Clarity problem, help???

[Darin68]

I kegged my British Premium Bitter a month ago. It's been sitting at 38deg F the whole time. My only problem with this beer is that it's cloudy as hell. I've poured off several pints and it's just not getting any clearer. Do you guys think I could add a clarifier to fix the problem? And, if so, which one would do the trick?

Thanks for your help!

Cheers!
Darin

[BDawg]

I assume you have not already de-carbonated this beer. You need to degas it first, so that you don't get the Menthos and Diet Coke effect by adding a bunch of nucleation points to a carbonated beer.
Simply de-pressurize it and keep the relief valve open. Also, warming it up will drive more gas out.
Basically, take it out of the kegerator overnight and ensure that the valve is open so all the gas will escape.

Once it is de-gassed, chill it back down and go a little further -- all the way down to like 32F so that max chill haze is brought out. You want to fine when the beer is as cold as possible for max effect.

Boil up a pint of plain water and let it cool back down to about 150F.
Stir in a tbsp. of plain gelatin so it dissolves thoroughly.
Mix that slowly into your beer so that it mixes in well, but don't kick up any oxygen into the beer. A slow swirl should be plenty to work it in.

Keep it cold and still. Give it about 5 days and your beer will be a LOT clearer.

HTH-

[Stinkfist]

Everything bdawg said was correct and hopefully you came to the conclusion that all that is not worth the hassle for this beer, and you will add the gelatin to your next batch before you carbonate it.

[DeezMaltz]

You can add the gelitin to your carbonated beer. I've done it with carb'd beer before, you may get a little foaming, just be quick about getting the keg lid back on.

[Darin68]

Thanks for the info guys! Now, once I add the gelatin, how long do I need to wait before I reconnect to my kegerator and pull off a pint?

Cheers!
Darin Christopher

[DeezMaltz]

If you can get it cold like near freezing 2 days. I'd leave it for 3-4 if you're near 40.

[Ozwald]

I've never added it to cold or carbed beer before & I don't plan on it. I would definitely degas it at the very least. I rack out of the fermenter on top of it (in your case that means mix really, really well), then it goes in the kegerator at serving temp (38-40ish) and I slow carb it. When I check how the level of carbonation is progressing in 3ish days it's still undercarbed but I do pull off some of the gel. I would recommend waiting 5ish days as you let it slow carb back up. I know it's hard to wait for it, but it's usually for the best in the long haul - that last pint always being the best? Well now you'll hit that window with more beer in the keg. And quite likely pass it for an even better pint.

[Darin68]

Thanks for everyone's great comments. I've never had such a cloudy beer before, so, it really caught me off-guard. I added the gelatin this morning and I'll let it set about 5 days.

Cheers!

Darin