Homebrew beer is not at its finest unless it’s clarified as clarity doesn’t only affect the appearance but also the taste, head forming, and head retention.
Unclarified homebrew beer is either fresh and didn’t have time to naturally clarify, it got muddied later by improper handling or it was intentional. If it was intentional like it’s the case with wheat beers and hazy IPAs no more questions should be asked, but other beer types will greatly benefit from full clarity.
If you ever wondered why your beer has a yeasty, bread-like taste the reason is high sediment levels that haven’t settled down. Moreover, even small levels of yeast particles and unsettled proteins floating in a beer can mask certain flavors and aromas that make the recipe special.
Whether it’s for the taste or for a clear, crisp look with nice head forming and retention when you pour it into the glass, let’s see what options for clarifying beer you have.
I’ll share my step-by-step clarifying method every homebrewer can do at home.
1. Condition in a secondary fermenter
When the primary fermentation ends and the gravity is on point, the beer still hasn’t peaked and needs conditioning, but this is an ideal time to transfer the beer from the primary to the secondary fermenter.
If you keep the beer in the primary, it will continue to drop the sediment at the bottom and naturally clarify your beer to an extent, but moving it to a secondary will speed up the process and you won’t accidentally send the sediment from the bottom back into the beer by moving or shaking it.
In the secondary, your beer will continue to condition and get better, but it will also suspend more sediment and become clearer. Furthermore, this is an important step because the following steps will apply additional clarifying methods and we need a fermenter will the least amount of sediment, so for this reason secondary is better than primary.
2. Cold crash your beer
Take the secondary fermenter and place it in the fridge or a freezer to quickly drop the temperature (only 48 hours with fining agents such as gelatine or up to 7 days without). Cold crashing will speed up the process and get us closer to the final step.
Cold crashing is one of the fastest ways to clarify your homebrew beer because it puts yeast into a dormant state and stiffens the particles into bigger, heavier chunks (not that big to the eye) which helps them settle down easier and faster. You can cold crash your brew prior to or after the bottling, so if you want to know how to do it read more in my cold crashing guide. For purposes of this 3-step process, we’ll bulk cold crash prior to bottling.
3. Add gelatine
I am a firm believer that gelatine is a great finisher for purposes of clarifying homebrew beer as it has the ability to suspend those tiny particles of sediment that survived after secondary conditioning and cold crashing.
Gelatine will add shine to your homebrew and it will be generally the last step you’ll need prior to having a perfectly clean beer. Adding gelatine is also optional as by now you should have a pretty clear beer already and if you let them sit in bottles or a keg for a few more weeks it’s likely that the beer will be nearly perfectly clear.
However, gelatine will speed up the process and ensure a minimal amount of sediment enters the bottles or a keg. In short, follow the next instructions to use gelatine in your homebrew beer:
- Ideally, add the gelatin straight after cold crashing as we need the cold beer no warmer than 39.2°F (4°C)
- Sanitize the cup and the spoon
- Pour around 3/4 of purified, distilled water into a cup for 5 gallons of beer. (Or use tap water but bring it to a boiling level and when it cools down to 155°F add gelatin).
- Add 1 tsp of gelatin and dissolve it by heating the solution to 150°F (65°C) (Or don’t if you already boiled and cooled the water)
- As soon as you reach the temperature and the gelatin is dissolved pour it into the fermenter.
After 24 hours the gelatine will do the job and you’ll have a crystal-clear beer.
Other Beer Fining Agents
If you don’t use gelatin, there are other beer-fining agents you can choose, some are added in the last 10 minutes of the boil and some in the fermenter just like I explained the gelatin method. Combining any of the following agents with secondary conditioning and cold crashing will ensure outstanding clarity in your homebrew.
Irish Moss
Add 1 tsp of Irish Moss per 5 gallons of beer in the last 10 minutes of boiling to drop the clumps of protein and thus reduce the protein haze in the beer in the later stages. Irish moss is a dried seaweed additive and you might see it in many recipes as it’s super-easy to add it with other ingredients on a brewing day.
Isinglass powder
Isinglass is another additive derived from the sea as it’s found in fish bladders. Isinglass is among the most effective fining agents which is the reason why it’s so popular in commercial breweries. Add half a spoon in a cup of hot water per 5 gallons in the fermenter 5 days prior to bottling.
Whirlfloc Tablets
Whirlfloc tablets are derived from seaweed and are similar to Irish moss as they are added in the last 10 minutes of the boil to reduce the protein haze in a finished beer. Add one tablet per 5 gallons and you’ll have a great result.
Should you Filter Homebrew Beer with filter equipment?
Commercial breweries filter their beer with actual filters which completely remove the sediment and particles mechanically. You can find one of such filters on Amazon and use it for homebrewing, but then you should be aware of the following.
If you filter out the beer completely before it had time to condition you will interrupt its natural development and the beer won’t age, thus no complexity in flavor profile will be formed over time.
This is similar to pasteurization which is a known method of commercial breweries. By pasteurizing or filtering the beer, you stop its development at that stage and the beer won’t get any better over time which is not good for craft beers.
Don’t kill the yeast or filter it out before the beer is in nice condition the way you like it, one thing is to clarify it but another thing is to expose it to the heat or filter the life out of it.
Tip for the end: Keep the bottles upwards
Keep in mind that keeping the bottles on a side will make the sediment stick to the side walls and when you pick it and pour lots of sediment will get back into the beer. Therefore, you should always keep the bottles upwards while in storage unless you removed the sediment prior to bottling.