Gelatin vs. Biofine Clear vs. Clarity Ferm | exBEERiments

Clarity is viewed as an asset in my styles of beer, an indication of quality process and the brewer's attention to detail. While bigger brewers have access to expensive mechanical filters, homebrewers often rely on simpler chemical options including gelatin, Biofine Clear, and Clarity Ferm. How effective is each at clarifying beer? That's exactly what we're looking at today!

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[AlexBradford]

The Knox Gelatin family is from my hometown. They donated an entire city block along with a large building to the city to use as a school . That is our major field for the High School sports like football, lacrosse, soccer and track meets. The building is now the middle school. This happened a very long time ago and part of the stipulation wad that if it was no longer used as a school the city has to give it back to the family. Sorry for the long comment but thought some may find it interesting

[alkjhsdfg]

Pro brewer here. Fining agents can absolutely affect flavor, mouthfeel, and head retention. If you stick to the recommended doses, you'll likely be OK, but we've done progressive dosing trials on beers, and the impact is night and day as you get to the higher doses. All tasters can immediately tell the difference on high-dose samples. So use the lowest dose possible to achieve your intended level of clarity.

[mikekeller]

This might have been brulosophy’s finest episode yet

[jaykim]

I use Whirlfloc and love it. Pop in in the boil and that's it!

[pv]

Whirlfloc @ 5 minutes. Keg, refrigerate overnight, add gelatin. I'm not patient enough for time to help in most cases. Usually, but not always, crystal clear. Thanks for the video.

[ElementaryBrewingCo]

My normal process is Whirlfloc in the boil. However, I have used both gelatin and biofine and prefer the results I get with gelatin 100%. I will also add that normally I don’t use either and if a beer is conditioned long enough, I found that most of them drop crystal clear, cheers 🍻

[Bluefin-Adventures]

Very interesting video and the results didn't surprise me at all. I cold crash and use gelatin for my beer and it always care, Bluefin.

[Nsss]

Interesting to see the comparisons between the agents!
My preferred method has been irish moss at boil and plain old time. I drink most of my batches alone, so 2 months of lagering is not out of the question.

With irish moss I get consistently clear beer, and for the ultra crisp lager I might go all out with gelatin :)

[tim-tim-timmy]

Whirlfloc 10 min before the end of the boil and gelatin during cold crashing, left there 1 week before packaging. I made a weissenbock crystal clear once. Good stuff

[rici_]

Gelatine added to the keg 24h into a cold crash. Added using a purged, pressurised (25psi) coke bottle with carbonation cap on top, connected with 20cm beer line and a couple quick disconnects. Low to no oxygen exposure… and I find it fun for some reason 😅

[ianlaker]

I use kettle finings in the form of a Protafloc tablet. Then I let time do its thing in the bottle. I don't use any finings at this stage and pretty all of my beers end up crystal clear. However, I'm surprised there was no mention of Isinglass (derived from the swim bladder of sturgeon fish). That has been used for years in home brewing and as finings in cask beer.

[wacobeer]

Long time home brewer and now Commercial brewer here... when clarity is important (ie. not for hazy styles) we use Whirlfloc or Irish Moss in the boil. Then for some styles like light colored lagers, we also use Biofine, along with cold-crash and lagering to enhance yeast flocculation. It's really just to produce our lagers more quickly. Keep your lagers cold for a while and they'll clear up naturally. it just takes time.

[nicktsouvaltsidis]

Loving the channel. Congrats on your one year.

[sierrabrew]

Whirlfloc tablet 10 minutes left in the boil. Cold crash
In the past Biofine Clear....
Recently i got an extremely good deal on Silafine. [Negative ly charged Silica]
So I was very interested in this process as Biofine is not cheap.
Silafine seems to work very well with the above processes 😊

[andrewcornmesser]

I personally have used Clarity Ferm in two different batches and styles, primarily because of friends and family with gluten sensitivity. An American Light Lager, and a Berry Cream Ale. The light lager came out crystal clear, no haze what so ever. The berry ale is not as clear but I think that is because I did not cold crash it. I currently have a Vienna Lager cold crashing right now, so I will see in a couple weeks how it turns out with the clarity ferm.

[smaster]

Would like to see a video of you reviewing agar-agar va gelatin vs biofine for clarifying. I understand agar-agar can be incredibly effective in some hard to clarify ciders, I’d like to see how it performs in beer :)

[ianonymous]

Brand new to homebrew, I added gelatin to a half cup of the wort while still hot, and transferred to small (10L) pressure fermenter when cooled to pitching temp. Just about to cold crash and then bottle. I'll comment on the results on your next vid.

[williambellavance]

my method of clarifying is a good cold crash but stepping the temperature down to 35F over a few days and time. I hate adding additional steps to brewing that open up to O2 and other contaminates. This method does give me mixed results and your impatient but I brew a lot and kegs sit at low temps for a while before I get to them.

[jgar]

I did not know about chilling the beer when using gelatin. That may be why I've had inconsistencies and have been using Isinglass lately. I'll have to buy a new box of gelatin and give it another try. Cheerz.

[EtherealPrelude]

Thank you for posting this video. It was really helpful!