Irish Moss - Have I Made a Mistake?!

[Begbie]

Hi everyone. Had a bit of thick moment earlier - I brewed an Erdinger type clone this morning, but habit got the best of me and I added Irish Moss at 5mins (I usually brew stouts and IPA's) - no sooner had it hit the water, when I slapped my forehead in true Homer style, but said something worse than 'doh'. Am I likely to have a clear beer instead of the cloudy type that Weiss beers should have?

The grain bill, if it's of any use, was 1kg Pale Wheat, 900g Maris Otter and 65g of Munich. (10L batch).

 

[GeorgieV]

It's not likely that you get a very clear beer. I normally add some Irish Moss to my Weizen as I don't like it too cloudy and it's never clear. Just don't cold crash if you like more haze.

 

[Begbie]

It's not likely that you get a very clear beer. I normally add some Irish Moss to my Weizen as I don't like it too cloudy and it's never clear. Just don't cold crash if you like more haze.

Thanks @GeorgieV - good to know that it'll look like a Weiss beer and not a crystal clear Pilsner!

 

[crescent city Mike]

Some years ago, I brewed a batch of Wit after reading an article which said there’s no need to use Irish Moss because it’s supposed to be cloudy anyway. It made perfect sense to me so I didn’t add any to the boil. Once the beer was done, I kegged it. It looked “chunky” and reminded me of the composition rubber used for carpet backing. It smelled good, tasted good, but looked so bad I didn’t want to drink it at all. I filtered the whole batch instead of having to drink it in the dark.

 

[Begbie]

I kegged and bottled my weissbier last night. A bit of a disaster, but that can be kept for another thread, maybe. Anyway, the beer was pretty clear - see the picture I've attached. Is that normal clarify for a weissbier?

The sample I took to check the FG (1006) did taste like a weissbier, so that's a positive to take from from the exercise. I think I'll leave out the Irish Moss next time and see how it goes.

 

[Duffmann]

Clarity seems to good. If you are conditioning in bottles just give it a swirl for more haze. Btw. I also use Irish Moss in my hefeweizen and didnt had a problem with clarity

 

[Begbie]

Cracked open one of my 500ml bottles of Weissbier this afternoon - it poured 'hazy', so not the clarity that I thought it would have (which is good!). So, next time I brew this, I'm just going to follow the same method i.e. include the Irish Moss. The bonus is, that it tastes like a Weissbier! Well chuffed with this one and looking forward to pouring a cold one from the keg.

P.S. I noticed from my previous post, that I've misread the gravity reading - it was actually 1016 and not 1006. So, I've bottled the beer a little too early, but it's all good!