How to Clarify Beer

We know that many of you just getting into this refreshingly rewarding hobby would like their beer to look better. Fermentation is a messy process, and sometimes leaves undesirable sediment behind. The big commercial breweries often use mechanical filtration to "brighten" their beer, but there is another thing that the big boys use that is more accessible to the average homebrewer–fining agents. There are also some simple techniques you can use to help achieve better clarity. Following these simple tips, it's relatively easy for the homebrewer to make their beer much clearer.
beer equipment,brewery equipment, craft beer, fermentation, beer filtering, fermentation tank, beer brewing, beer fermentation, yeast

beer equipment,brewery equipment, craft beer, fermentation, beer filtering, fermentation tank, beer brewing, beer fermentation, yeast

So what is it that makes your beer cloudy? Three things: tannins, proteins, and yeast. Tannins occur naturally in the barley grain husk, and they may be extracted along with sugars during the mashing process, or when steeping grains when brewing with extract.
Proteins are present in all grains, including malts, higher kilned malts, wheat malt, oats, and flaked barley. They are also going to be present to some extent in malt extracts. While proteins enhance the body and head retention of a beer, they also hinder clarity. It is a somewhat delicate balance to create a full bodied beer without excessive protein. You may observe some of these proteins causing "chill haze" – when your clear beer will turn hazy once put into the refrigerator and chilled. There are fining agents that can help reduce chill haze.
beer equipment,brewery equipment, craft beer, fermentation, beer filtering, fermentation tank, beer brewing, beer fermentation, yeast

Yeast is present in the beer during fermentation and will remain suspended in the beer for some time. Most yeast will eventually precipitate to the bottom of the beer, but it takes considerable time for many yeast strains.
Select Lower Protein Grains
Proteins enhance the body of your beer, but can hurt clarity. Save high protein adjuncts like wheat, flaked barley and very dark malts for wheat and dark beers where clarity is not a significant consideration. If you are brewing a light beer where clarity matters, choose two row pale malt or pale malt extract base and add only enough high protein darker malts to achieve the desired color and body.
Use a wort chiller to cool your wort quickly
A wort chiller is the best way to cool your beer as quickly as possible. When you bring your wort from boiling down to below 80°F quickly, most of the undesirable matter (tannins and proteins) tend to clump and fall out to the bottom of your brew pot. When those tannins and proteins don't even make it into your fermenter, your beer will definitely be clearer. Ideally, you want to chill your boiling wort down to pitching temperature in 15 minutes or less. Any of the wort chillers sold by Midwest will do this; the chiller you choose is dependent on your skill level and brewing setup. Click here for more info on wort chillers.
Use a highly flocculant yeast strain
Flocculation is defined simply as the rate at which a particular yeast strain will fall out of the beer once fermentation is complete. If you choose a yeast strain with a high flocculation rating, it will clear much more quickly than one with a low flocculation rate. Flocculation should not be your only consideration, but if you have a choice, pick a yeast strain that both matches the style of your beer and has medium to high flocculation.
beer equipment,brewery equipment, craft beer, fermentation, beer filtering, fermentation tank, beer brewing, beer fermentation, yeast

Cold store (Lager) your beer
Lagering is storing your beer in a refrigerated environment (ideally 33-35°F). If you have the ability to do this, it is easily the easiest and most effective way to clear your beer. At these lower temperatures, it becomes much more difficult for those tannins, proteins and yeast to remain in suspension. Lagered beer will clear far more rapidly than beer stored at room temperature. However, you should note here that if you are bottling or naturally carbonating a keg, you need to wait for the beer to become fully carbonated before lagering. Otherwise you may slow or kill the yeast, resulting in a poorly carbonated beer. Alternately, you could add a small amount of rehydrated dry yeast (say 1 gm., ½ tsp. or so) after you've lagered (or cold conditioned, same thing) the beer to ensure there will be enough yeast in suspension to carbonate the beer after bottling (or kegging if you're not force carbonating). This small amount of yeast should not create much sediment in the bottle or keg.

Learn more how Tiantai beer equipment company to not only produce the best quality brewery equipment for flavor-rich beers, but also help them to optimize the configuration, maximize process uptime and reduce beer loss when they brewing, PLEASE DON’T HESITATE TO CONTACT WITH US!
Hubert
Email: [email protected]

Tags: Fermentation 　　 brewing 　　