87 replies to this topic

[neddles]

You drank the glass of sludge?

[Big Nake]

You drank the glass of sludge?

I did. I might get gassy in a little while here but you're far enough away not to have to worry about it.

Good news number 3 is that the beer seems to be pretty clear. I'm just sneaking glasses of it with a cobra tap at this point but it will probably hit the taps soon because I have a helles and a cream ale on two of the taps which I consider to be mildly redundant style-wise. I'll get a better feel for the clarity soon but early signs point to WHOO.

[neddles]

I did. I might get gassy in a little while here but you're far enough away not to have to worry about it.

Yeah, don't spoil our fresh air man!

 

Is it OK to ingest biofine? I'm not trying to scare you, I really don't know. I have avoided any of the cloudy pints/samples with it thus far.

[Big Nake]

Yeah, don't spoil our fresh air man!
 
Is it OK to ingest biofine? I'm not trying to scare you, I really don't know. I have avoided any of the cloudy pints/samples with it thus far.

I suppose it's a fair question but I'm thinking that if it's something that you can actually pour into your beer, it can't be that bad for you. That would suggest that no biofine was remaining in the rest of the keg so I'm just going to guess that nothing bad could ha....dm0939-';00ecwjdckldklqjd'qwjdpoj1,.
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[HVB]

Yeah, don't spoil our fresh air man!

Is it OK to ingest biofine? I'm not trying to scare you, I really don't know. I have avoided any of the cloudy pints/samples with it thus far.

According to the research I did it's fine.

[Steve Urquell]

Today Ken poops out sludge followed by a crystal clear turd.

[Big Nake]

Seriously... not even the slightest bit gurgly last night. I did do some research and found some conversations where people were asking if they should transfer the beer from one keg to another after using biofine and all of the responses were "NO". Honestly, I didn't even consider it. I figured that if you could add it directly to the beer, how bad could it be? The next test will be coming up later this week when I send this first-ever 30m boil beer (a pilsner with the Bayern yeast) to a keg. I'm interested to see how this clarifier works on a pale beer. Also, has anyone concluded if this WilliamsWarn clarifier is the same product as Biofine Clear? Chils, do you know?

[HVB]

I had conversations with Colin Kaminski ( he was on the BN several times) about biofine as he was the first to mention it back a few years ago and he indicated there was no issues with leaving it in the keg.  There was no need to transfer off it.

 

So Biofine is:

 

Biofine® clear is a purified colloidal solution of silicic acid, (SiO2), in water that has been specifically formulated for the rapid sedimentation of yeast and other haze forming particles in beer. It is Vegan friendly.

 

from this bottle it seems the ingredients are the same or similiar.

 

[Big Nake]

Ah, good stuff Drez. As a part of my homework last night I also ran into the Exbeeriment where they compared gel solution to biofine clear. In the pic with the final beers, both beers look pretty good but to me the biofine beer looks a little clearer and I think the beer they went with was a helles, IIRC. So all good news on the biofine front as far as I can tell. I'll be paying close attention to upcoming beers fined with this clarifier. Cheers.

[HVB]

Ah, good stuff Drez. As a part of my homework last night I also ran into the Exbeeriment where they compared gel solution to biofine clear. In the pic with the final beers, both beers look pretty good but to me the biofine beer looks a little clearer and I think the beer they went with was a helles, IIRC. So all good news on the biofine front as far as I can tell. I'll be paying close attention to upcoming beers fined with this clarifier. Cheers.

I can show you many beers I have used biofine in that are crystal clear.  Some that were hoppy and some that were lagers.  It works.

[Big Nake]

I can show you many beers I have used biofine in that are crystal clear.  Some that were hoppy and some that were lagers.  It works.

What about hoppy lagers?

Today Ken poops out sludge followed by a crystal clear turd.

On this topic, I did happen to have a rather sizable purge this morning. This stuff cleared me right out!

[HVB]

What about hoppy lagers?

 

Fest Beer

 

 

IPL

 

 

helles

 

 

Mexican Vienna - logo on back of glass

 

[Big Nake]

Mmm, you're making me thirsty. Those look great. Thanks Drez.

[Big Nake]

I sent an email to Mangrove Jack's asking them if their M76 is the dry version of a popular liquid strain of yeast that homebrewers would know from Wyeast, White Labs or Omega or if the source was something "known" like Paulaner, Hofbrau, Ayinger, Spaten, etc. I got a response from someone saying that she would check with the technical team and get back to me. I thought it might be interesting to be able to compare it to something liquid that we've used before. I'm sure I'll reach my own conclusions when I use it but based on the description on the package, I don't have much. 2308 came to mind because it does produce a malty beer and I think it produces less sulfur than others but I don't have much else.

On a side note: I notice that the MJ site says to use one pack of yeast "in up to 23 liters" by sprinkling it over the top. Does anyone want to comment on that? 2 packs in 5 gallons? Directly sprinkle or rehydrate? If anyone thought that the beer wouldn't suffer I would use one pack and rehydrate it so that I can save the other pack. I assume that it's just the first batch that would be in question and after that there would be plenty of yeast.

[Big Nake]

I just removed this barcode label from the bottle of clarifier because it was covering part of the directions. The directions mention adding the clarifier to COLD beer and it also says to "remove the beverage from the clarifier before serving". I don't know if that means that the product is harmful or if it's a suggestion because the first part few pours could be sludgy. I would think that if the product were harmful that the cautionary wording would be more prominent... DO NOT INGEST THIS PRODUCT... that sort of thing. So I just sent the pilsner to a purged keg with 2 tbsp. of the clarifier in the keg first. Now the keg is chilling. The amber ale that I put on tap earlier in the week just had the clarifier poured into the keg after the beer was cold but before I carbed it. That beer is clear-ish. I would not call it better-than-gel clear at this point but it's possible that I just didn't use it properly. If this pils is not clear after a couple of pints from the keg then I would need some other suggestions on how to use it or else go back to gel. I'll post a pic of the amber ale sometime soon and a pic of the pils early next week. It should be done carbing by Monday.

[HVB]

Did you just pour it into the amber or pour in and mix?  You cannot just add this close it up and good, it needs to be agitated.  At least Biofine Clear, what I use, has to be agitated. 

[Big Nake]

Did you just pour it into the amber or pour in and mix?  You cannot just add this close it up and good, it needs to be agitated.  At least Biofine Clear, what I use, has to be agitated.

I did not agitate it. When I add a gel solution I just carefully pour it into the keg, seal it and carb. I would rather not agitate the beer in the keg but I suppose a small shake or something would be okay. So here I have a "pour" into cold beer with no agitation and I have a "blended" because I added the clarifier first but that beer was not cold. Hmm. I'll have to see what happens. How do you agitate? Shake? Stir?

[HVB]

For this to work it needs to be distributed not just added in. That's why I suggested to add it as you rack so the beer filling the keg will distribute it. It's different than gelatin in that respect.

[Big Nake]

Is your beer cold when you add it to the keg? If your beer was cold and you added the clarifier first and racked on top, that sounds the best of all worlds. But my beers going into kegs are typically room temp. I could place the primary back into my lager fridge (this would work for ales too) 24 hours before kegging and then I could transfer cold beer to the keg with the clarifier in the keg first for maximum mix.

[HVB]

Ambient cellar temp, it comes from the dh /brite tank. I would say most of of the year that is in the 60's.