Questions on clarifying my beer. (first attempt)

So i brewed a pale ale and its looking pretty hazy. I did two weeks primary and transferred to my better bottle carboy to dry hop for a week. Im planning to bottle it in a few days. It clarified somewhat in the carboy while i was dry hopping but, I was wondering if i could do anything more to help clarify it. I don't want to leave it much longer in the secondary dry hopping because i've heard to long gives a grassy flavor. Looking back i should have dry hopped in primary then transferred, or transferred and waited a week or two before putting in the hops but anyway, what can i add at this point to help? are their any finnings i could use in this situation,also i have a fridge i can use to cold crash, would that be my best bet. I've never attempted to cold crash how do i go about it? i'd appreciate any help, thank you

Are you bottling- I will assume yes.

Bottle as planned. Condition/carb and then refrigerate. Cold time is you best ally for cloudy beer.

Other factors-

Did you use Irish Moss/Whirlfloc?

What yeast- Some don't clear as well as others.

Gelatin works wonders im told. haven't tried it yet but plan on it with my next batch. I'll post a link when i find it...

Edit: Ok can't find the link but i saw this youtube video before. Shows it step by step and from what ive read, "Blooming" is very important.

Ok....... you actually have a bunch of options some easy some moderate but any way you look at it you'll get it clear. first of all at 3 weeks I'm not surprised your beer is hazy I'm assuming you used either 001, us-05 or 1056 which are all medium flocculators so some haze is to be expected right off the bat. Time believe it or not is your easiest way to clear and if you can store it somewhere cold even better and faster it will clear. As to cold crashing which is in essence what I just described you basically just put the carboy or even bottles in the fridge and wait until the murkiness drops out. You will then find out If you have chill haze or not as well which again time is your friend the longer you can wait the more those proteins will drop out of suspension. If you don't have the time, desire, or patience to wait you could go to a tertiary carboy and add gelatin, isinglass, or any other of the clarifying agents before bottling or kegging. Myself I keg and don't use any clarifiers and usually within 2 weeks in a keg at 40 degrees I have crystal clear beer. I recommendd staying as natural as possible but that's my deal and you should do what is best for you. As to dry hopping in the primary which lots of people do, I read a interesting article in the new zymurgy magazine discussing this and believe it or not dry hopping in primary with the yeast cake produces siginificantly different results and aroma profiles. the general consensus was dry hopping in a secondary will give a truer aroma of the hops profile though DHing in the primary could be interesting too if that's what you are going for. here's a picture of one of my beers with no clarifying agents just time in the keg at 40 degrees so in essence just cold crashed in the keg.

gpack said:

Are you bottling- I will assume yes.

Bottle as planned. Condition/carb and then refrigerate. Cold time is you best ally for cloudy beer.

Other factors-

Did you use Irish Moss/Whirlfloc?

What yeast- Some don't clear as well as others.

Click to expand...

I used safale English ale s-04, yes I am bottling and no didn't use anything during the boil to help clarify.

So you're saying no need to worry. I go along as planned wait to cold crash my bottles before serving?

Aschecte said:

Ok....... you actually have a bunch of options some easy some moderate but any way you look at it you'll get it clear. first of all at 3 weeks I'm not surprised your beer is hazy I'm assuming you used either 001, us-05 or 1056 which are all medium flocculators so some haze is to be expected right off the bat. Time believe it or not is your easiest way to clear and if you can store it somewhere cold even better and faster it will clear. As to cold crashing which is in essence what I just described you basically just put the carboy or even bottles in the fridge and wait until the murkiness drops out. You will then find out If you have chill haze or not as well which again time is your friend the longer you can wait the more those proteins will drop out of suspension. If you don't have the time, desire, or patience to wait you could go to a tertiary carboy and add gelatin, isinglass, or any other of the clarifying agents before bottling or kegging. Myself I keg and don't use any clarifiers and usually within 2 weeks in a keg at 40 degrees I have crystal clear beer. I recommendd staying as natural as possible but that's my deal and you should do what is best for you. As to dry hopping in the primary which lots of people do, I read a interesting article in the new zymurgy magazine discussing this and believe it or not dry hopping in primary with the yeast cake produces siginificantly different results and aroma profiles. the general consensus was dry hopping in a secondary will give a truer aroma of the hops profile though DHing in the primary could be interesting too if that's what you are going for. here's a picture of one of my beers with no clarifying agents just time in the keg at 40 degrees so in essence just cold crashed in the keg.

