8 Different Ways to Clear Homebrew (Wine/Cider/Mead/Beer)

Today we're testing 8 different methods for clearing home-brew. These methods are useful for wine, cider, beer and mead. I am testing these 8 methods with an apple mead and I will be showing you how to use each one.
Here are the methods we are testing:

1.) Time (Aging)
2.) Cold Crashing
3.) Sparkolloid
4.) Bentonite
5.) Isinglass
6.) Polyclar10
7.) Kieselsol & Chitosan
8.) Gelatin

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0:00 Introduction
0:14 The 8 Methods Used
0:45 Why these aren't clear
1:45 Time Explained
2:45 Cold Crashing Explained
3:45 Isinglass Explained
6:10 Sparkolloid Explained
7:55 Polyclar 10 Explained
9:22 Gelatin Explained
11:40 Bentonite Explained
12:45 Kieselsol & Chitosan Explained
14:52 The Timelapse
15:19 The Results
19:56 Which 3 Worked the Best?
21:00 Is there a taste difference?
21:30 Final thoughts

[OutdorsDanny]

He said "I don't think many people care about this"
Anybody who cares has been waiting for this!

[KakashiBallZ]

PhD Chemist here. The clarity of your meads appear to correlate with the net charge of the clarifying agents. The negative charged ones didn't clear at all and the positive/mixed charge ones did clear. The one exception, Isinglass, is delicate and loses its clarifying ability at >30C.

Interestingly, pectin is net negative so it also supports this.

Cool study!!

[plywoodcarjohnson]

Man! This is such a great vid for a hillbilly like me. I just put it in the fridge, add some gelatinpowder, stir and add time. It doesn't get perfect but I start out with orange nectar and if it looks like semiclear orange juice I am thrilled and pleased and whatnot! I just pour it in a big glass, stir for ten minutes while I make an omelette. It's just fine and dandy!

[gunslingersymphony]

I really appreciate how dedicated you are to detail. It is actually the reason I put 2 and 2 together regarding your pronunciation of Chitosan. Knowing that it comes from the shells of crustaceans tells me that the root word is "chitin" (pronounced "KY-tin"), so the brand name should probably be pronounced "KY-to-san". Not that it's important.

[r.s.]

Thanks. I appreciate all of the time and effort you put into this video. I see in the comments that some people do not care if their brew is clear or not. I do. Not only for my enjoyment, but I find that the friends I share my brews with also appreciate the clarity.

[AMPMReviews]

I just made my first mead and I just tried pasteurized it and then cold crashed it about 12 hours later and I was shocked how much that cleared it in a day. I didn't know pasteurizing would also clear.

[Hector]

I recommend Only TIME ! wait 3 months and your wine texture and test looks like God gift

[EAwai-pkwf]

BTW chitosan, (so named because it is made from chitin) and chelating are both words with Greek linguistic roots, and for that reason the "ch" is pronounced like a "k" (like chorus, which is also derived from Greek) instead of like the English "ch." Keye-toe-san and key-late-ing

[mPrazy]

I've used bentonite quite a bit. One thing I would say is that by mixing it up every couple hours for the first 24 hours it helps get it charged up and grab things in suspension was better than just the initial dump and stir. Another thing I would say is sometimes it just doesn't do much in certain brews which I think it due to the whole positive/negative charge thing. Typically if bentonite doesn't work ill use sparkeloid with the same mixing technique for the first 24 hours and that works perfect. I guess it just mainly comes down to what charge the particulate is that you're trying to grab vs what clarifying agent you're using. Great video always love to see the testing videos so I don't have to do it lol

[interfector]

Interesting to see the results for bentonite in your sample. I use it for my mead and it usually clears it super well at room temperature within a few days; however I learned that you have to degass or stir the brew at least once, but the results have been impressive!

[JohnDoe-esxh]

I can live with hazy drinks. Yeast by the way contains vitamine B, which is useful for us. Nice contribution, thanks a lot.

