Random small questions

[Simple Member Find all posts View Profile Close Simple]

I am pretty new to kegging - up to now I have always bottled. When bottling I find my beer is pretty clear after two weeks. With kegging I am finding it takes much longer for the beer to clear (4 to 6 weeks). Is this normal or is there something that I should be doing? My keezer temp is 3 degrees. I dont use any finings (spanish moss etc) because I did not notice any difference in beer clarity with or without it so when it ran out I stopped using it. I also dont cold crash - do you think that if I add a cold crash step it will help? I dont secondary ferment - up to now I leave the beer in primary for 3 to 4 weeks and bottle or keg from there. I found if I bottle after 2 weeks the beer takes longer to clear up.

Thanks for any advice.

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

Depends on a few things, style, hop amounts, etc. By and large I have clear beer from second pour from the keg with a week or so warm ferment at that. I do cold crash (recently at 1C), it drops the yeast out of suspension and makes racking easier. Have you tried fining with gelatin? Irish moss would help the protein coagulation in boil

[Harhm Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Harhm]

If you want clear beer in the keg leave as much sediment behind in your process as you can, start with whirflock in the kettle and always do a coldcrash with or without adding gelatin.Have a look at this to see the effect that whirflock has. I dont use gelatin but if you do, add the gelatin to the fermenter before you coldcrash to leave as much as possible of the coagulated breakmaterial, hops and yeast behind in the fermenter.

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

Using whirfloc/irish moss in the boil is not really needed. I tried Irish/Whirfloc/Brewbrite and don't like adding *stuff* to my beer in the boil (apart from hops). Each to their own. Plate filters works too, pita to clean.

[jannieverjaar Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jannieverjaar]

I also stopped using Irish mos. But I did find that since then my beers have chill phase at or about 1C. By 3 or 5 C its cleared

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[jannieverjaar Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jannieverjaar]

Haze not phase. My bad.

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[Langchop Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Langchop]

I do see a distinct pattern of beers being clearer when bottled versus kegged as well. No idea why tho. Maybe dropout height? maybe slower to chill?

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

Volume , could be the reason. Finings in bottling is a hit and miss, found this out the hard way, not that I bottle a lot, but killed me on a comp. Fine in primary then keg, and bottle the remainder ...eish

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[jakeslouw Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jakeslouw]

I reckon it's just the volume of liquid: the more volume, the longer it takes for the sediment to drop out.

[Simple Member Find all posts View Profile Close Simple]

Thanks guys. I think that you have answered my question which was basically why when I bottle versus keg does the beer clear more quickly. Since I have not changed my process - only keg versus bottle. Volume makes sense to me.

Next time I am going to cold crash in primary before I rack to the keg to try and minimize the amount of yeast I put into the keg as per GreenGhostBreath (I am from Durban - I have to translate) method and see how this goes. I like the idea of clear beer within a week!

Does cold crashing to 2 degrees affect the yeast? I like to put my next beer on the yeast cake from the last beer - normally three to five times. Thanks.

[jakeslouw Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jakeslouw]

Cold crash and time clarifies most beers. The yeast will be fine if you don't freeze it.

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

She'll be right, I cold crash at 1c. That's fermented in a week and clear beer on second pour, as soon as it's carbonated it's ready to roll. There's no need to wait really, except if you want to age it. I'm originally from Durbs. Afrikaans girl gave me the nickname a loooong time ago, works well for online shenanigans

[jannieverjaar Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jannieverjaar]

I've just never actually seen the green variant. Blue and piek spookasem is rather common, but the green one must be special

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[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

Just like me, that's what she said

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[jannieverjaar Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jannieverjaar]

Ok so for a cold crush to be a crush how quickly does it need to cool?
I ask coz my KIC fridge takes it's time. The setting is on 7 and the stc is set to 0.5C but its 2 days later and my fermenter is only at 9C from 25. At first I thought it's just coz it's the only thermal mass in there but this morning when I checked the compressor was not on although it has not reached setpoint. What could be the reason? Does it have a timer or cutout on the compressor to stop it from destroying itself?

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