On the topic of turbo-clearing...

[Katten]

I know that the best clearing method is just time & patience, however my first two batches are largely experimental, and so I've gone ahead and added turbo clear to both of them.

More importantly though, I know turbo clear is meant for things you're supposed to distill, and I'm not about to go doing any distilling for obvious reasons. So I think it's prudent to ask about the "safety" of turbo clear in straight brews. I can't imagine it being harmful in any way, but I'd like to be sure before I go ahead and try it for myself tomorrow. Anybody else ever tried using turbo clear for their stuff before?

 

[brewdude88]

Haven't used it in beer, but all the wine kits I've made come with the equivalent ingredients (chitosan and kielsosol). They are safe as long as the consumer has no shellfish allergies.

Now, if you followed the directions for adding the turboclear, it's likely your beer is going to be oxidized from all the stirring (wine avoids this with all the oxygen scavenging sulfites). This type of fining can also strip flavor compounds as well.

In the future, I would suggest kettle fining with Irish moss/whirfloc and if you must, gelatin before packaging.

 

[bkboiler]

I have a moderate shellfish allergy and have drank a couple batches of homemade wines fined using chitosan and kielosol as well as commercial beers I know are fined with isinglass. I've never had an issue but YMMV.