Finnings... What, When And How?

[Eugene]

Sorry for the Basic question Guys, but I recently saw some "finnings: or Clearing Agent, does the name describe its function? clearing the beer, if so, when should it be used in the brewing process?

I have a Thomas Cooper Traditional Draught which has just been racked, SG of 1.046, sg when racked (today) was 1.014, all good, but still pretty cloudy, I know it will clear with a week in the secondary.

Are the Finnings worth the effort?

Are there differnt qualiites of them?

Will it change the taste of my beer? or just the apperance?

My "normal" procedure is 4 days in primary, rack for at least 7 days, check SG on day 6, 7 and 8, if stable, I bulk prime and bottle, (i like the bulk prime as it leaves even more of the crude behind).

Any help would be good, thanks.

 

[PostModern]

Finings. One N in the middle. They "fine" the beer, not "fin" it.

Finished beer finings are generally made from gelatine, agar or isinglass (an emulsion made from the swim bladders of selected fish). Essentially they are loaded with charged particles that attract the yeast cells and cause them to drop out of suspension. You add them to the secondary fermenter a day before racking to keg or bottling. They'll affect the look and the taste. Yeast makes beer look cloudy and taste "yeasty". Removing the yeast reverses these two qualities.

 

[Wortgames]

Hi Eugene, the word is actually 'finings' (one n) and lots of brewers use them.

They won't negatively affect the flavour of the beer, all they do is help small particles to clump together and sink to the bottom of the fermenter leaving the beer nice and bright.

There are a few different types, and everyone has their own preference and technique - so grab a beer and search this site or google for words like finings, isinglass, gelatine, polyclar.

edit: sniped...