Click to expand...

Thanx for the info I appreciate it... so is it okay to add the clarifying agents in my current carboy with my hops in there?
And as far as cold crashing if I place my carboy in my fermentation fridge for a day or two right now do I have to wait for it to get back to room temp before bottling or do I have to bottle right away?

brewfan86 said:

I used safale English ale s-04, yes I am bottling and no didn't use anything during the boil to help clarify.

So you're saying no need to worry. I go along as planned wait to cold crash my bottles before serving?

Click to expand...

S04 usually drops clear, so if the beer is hazy it may not be yeast in suspension. If that's the case, and it's protein or something as an example, gelatin won't do much. Cold crashing will, and you can do it now or you can do it in the bottle once it's carbed up. That will also help fix chill haze.

brewfan86 said:

Thanx for the info I appreciate it... so is it okay to add the clarifying agents in my current carboy with my hops in there?
And as far as cold crashing if I place my carboy in my fermentation fridge for a day or two right now do I have to wait for it to get back to room temp before bottling or do I have to bottle right away?

Click to expand...

I don't like adding things to beer once I've dryhopped- the fining agents that clear the beer can "pull" the hops oils out as well. Generally, you'd use a clarifier before dryhopping. I'm no expert on that, though, as I won't use gelatin or other non-vegetarian finings so someone else will have to speak to that.

If you cold crash, you can bottle cold. That's fine.

brewfan86 said:

Thanx for the info I appreciate it... so is it okay to add the clarifying agents in my current carboy with my hops in there?
And as far as cold crashing if I place my carboy in my fermentation fridge for a day or two right now do I have to wait for it to get back to room temp before bottling or do I have to bottle right away?

Click to expand...

I wouldn't add any clarifiers to the primary...... in your example of already going to secondary to dry hop either go into tertiary ( 3rd racking to carboy ) or you can fine in the keg if that becomes a option. I agree with Yopper as I am a huge fan of s-04 and that drops very very clear on it's own. It is more than likely excess protein and possibly unconverted starches I strongly feel cold crashing is your best option. A day or two may be enough but in my experience you can go to bottle and then after a few weeks at room temp allowing to carbonate the beer than do a mini cold crash in the bottle and then after maybe a few more weeks it will clear nicely. Or, it may clear in ulk after a few days in secondary in the fridge.... I'd try that first.

brewfan86 said:

Thanx for the info I appreciate it... so is it okay to add the clarifying agents in my current carboy with my hops in there?
And as far as cold crashing if I place my carboy in my fermentation fridge for a day or two right now do I have to wait for it to get back to room temp before bottling or do I have to bottle right away?

Click to expand...

If you have a fermentation fridge by all means, throw it in there and go down to 33(ish) degrees for 2-3 days. It'll clear right up. Then bottle cold as Yooper mentioned. That was my usual routine back when I bottled.

hops2it said:

If you have a fermentation fridge by all means, throw it in there and go down to 33(ish) degrees for 2-3 days. It'll clear right up. Then bottle cold as Yooper mentioned. That was my usual routine back when I bottled.

Click to expand...

+1. Since you can cold crash a few days before bottling, go for it. I now do it for every batch (35*F 3-5 days) and I am happy with the improvement in clarity.

+1 for time in the cold. Leave some bottles (once carbed) in the fridge for a week or more and they will clear up. Leave what you can't put in the fridge in a nice dark, cool place. Works for me, just requires patience.

Don't mean to jack a thread but since you are all discussing cold crashing, if you cold crash while in the secondary to clarify, do you take it out and bring it down to room temperature prior to bottling and adding sugar to carb it and then store the bottles at room temp until the beer has been carbonated?

dmcman73 said:

Don't mean to jack a thread but since you are all discussing cold crashing, if you cold crash while in the secondary to clarify, do you take it out and bring it down to room temperature prior to bottling and adding sugar to carb it and then store the bottles at room temp until the beer has been carbonated?

Click to expand...

You don't have to warm up the beer for bottling. You can bottle it cold, and just let it sit at room temperature to carb up.

Thanks Yooper.

thanx for the info everyone i decided to not worry too much and I simply left it alone. I didn't want to risk having too much yeast fall into suspension when it came time to bottle condition and carbonate being Im a noob I was a bit paranoid, a lot of the haze fell to the bottom. I simply bottled as usual and am planning on cold crashing my bottles before i serve. lesson learned don't forget the wirfloc tablet.