Brew UK Forum | General Brewing Discussions
Beer not clearing!
Hi all, I have had a woodfordes wherry in a barrel now for three weeks and it still hasn't cleared.
It's quite cloudy and leaves a pale sediment in the glass when left.just need some advice on what
I should do with it. Secondly I have a summer ale that has been bottled for a week now, no sign
of clearing with a lot of tiny bits still floating and yet to settle, if anyone has any ideas on what I
should be doing I would be very grateful.
Responses
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Waiting I'm afraid! As long as the beers tastes/smells ok then its just a case of playing the waiting game. What temp are the beers conditioning at?
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hi Nath, The wherry has been in a fridge at around 6 degrees, this is the one i am most worried about because it is very cloudy! even after 3 weeks, seems like it hasnt changed at all, it doesnt smell funny tho. The bottles have been in my garage for a week since they finished conditioning at 22 degrees. I havent checked the temp of the garage but it has been warm round here for a week or two.
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Hmmmm,
Ref the beer in the fridge - Pour a pint off, leave it at room temp and see what it looks like. What your seeing may well be chill haze (where protiens normally invisible become visible at fridge temps).
The summer ale - was this an extract beer? If so it may be small bits of hops/grain that didnt get filtered properly. It is still young though, take a bottle and chill to see if any more drops out.
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hi Nath, thank you for the advice, i have previously pulled about two pints off in total on the keg in the fridge over the last week or so, left them all and they were still cloudy with a pale sediment forming. I put a bottle in the fridge last night of the summer ale (it was the extract recipe off this site)will check it tonight, that like you say is quite young so it is of a minor concern yet! The wherry in the keg is so frustrating because so many people seeem to get good results from this kit! I have a muntons smugglers kit ready to start but i dont want to if i have a major flaw in my techniques
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Funny you should say that about the wherry. The first time I done the kit it was clear by the 2nd day of warm conditioning and it tasted amazing. My second wherry took way longer to clear and never really tasted the same as the first one. Still a good pint though.
That sediment sounds weird, sure it fermented all the way before kegging? If you want to go through your process we can have a buthchers if you are unsure.
Dont worry, Im sure all will be fine!
Nath
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hey bantz, don't worry I'm brewing my first brew ever as well -of Wherry & 3 weeks in it's still cloudy and there are a few 'specks' of sediment which do settle out to the bottom of the glass. It's stored in the pressure barrel & what I have tasted does taste OK, though possibly a little 'thin'. I'm guessing I just have to be patient?
Sean
Conditioning: Way to Amarillo Extract
Planning: Single hop IPA.
Drinking: Woodfordes Wherry, Great Eastern & Nog.
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Yep just like that Take That song - "Relight my fire".
Oh no, one minute... "Patience"
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Glad to report that a week later it finally started to clear & is now tasting very good
Conditioning: Way to Amarillo Extract
Planning: Single hop IPA.
Drinking: Woodfordes Wherry, Great Eastern & Nog.
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
good man, all's well that end's well then. Planning another yet?!
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Cheers! Got a Great Eastern ready to start, just got to get enough bottles together for that to go as the Wherry is still in the pressure barrel.
Conditioning: Way to Amarillo Extract
Planning: Single hop IPA.
Drinking: Woodfordes Wherry, Great Eastern & Nog.
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Not a Palace fan are you Sean?
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hey Stu, how did you guess? Reason enough to start brewing & drinking my own beer!
Conditioning: Way to Amarillo Extract
Planning: Single hop IPA.
Drinking: Woodfordes Wherry, Great Eastern & Nog.
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
I've brewed a few Wherry kits for a friend who doesn't quite have the courage to do it himself, and I've found the results very variable, with all the problems listed here. Clearing can take ages, especially in Summer. Just leave it in a cool place (not sure about in a fridge) and wait. On the other hand, as someone pointed out, in Medieval times ALL the beer was cloudy! True, but as I pointed out, no-one lived past about 35. The taste is also variable and kit beers will always seem "thin", but there seems to be a turning point at about 6 weeks when the taste changes quite dramatically, if you can wait that long! I've ended up adding 200gm of Dried Malt Extract to the kit and putting about 2.0 gms of Goldings in during the fermentation. It produces good results, but people seem to prefer Nelson's Revenge to Wherry. I work mostly from grain now. I don't have the space and it's hard to find the time, but the results are good. I think the conclusion to all this is that as long as we are dealing with a live product, the results will vary.
Planning: - To get some more brews on now the weather's a bit cooler
Fermenting: - Ginger Beer experiment
Conditioning: - A normal bitter with Styrians
Drinking: - All of it!!
Posted 1 year ago by Admin
Hi Saracen, agree that there is a lot of variables in most home brewers setup which ends up giving variable results although most of the time the results are more than drinkable, just different. Kits definitely benefit from extended periods of conditioning, something that I don't think is so necessary with all grain.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
My Goodness! Is it really 2 months since I was here? How time flies when everyone makes demands on your time. Regarding the extended conditioning times with all grain. Yes, I agree it's not so necessary, but I recently brewed 80 pints to take to a weekend under canvas at Silverstone. I berewed from recipes for Wadworth JCB and the old standby, Fuller's London Pride. I made it 6 weeks in advance and tasted it after 2, 4 and 6 weeks. It changed so much! Very worthwhile experience. I also needed to transport it in the bus with no time for it to clear at the other end, so I barreled it, waited 3 weeks, transferred it to another barrel and pressurised it, JCB with CO2 and LP with Nitrogen. Worked well, but be careful. All the extra handling can lead to bacteria problems. To minimise the chance I filled the barrels with CO2 before transferring the beer. Interested in the 49er you are planning. How did it go, which hops and did you use the Torrified Wheat?
Planning: - To get some more brews on now the weather's a bit cooler
Fermenting: - Ginger Beer experiment
Conditioning: - A normal bitter with Styrians
Drinking: - All of it!!
Posted 1 year ago by Admin
Hi Saracen, I did the 49er just like the recipe from GW and used Wyeast Ringwood. Turned out very nice indeed.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Thanks everyone for the input on this and although the first; yes first! batch of Wherry took about 6 weeks to fully clear it was definitely worth the wait. I do have a second kit conditioning at the moment in bottles this time and after 3 weeks that hasn't fully cleared either. (Not to worry it's for mainly Xmas drinking). As for the taste the first batch improved with age though having read some of the descriptions of the flavours I couldn't taste any of them, just a really nice smooth pint of beer.
I tasted the second batch the other evening, now that is a lot livelier than the first & has a number of different flavours coming through, very nice indeed. The only 2 things I did different the second time was to use bottled water and to bottle it rather than barrel it after the initial fermentation. If it continues to improve then I'll be using (have been using) bottled water only from now on.
Conditioning: Way to Amarillo Extract
Planning: Single hop IPA.
Drinking: Woodfordes Wherry, Great Eastern & Nog.
Posted 1 year ago by Member
You may want to consider boiling the kit for 10 minutes in whatever volume of water you can manage with your saucepans available. I did this with a Wherry in late Oct and it cleared very quickly. Also, have a good smell of any teabag of hops that might come with the kit. If they small at all musty then bin them. You could buy some hops and include them in the boil or put them in with a secondary fermentation. If you do that sort of thing!
Or ignore all of that and get into Extract brewing. It's easy! There are some extract kits already put together on this site. I did the Way to Amarillo and it were <puts on bad Bristol accent> gurt lush!
Fermenting:
Condtioning: Twibute Clone
Drinking: 100% wheat, Fixby Gold
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