Posted by Geordan Saunders on 3rd Mar 2015

There’s just something special about a beautiful, crystal clear beer. Brewers are often quick to scoff at clarity, pointing out that it “tastes the same,” and stating that they’re not concerned with something as minor as the appearance of the beer. But a bright and clear beer is a finishing touch that speaks to the attention to detail and skill of the brewer, and adds to the overall experience of enjoying the end product.

The good news is that getting crystal clear beer is dead simple. There are three key places that clarity is impacted during the brewing process:

In the kettle In the fermenter In the keg or bottle

Here’s how you can maximize the clarity at each step of the way.

In The Kettle

Get clear wort into the kettle from your mash. If you’re able to recirculate during the mashing process you’ll end up with a beautiful, clear wort, but if you’re not recirculating, make sure you are vorlaufing. Do this by slowly opening your ball valve from your mash tun and running it into a large pitcher, bowl or bucket until the wort runs clear; gently pour the cloudy wort collected back into the mash (hint: lay a sheet of aluminum foil over the surface of the mash and gingerly pour the cloudy wort back over the foil to avoid disturbing the grain bed.) Now, run your clear wort to your kettle. This process uses the grain itself as a filtration mechanism, catching the flour, detritus and small bits of grain within the mash.

Get a good hot break and a vigorous boil. A strong, rolling boil helps the proteins in the mash coagulate and drop out.

Use a kettle fining agent like Irish Moss or Whirlfloc to encourage further coagulation of proteins.

Get a good, quick cold break. Whether you’re using an Immersion Chiller, a Plate Chiller or a CFC, the quicker you can get the wort to pitching temperature, the clearer your beer will be.

Whirlpool! If you don’t have a pump, you can do this the “hard way” by stirring quickly with a long spoon for 30 seconds or so and letting your wort settle. This causes all of the trub material to collect near the centre of the kettle, keeping it from being drawn out of your dip tube.

In The Fermenter

Know your yeast. Some strains are more flocculent than others, and a powdery yeast can hang in suspension seemingly forever. Do your research and know what to expect here.

Cold crash. When your beer is done fermenting, leave it in the fermenter and bring it down to as close to 0c as possible, as quickly as possible. Leave it at this temperature for 2-3 days (or longer, if you can); the cold temperature encourages the yeast to flocculate, and causes chill-haze forming proteins to form – we’ll take care of these next. (Note: If you’re doing a lager, you should skip the “cold crash” step in favour of the ramping down to lager temperature step)

Use gelatin. This is so easy it’s almost like magic: take a half package of Knox gelatin and let it dissolve in a cup of water you’ve brought up to around 75c in the microwave or on the stove. Don’t let it get hotter, as it can cause the gelatin to clump. Don’t stir the gelatin – just let it sit in the warm water, covered in foil for sanitation’s sake, for 10-15 minutes. Now, gently pour the gelatin mixture into your cold carboy and carefully mix it with a long sanitized spoon or racking cane. Avoid splashing at this phase to prevent oxidation from oxygen pickup. You can add the gelatin as soon as soon as your “cold crashing” beer is actually cold – adding gelatin warm will be less effective.

Avoid moving your fermenter around. After you’ve worked so hard to get everything to drop out of suspension, be very careful when moving it to avoid mixing everything back up. When racking, keep an eye on your hose to ensure you’re not picking up settled trub – if so, gently pull the cane up until the beer runs clear.

In the Keg or Bottle

The best thing for clarity is time. Leaving your keg or bottles cold and undisturbed for 2-3 weeks will allow anything left in suspension to drop out and firmly form a cake at the bottom of the vessel.

You can also add gelatin for clarity to the keg rather than in the fermenter – the only downside here is that you’ll need to avoid moving the keg if possible, as every time it is shifted you’ll kick up some settled gelatin material, and your next pint will be “soupy” before it runs clear again.

Conclusions

Clear beer is just another element to making the best product possible. If you follow some or all of the advice above, you’ll have beer so bright and clear it’ll look like it came straight out of a macro brewery – but the minute you taste it it’ll be clear that it’s your awesome homebrew!