Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

i secondary almost all my beers i figure the less junk in the keg the better. when i try some of the fining suggestions i will do it in the secondary.

Right on, I was just pointing out that there are a lot of different methods when it comes to homebrew. I've found that the amount of waste at the bottom of a keg from doing a secondary and not doing one is negligible. With no adverse affects on clarity or anything.

thats cool, i have just started cold crashing the primary then racking. there is a little in the secondary but not much. speaking of clearer beer, does anyone filter?

Not yet, but I plan to. I picked up a Minijet filter for cider and plan to start using it on a few beers soon.

To add one more clarifier to the heap -- I used Polyclar PVPP the other day with good results. After lagering my CAP for a month, I pulled a sample, observed chill haze and tasted a higher level of tannins than I got when I first racked to the lagering keg. (Apparently this is due to polyphenols binding to long chain proteins in the beer which fall out of solution at low temps and become perceptible.) After trying isinglass, to make sure the haze wasn't yeast, I gave Polyclar a shot. It worked beautifully and I had crystal clear beer within 2 hours.

Since you're supposed to let the Polyclar settle out (or filter it), I let it sit for another week at 32F and then racked to a serving keg. In addition to being much clearer, the beer has a cleaner, maltier flavor now than it did before I fined it. If I were to brew the batch again, I would probably add a rest at 130F to break up the long chain proteins, but for now I'm pretty happy with what I've seen from the Polyclar.

so a protien rest in the range of 122 to 130 is to effect the chill haze?

bf514921 wrote:so a protien rest in the range of 122 to 130 is to effect the chill haze?

I've been told that it can. My understanding is that it one common cause of chill haze is the binding of polyphenols (e.g. tannins extracted from grain husks, hops, etc.) with long chain proteins. A short protein rest in the 122 - 130F range is supposed to activate a couple of different protease enzymes that will break up the long chain proteins. I've heard that if you let the mash rest too long in that range it will break up the short and medium chain proteins, which are needed for both head formation/retention and body.

Personally, I would recommend only doing a protein rest if you've brewed the recipe before and have seen a reason to do it. Otherwise, just live with it or use a clarifier like Polyclar or Silica Gel that will help precipitate the chill haze molecules. I've also heard it recommended that you should do a brief (10-15 mins) protein rest if your mash has a high percentage of adjuncts.