Author: Ray Found

For some brewers, haziness in their beer is a point of pride, an indication that it is somehow more “natural” than the gin-clear swill produced by macro-breweries. Any attempts to clarify beer is often viewed by these folks as antithetical to homebrewing, a practice that sacrifices quality for beauty.

I am not one of these brewers.

Personally, I find nothing more appealing about a hazy beer than the same beer that’s brilliantly clear. From the moment I discovered the power of gelatin, I’ve used it in every batch and have never looked back, even for styles often expected to carry a bit of haze such as Belgian Tripel and Saison. Gelatin is purported to bind to haze-forming proteins, increasing their mass and ultimately encouraging precipitation much more quickly than time and cold can do alone. Whatever it is, it fucking works. My gelatin fined beers usually drop bright within 1 or 2 days of packaging.

Lately, there’s been a lot of chatter about another option for clarification, a product manufactured by White Labs called Clarity Ferm (Also known as Brewers Clarex) which works by enzymatically breaking down the haze forming proteins, making them too small to coagulate and become visible in beer. One of the proteins the enzyme reportedly breaks down is gluten, such that beer treated with Clarity Ferm during fermentation tests to levels consistent with federal “gluten free” regulations. Frankly, if you’ve been avoiding malt-based beer due to gluten concerns, you owe it to yourself to research Clarity Ferm a bit more, as it may be your best bet to enjoy “real” beer.

One potential process advantage of using Clarity Ferm is it’s added when the yeast is pitched, thus eliminating the pre-chilling steps involved in fining with gelatin. With no inherent post-fermentation timeline requirements, one might expect Clarity Ferm treated beer would be clear and ready for serving even sooner than beer fined with gelatin. Let’s see how well this pans out!

| PURPOSE |

To evaluate the differences between Clarity Ferm and gelatin when used to fine a split-batch of the same beer.

| METHOD |

A few beers have become effectively house beers for me that quite frankly need to remain on tap at all times. My Märzen rapidly achieved this status, which, being a beautifully colored lager, I figured would serve as a fabulous platform for evaluating appearance as well as the subtleties of any other potential differences.

Ray Found’s House Märzen Recipe

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM OG FG ABV 11 gal 90 min 34 10.1 1.052 SG 1.010 SG 5.2 %

Fermentables

Name Amount % Vienna Malt 10lbs 11oz 45.7 Munich (10L) 6lbs 6oz 27.4 Belgian Pils Malt 4lbs 4oz 18.3 Gambrinus Honey Malt 1lbs 1oz 4.6 Melanoiden Malt 8.5oz 2.3 Special B 6.8oz 1.8

Hops

Name Amt/IBU Time Use Form Alpha % Magnum 25 IBU 60 Min Boil Pellet 12.6 Czech Saaz 120 g/9 IBU 15 Min Boil Pellet 3.6

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Ferm Temp German Ale/Hybrid Kolsch White Labs 029 80% 58°F

Water Profile

Ca Mg Na SO4 Cl HCO3 pH 80 ppm 0 ppm 0 ppm 104 ppm 68 ppm 16 ppm 5.3

I made a large starter using 2 vials of WLP029 German Ale/Kölsch yeast the day prior to brewing in order to achieve the cell count prescribed by my yeast starter calculator of choice.

This batch would be the first of many brewed at the new location for Fandhaus Bräu, I was excited for this maiden voyage! I hooked up the natural gas line to my KAB4 burner and started heating my strike water. Once to temp, I mashed in with the assistance of one my favorite brewing tools, the comically large 24″ wire whisk.

The mash settled in to a hair under my target temperature of 152°F.

I used FermCap-S to keep the large volume of wort manageable as it came to a boil and let it roll for 90 minutes.

Once the boil was complete, I quickly chilled it to 6°F above groundwater temps.

I then ran the wort off into identical carboys, alternating between the 2 to ensure equal distribution of kettle trub.

Once full, they were placed in my fermentation chamber to continue to my target fermentation temperature of 58°F, it took a couple hours. Both worts were aerated via shaking just prior to receiving equal portions of my starter, then a vial of Clarity Ferm was immediately added to one of the carboys.

Contrary to warnings that WLP029 experiences poor fermentation below 65°F, both batches were off to the races within 12 hours, and by 36 hours both were making a mess of my blowoff vessel, even at a cool 58°F.

After 5 days of active fermentation and signs of slowing activity, I ramped the temperature over the course of a couple days to 68°F and let it sit for a few more days before verifying the FG. This is when I made the first interesting observation– the Clarity Ferm batch appeared to have attenuated 0.001 SG more than the gelatin batch. Huh. I did a little digging and couldn’t find any good explanation as to why this would be the case.

I began cold crashing 11 days post-pitch. The following day, I dosed the batch that didn’t receive Clarity Ferm with 1 tsp* of unflavored gelatin dissolved in hot water. Three days later, it was time to package. I thought it was interesting how similar the trub in each carboy looked given the differences noted by Marshall in the first gelatin xBmt.

