How to Brew a Clear Beer

Just like a perfect summer’s day, a clear, delicious glass of beer is a thing of beauty. But like seeing blue summer skies during the gray of winter, brewing a truly clear beer can sometimes seem unattainable.

Commercial brewers often use filtering and pasteurization to clarify beer. As a homebrewer, though, you can use simpler strategies to keep your homebrew clear and haze-free.

Three Essential Steps for Clear Beer

No matter what style of beer you prefer or how you choose to ferment, carbonate, and store it, you can help ensure your homebrew is clear by following a few simple rules.

• Sanitize Your Equipment Thoroughly

Cleaning removes visible dirt, but using a brewing sanitizer ensures your equipment is free from contaminants that can cloud your homebrew.

You can also use a solution of household bleach and hot water. Keep in mind, though, that bleach requires a thorough rinsing, so using a sanitizer that doesn’t need to be fully rinsed away will save you time and effort in your quest for clear beer.

• Don’t Disturb the Trub

This sediment appears at the bottom of your primary fermenter and is composed mostly of proteins, fats, and dead yeast. These compounds can add funky flavors and cloudiness to your beer.

When you siphon your homebrew, keep the hose well above this layer to avoid stirring it up. Also, take care not to jostle the fermenter while racking or bottling your beer.

• Pour Your Bottled Homebrew Carefully

You’ve probably noticed the layer of fine sediment at the bottom of the bottle when you crack open a cold one. Just like trub, this sediment is perfectly normal, but you don’t want it in your beer. It can cloud your homebrew and impart a strong yeasty taste—yuck.

Pour your beer from bottle to glass with a steady hand to keep this sediment in the bottle and away from your tastebuds.

How Ingredients and Technology Can Help You Brew a Clean Beer

• Choose Low-Protein Malts

The source of your beer’s convertible sugars can also cause cloudiness via excess protein. Whether you crush your own malts at home or have them prepared by your maltser, choose one with a protein content of less than 12% to improve your chances of producing a clear beer.

• Avoid Adjuncts That Cause Cloudiness

The unmalted grains and other non-malt ingredients called for in many homebrewing recipes are known as adjuncts. They serve many purposes, including adding flavor and improving head retention.

Some, such as rice and corn, improve clarity by diluting the total protein in your wort. Others, such as wheat, unmalted barley, and flaked grains, can create cloudiness and should be used sparingly if clear beer is your goal.

• Hop Your Beer with Care

Hops add brightness to your beer. But it’s important to avoid over-hopping your beer because too many hops can increase polyphenols in your wort. These compounds can cause haziness, and also a potentially unpleasant astringency, in your finished beer.

You may also want to consider dry-hopping your beer if you’re after absolute clarity. Adding hops after the boil introduces hop aromas and flavors, but can also ramp up the polyphenols that can cloud your beer.

• Ferment with a Floc-Friendly Yeast

For a clear beer, choose a yeast that provides medium to high flocculation. This chemical process causes yeast to clump together (forming flocs, or clumps) and settle to the bottom of the wort.

This minimizes yeast particles floating in suspension and helps keep your homebrew haze-free. You’ll find that many English and American ale yeasts have high flocculation.