[voiceofthedungeon]

Hey man, I got into this hobby off your videos, I'm doing your apple cinnamon recipe you're awesome

[Michel_Polet]

I have used gelatin plus kieselsol. It works very well.😊

[sandeejo]

This was very informative as usual, I’m new so my fist round that I just bottled in December, we’re all about 5-7 months old so did not use a clarifier, I procrastinated because I just liked it sitting around. When I did bottle in December I proudly posted for someone to tell me that it looked good but had some haze, but when I put it next to my boxed (yes I said boxed) wine they both had the same clarity, which did make me happy at least, I had bought Sparkolloid which did not used it yet of course, so I was thinking about the clarities, and which would work to clear better. I do know that some of my small mason jars I used for a smaller vessel I did put in the fridge just to cool it for tasting did clear out quickly…..well now thankful to your test I may try some sparkolloid in my pineapple wine I have going now, which I’m so excited is my second round wine making. We are still letting our meads age in their bottles before we try it.. Thanks to you and watching your quick and cheapest mead videos over and over about ten times I finally did jump in, with the only regret that I should have done it sooner, since my hubby is really happy with my two meads, reg. Honey mead and a strawberry mead… thank you, I will keep watching

[galivan]

Have you heard about pasteurization + cold crashing?
I used it and it worked really well on a trad mead.
It is for sure because of the pasteurization, because I had part of the same batch only cold crashing, and it cleared much slower.

[RandRBrewwork]

Great video and very informative video

[nicholaswelna]

I had an interesting experience with Kieselsol and Chitosan recently (and I suppose, bentonite) when back sweetening.

I was making a cyzer for a special occasion and was running out of time to clear the batch and bottle it. I had pitched pectic enzyme in immediately with the yeast, and then 24 hours after initial pitch I added an appropriate amount of bentonite. This was a 5 gal batch, and fermented dry over roughly 2 weeks if I remember correctly. The bentonite seemed to have done some work, as the yeast was fairly well flocculated at the bottom after primary fermentation. I then racked into 5 1 gal carboys as I didn't have another large vessel. Because I had added bentonite in primary and it has the same charge as kieselsol, I just added chitosan after racking. This dropped the remaining haze out of suspension. This is where things started to get interesting.

I then racked everything into new carboys (or, well, I had one extra so I racked, cleaned and sanitized the used carboy, then racked into that one, etc). I then stabilized the meads because I was going to backsweeten with honey. After waiting a day for the mead to stabilize I backsweetened the batch. This re-introduced a small amount of haze, I assume from pollen in the honey I was backsweetening with. I waited a day or so, hoping it would quickly drop out of suspension on its own. It did not, so I added kieselsol. This quickly dropped the particulate out of suspension and I should have just bottled at that point. However, I decided to add another round of chitosan because I was used to using them in tandem.

This was the wrong thing to do, I discovered, as it caused the particulate to re-suspend in solution. My theory is that since there was so little particulate, and kiesesol dropped it all out of suspension, it must have all had the same positive charge. When I introduced the chitosan, there was nothing that was negatively charged for it to bind to, so it bound to the neutral charged particulate that had dropped out of suspension and caused it to re-suspend.

I was running out of time at this point, I needed to bottle, and since I was giving them away as gifts I wanted them to be as clear as possible. So I pitched more kiesesol, and within 24 hours the mead was clear again. I then bottled from there.

So the lesson is, if you use a positive charge fining agent, then a negative charge fining agent, do not add another positive charge fining agent "just to be sure". Or, rack off of whatever particulate has fallen out of suspension before that final fining agent addition.

[timscott]

I’ve seen allot of things about bentonite I’ve been told it works best in primary about a week or so in. Love your stuff though

[aaronweyl]

Really good idea for brews were cloudly, should get one for myself.

Would affect say... cider or beer for fizz?

[SERPENT]

thank you for this video, you can also use Spindasol (Colloidal silica)