{"id":4914,"date":"2014-10-20T18:02:12","date_gmt":"2014-10-20T22:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beersmith.com\/blog\/?p=4914"},"modified":"2015-04-30T19:46:07","modified_gmt":"2015-04-30T23:46:07","slug":"improving-beer-clarity-and-finings-in-depth-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beersmith.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/20\/improving-beer-clarity-and-finings-in-depth-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving Beer Clarity and Finings: In Depth – Part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"clarity\"<\/a>This is the fourth and final part of my four part series on improving beer clarity. In the previous sections we discussed how to measure clarity<\/a>, causes of poor clarity, proteins and tannins<\/a> and how to control and improve beer clarity in the mash and the boil<\/a>. Today we\u2019re going to discuss fermentation finings and filtering your beer to improve clarity and reduce beer haze.<\/p>\n

Lagering and Cold Crashing during Fermentation<\/h3>\n

When fermentation is complete, you may want to consider cold storing or cold crashing your beer. Lowering the temperature to near freezing will aid the precipitation of yeast, proteins and polyphenols. Also storing your beer cold is a great way to prepare it for filtering if desired.<\/p>\n

Note that cold crashing (rapidly chilling the beer to near freezing) will kill off any remaining yeast, so you should not use this technique if bottling unless you are planning to pitch additional yeast when bottling. If you cold crash a beer before bottling and don’t add additional yeast to aid in carbonation you will get flat beer. Similarly you don’t want to cold crash right after bottling, as your beer needs time to carbonate.<\/p>\n

Fermentation Finings<\/h3>\n

A number of finings can also be used<\/a> during fermentation. Most are added at the end of fermentation, a few days before bottling or kegging. This allows fermentation to complete, but gives the finings time to work and settle out some particulates.<\/p>\n