After 24 hours at 40 psi followed by another day at 12 psi, I pulled samples from both kegs for early evaluation. The carbonation was almost ready and both beers were clea… wait. What the..? Sure, the beers had only spent a couple days in the keezer, but the one fined with Clarity Ferm looked markedly different than the gelatin fined batch.

A couple more days in the keezer didn’t help much, as samples 5 days post-packaging revealed a fairly dramatic difference in clarity.

At nearly 2 weeks in the keg, the Clarity Ferm beer was clearer, but the gelatin fined beer was far more so.

| RESULTS |

The participant panel consisted of a mix of BeerMe Brew Club members along with craft beer loving friends and family. Thanks to Sons of Liberty Aleworks in Norco, CA for hosting the meeting!

In all, 22 people participated in this xBmt, meaning 12 (p<0.05) would be required to accurately identify the odd-beer-out in order to achieve statistical significance. Only 5 tasters (p=.29) made the correct selection, a result consistent with chance.

Clarity Ferm is generally accepted to have little if any impact on the overall character of beer; however, many contend fining with gelatin reduces hop character. The fact a rather hefty majority of tasters were unable to distinguish it from the other beer at least supports the idea it’s no more detrimental than Clarity Ferm. Combining this with the results from the first gelatin xBmt where tasters weren’t reliably able to distinguish between a gelatin fined and untreated dry hopped beer, it would seem gelatin has little if any demonstrably negative impact on beer character. Obviously, more data is required to make any conclusive statements, we’ve certainly got more planned.

My Impressions: For my initial attempt at the triangle test, I got it right. But that was it. Afterwards, I was consistently wrong. While drinking these beers the week prior to data collection, the observable differences were initially rather dramatic, I was absolutely convinced there was a flavor distinction early on, but this perception faded at about the same rate as the haze in the Clarity Ferm beer. After about a week in the keg, it had cleared considerably and the beers became increasingly less distinguishable to me, even knowing the nature of xBmt. I wasn’t surprised by the results. I’ll happily drink either without prejudice.

| DISCUSSION |

Taken at face value, the results of this xBmt suggests the impact of both Clarity Ferm and gelatin on beer in terms of flavor and aroma is about the same, enough so that a panel of tasters weren’t reliably able to distinguish between the two. However, neither of these products have necessarily been purported to have a huge impact on anything other than appearance, they’re both marketed as fining agents to assist in the clarification of beer, which allows for arguably more objective measures of differences based mostly on observation:

Overall Clarity

The batch fined with gelatin has better clarity, hands-down. The Clarity Ferm beer is clear, but the gelatin beer is brilliant.

Clarifying Speed

Again, gelatin has the edge, it was pretty much in final form by day 3 in the keg. Even after 3 weeks, the beer treated with Clarity Ferm still hadn’t achieved a similar clarity level.

Ease of Use

I have to give Clarity Ferm a point on this, it is dead simple to use, all one has to do is dump a vial into the fermenter when pitching yeast. Gelatin requires a little post-brew day work, which is easy enough for even the drunkest drunk to do, but it does add another step.

Cost

The comparison here is laughable. A 1 lb container of gelatin costs $16.99 and is good for between 139-278 batches depending on whether you use 1/2 tsp or 1 tsp per batch– that’s $0.06 to $0.12 per batch, possibly the cheapest ingredient in my beer. Clarity Ferm costs $3.49 per 5 gallon batch. Note: it has been brought to our attention that White Labs will reportedly sell the 1L Clarity Ferm preparation to brewers through Yeastman if they have a “pro” account, or by emailing them directly. This lowers the cost of Clarity Ferm to roughly $0.60/batch, YMMV.

Lifestyle Considerations

Gelatin is not for those of the vegetarian/vegan persuasion… it’s made from animal collagen. While not a concern of mine, it’s certainly something to consider if you brew for those sensitive to this. As mentioned earlier, Clarity Ferm is also capable of reducing gluten levels, gelatin has not been reported to do so.

I suspect the early differences in clarity may have been the result of yeast in suspension. Clarity Ferm, being an enzyme that works on proteins, wouldn’t be expected to encourage yeast to flocculate and drop out of solution, though gelatin seems to do just that, clearing not only protein haze but helping to precipitate suspended yeast as well. Thankfully, anecdotal evidence from those who bottle condition indicates enough yeast remains for carbonation to occur, as I’ve heard from many who report great success with gelatin fined beers.

Ultimately, this xBmt largely supports my opinion that gelatin is “powdered time” in that it appears to hasten the impact of time and cold storage. It clears beer much faster than any method I’ve seen or heard of other than manual filtration, which I’ve not tried (and don’t intend to). Another product I’ve yet to try is Biofine Clear, which apparently clears both yeast and haze causing proteins very rapidly, I look forward to comparing it to gelatin soon. Until then, I can’t think of a better way to get an ultra-fresh, crisp lager in 2-3 weeks or a brilliantly clear IPA from from grain-to-glass in 12 days without the assistance of gelatin, and for that, I plan to continue using it in every batch. Cheers!

If you have any thoughts on this xBmt, please share them in the comments section below!

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