Help clear my beer

[patman]

hey i have a brew canada canadian light beer brewing right now, it spent 7 days in the primary, and has been in my car boy 3-4 days now, still at room temp around 23-25 degrees depending on the day, i'm told if i move it from the warmth, and put it in a cool dark room it will clear up over a period of several days, and that prior to bottleing i should warm is back up a bit to wake up the yeast thats in it.. Just wondering what the proper process is to do this, instructions said to leave in primary for no more then 5 days, and then in the secondary for like 7-10 days, but not totally specific.. So looking for some pointers

[Keith]

Leave it in the primary, don't transfer to secondary. Chill the primary for a few days, then gently rack into your bottling bucket where you bulk prime. I typically ferment for 10 days in primary then keg. I figure it will settle out in the keg and I don't care if my beer is crystal clear.

[jason.loxton]

A few things:

1) Time's your friend. The instructions are a bare minimum. In reality, you should count on a month all told. Once fermentation is complete (the krausen--the foam on top of the beer--has fallen and thew air lock is no longer strongly bubbling), give it another week and the you can aid the settling of yeast (flocculation) by chilling.
2) Your beer *always* wants a dark room! Seriously, the chemical reactions produced by light are what 'skunk' your beer. You can put a dark bag over the beer or clothing as well, but remember that this might also insulate your beer and raise the temp.
3) Most people don't care about residual yeast and bit of cloudiness, but with a Canadian light style you probably want crystal clear. You can add a product like gelatin or isinglass to the secondary to help clear things up. http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/12/30/fi ... r-clarity/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
4) I assume that you're using a bucket as a primary (many people here, myself included, use a carboy as the primary with a blow off tube to deal with the yeast). The reason you have to move it to the secondary in 5 days-ish with the bucket is because it is no longer really actively producing CO2 at that stage, and you're going to run into oxidation issues. In the sealed environment of a carboy it doesn't matter.
5) The temps you give above are way too high. You say the room is 23-25 C, but remember that when you beer is actively fermenting it is going to be a fair bit above the temperature of the room (yeast produce heat). Right now you're sitting at 75-77 F ambient, which means your beer was probably 80-90 F. Above 80 you start running into issues with higher alcohols (solvent taste, hang overs, etc.) being produced. Plus, you'll get a lot more fruity flavours at high temps, which you don't want in that style of beer. You're best off fermenting around 65-70 F**, which means you want your room to be 60 F-ish. It is a really good idea to invest in one of those stick on thermometer stickers that the Noble Grape and other places sell. They're only a couple of bucks.

Welcome to the forum and to brewing!!!

**You're actually best off at around 50F for that style of beer, but that's a whole different game. Stick in the 60-70 range (lower is better) and you'll be happy with it.

[patman]

Sorry should have been specific on the temp, it shows 23-25 most days, i have a brew belt here, and its been staying around 24 for the last few days, i switched it to the secondary, and the airlock has some bubbles in it i can see that, but there is no foam or anything at the top of the beer, i can see all the sediment at the bottom of the carboy now, Also unable to see any movement within the beer now, where before if you watched for a min you could see yeast or something going around.

I have it in my kitchen which is in the basement, and its not bright in there at al but during the day i put up bit of a barrier so that no sun will hit the carboy... i think mabye in the next couple days i will put it in a cooler room and let it sit there for a few days and see if it clears up a bit more, I am not worried if its perfectly clear, i just wat to be able to say yeah its home brew i did it lol...

i think i will try the gelatin if it doesn't clear up more on its own. the isinglass is fish based and im somewhat allergic to fish so don't want to take the chance of being itchy everytime i drink my beer lol...

[jason.loxton]

With any of the fining agents, the colder the better (I mean fridge cold). Honestly, time is your best bet. An extra two weeks will make all the difference!

[patman]

its now sitting in a chilled room, with a bag over it to keep the light out, temp is def lower because it doesn't appear to register on the stick on thermometer, im going to leave it like this for a week or so, and see how clear it is, with all the stuff going on for my daughters eye surgery i barely have time to my self to do anything with planning a bunch of stuff... here's hopeing its half decent beer, i mean it only cost me 15$ so i will have only wasted time really if it doesn't work, I think next batch i make i'm going back to the partial grain *the ones you steep from like noble grape.

[patman]

Is it weird that i peaked under the bag today and seems its fermenting a bit again, i peaked under the garbage bag to see what was up, because i noticed bubbles in the air lock and its got a top layer of kauasen or what ever you call it again, now it hasnt be moved around, shaken, or anything, should i mabye put the heatbelt back on it and let it go untill it stops 100% again, and then move it to an even cooler room and wait for it to settle or what should i do? This is a mystery to me.

[jtmwhyte]

If it didn't finish the first time it definitely would start fermenting again if it were warmed up.