Polyclar Addition

[zabond]

G'day all, a simple question[I hope] as I like to serve my beer cold, lately I have been getting chil haze in the glass,my norm is to drop temp to 1* in primary ferm for 2 days,rack to secondary add geletine leave 2 days,transf to keg.I'm going to try some "polyclar"do I
1. add polyclar to second ferm after gel sits for 2 days then keg
2.add gel to prim then rack to sec, add polyclar or
3.do what I've been doing, transf from sec to keg then add polyclar to keg?
if 1 or 2 how long do you leave polyclar before kegging

thanks Russ

 

[Bribie G]

AFAIK Polyclar works instantly by attracting the polyphenols to the surface of each grain of Polyclar using negative??? charges on the grains or maybe it's positive but that's the principle. I usually add to my cold conditioned fairly clear beer just before bottling and as I stir the milky fluid into the brew I swear I can see an instant 'seeding' effect with little specks appearing. Anyway as I understand it the recommendation on the pack of leaving for a couple of days before bottling is to allow it to settle out, however it will settle out in the bottle or keg along with any remaining yeast cells and after secondary will just form part of the sediment with clear beer above so you won't be drinking any. Ditto keg, and remember that a lot of people sugar prime their kegs as well.

Not that Polyclar is dangerous, if you have taken a Nurofen tablet lately then you've likely eaten the same stuff as it's used in all sorts of pills and hair conditioners etc, as a surfactant, being totally neutral to humans.

Anyway back on track I would add it right at the end of secondary or just before bottling and stir in very lightly so as not to whisk up trub from the bottom of the fermenter.

 

[muckey]

spot on bribie

from a kegging perspective, add polyclar, wait 15 minutes or so and then filter

but what I really do......
I used to rack first but have become super lazy and everything happens in the fermenter
crash chill the fermenter for 24 hours, give or take
add gelatine and leave for 8, 24, 48 hours depending on lazyness
add polyclar and leave for at least 48 hours then rack to keg and force carb

polyclar works quickly but doesnt mean you have to

 

[Gavo]

Like Bribie I bottle. My usual procedure now is to rack the beer just before the end of the ferment, crash chill a few days after ferment is done, gelatin and leave for 2 days then polyclar and leave for a nother couple of days. I then bulk prime and bottle. The beer when transfering to the bottling bucket is very clear. Bottles carbonate within a week.

Obviously there are afew different methods and all seem achieve the desired results. The main thing from what I have read is that the polyclar works best on beer that has been already cleared with gelatine prior to using polyclar.

Cheers
Gavo.