Chris Collins

Friday, June 3rd 2011

It was 5 days away from my 21st birthday. My brother, his friends, and myself went on a trip to celebrate the life of my brother’s father. He is actually my half brother by blood, but he is 100% my brother. His dad, like my brother, is very intelligent with a photographic memory. To put this in perspective, my brother, is a well respected neurosurgeon. On our way to a small bar, one that my brother’s dad frequented, we toured Ireland. It was my first time traveling abroad. It was also my first time ever legally indulging in fermented beverages. I had no idea that the events on this trip would have profoundly impacted the direction of my career. We visited Old Bushmills Distillery and the Guinness Brewery. The brewery tour is the most prominent early life beer-memory I have. The tour lacked personal flare, now something I always add when giving a tour, but had a vast amount of information beautifully presented on screens. Before this moment I never thought about the complexities, the science, and the joy that is involved in fermentation science. Thanks bro!

zymology-memory — My brother (right) and myself (left) at the Guinness water exhibit.

Is your homebrew cloudy? Do you like beer with clarity? Do you find yourself with cloudy beer even after the yeast has flocculated? It’s okay that your beer has haze to it. It just means it contains more protein than the visually translucent brew. Why do you have more protein!? It is not because you are trying to yolk to shredded status. (No matter how much we kid ourselves.) It might be because you are new to all-grain or it might be because you are unaware of carrageenans. Carra-what? Carrageenans. It’s sulphated polysaccharides in such a structure that it coagulates proteins. Poly-huh? Coagula-who? Let’s make this really simple;

Carrageenans are a sugar that is extracted from a seaweed commonly called ‘irish Moss’ even though it is mainly exported from China and the Philippines. This sugar has such a structure that it binds to proteins. The type that brewers use, Kappa, forms gels with proteins in the presence of potassium. This is largely useful because chill haze is a protein and wort has potassium ions! It’s considered food safe and comes in several forms. When given the choice of using Irish moss or processed kappa-carrageenans I go with the processed type. I figure if I’m going to add something to my beer it should be the substance I intend to use. (You don’t put the entire barley stem in with the mash.) I add it 5 minutes before the end of boil. (That means at the 55 for you 60-minute boil folk.) Most companies say 1 tablet for 5 gallons but I find I can get away with breaking up the tablet and using it on 3 to 4 different brews. I can find tablets for $0.25. So… 5 cents for clear beer? Sounds worth it to me. If you have any other tips, feel I missed something, or disagree leave me a comment here or on Facebook!

Useful Sites:

Beer-Haze