling, and it's time to put them to bed.

Have a homebrew, don't worry.
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