Still no luck clearning red irish ale

Northern Brewer General
1

This is just a follow up on my last topic concerning my red irish ale not clearing after racking it into my secondary. First thanks for all of the comments and suggestions. Well I waited another week, which makes it a total of 3 weeks sitting in my secondary with no luck with the clearing process. The cloudyness is stuck at 3/4 inches from the top. Is there any possibility that this still has a chance of clearing without adding the gelatin.

2

Guess I missed your other post. Have you cold crashed it. That’s all I ever do for all my beers and they come out crystal clear every time.

3

Gelatin… gelatin Sneezles61

4

i did transfer yesterday my irish red ale to the second fermenter and indeed still dark
even let it stand in the first for ten days longer than normal before i do transfer

5

Cold crash is almost always effective after the active fermentation is done. Just put the beer in as cold a spot as you can for a few days.
There are a few times though that the beer will stay cloudy. Some yeasts (kolsch comes to mind) can stay suspended for a very long time. Some ingredients (like fruit) can cause a stubborn haze that needs pectic enzyme to clear. Dry hopping can similarly impede clarity. None of those are likely your problem. For a beer like an Irish Red, I can think of three possible causes of haziness:

  1. Water chemistry. If your ion concentrations are off (and this is different from beer to beer, so even with the same water you can get different results from different recipes) it could make your beer clear very slowly.
  2. Weak boil. If your beer soft of simmered instead of boiled, the hot break might not form, and all those proteins are still floating around in your beer. Same can happen with the cold break if you don’t chill well, though that is less likely.
  3. Infection. Bacteria in the beer will make it hazy.

For the first two possibilities, gelatin will help; give it a try. If it is #3, take a good look at your sanitation procedures and figure out how to prevent it in the future. Take a sample of the beer and taste it; you’ll be able to tell if it’s infected.

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