Using Biofine after carbonation

[Ben Kent]

Has anyone had success using Biofine Clear A3 after carbonation in a BBT?

I have a Blonde Ale in my BBT right now that just will not clear up and I really need it crystal clear! It's a Blonde Ale for sakes.

My standard procedure, which has produced brilliant clear beer with all my previous batches on this new system, is as follows - For 15bbl prepare a 50L keg shell with 1000ml Biofine, fill shell with cold beer from FV on day of transfer, roll around to insure good mixing, slowly add this Biofine/Beer mix back inline during transfer to BBT at a "tee" in front of BBT at very slow rate to insure full mix into BBT. Carbonate overnight, clear beer in 1 day, brilliant on day 2.

The Blonde Ale in question in about 60% Pilsner malt/20% Vienna, 10% Carapils, 10% Acid and others. No Wheat and nothing out of the ordinary on brewday, fermented in 96 hrs with Safale 05. It was crashed to 33F for 7 days in FV before transfer.

Now, please shoot holes in my idea - Try another batch of Biofine shot through the sprayball. Bear in mind the beer is fully carbonated and the BBT is at 15psi.

So, I'll put 1000ml of Biofine in a keg, fill with beer from the BBT (maybe decarbonate the keg) and connect the keg to the spray ball CIP tube and shoot it into the tank with like 40psi of CO2. This would in theory spread the Biofine over the entire surface area and let it settle all the way to the bottom and hopefully clear it up. Seems like a crazy idea to me but it just may work without beating up my carbonated beer.


What do ya'll think? Feel free to tear this idea apart, haha, I can take it!

[beerguy1]

I like the off the wall idea, you will “beat up the beer doing decarb”. Let’s face it you have a tough choice doing this. But, here is another thought. I also do the same with the T and inject it in, why not mix up you biofine then inject it. Then, while you are doing that put some CO2 thru the carb stone this should help mix thing up and while this is going on slowly release some CO2. The idea is to release the same amount of CO2 as you are adding. This way you won’t decarb the beer but just allow it to mix. I would only do this for 10 min it should mix up pretty well. I have done this with some good clarification not perfect but it helped. Serve the beer be proud and learn.

[Ben Kent]

why not mix up you biofine then inject it. Then, while you are doing that put some CO2 thru the carb stone this should help mix thing up and while this is going on slowly release some CO2. The idea is to release the same amount of CO2 as you are adding.

Thanks Mike, so you'd inject it through the bottom while mixing with carbstone and bleeding off the top? I had considered something like that but was concerned with foaming in the tank and future loss of head retention. Hence the idea to shoot it on top and let it mix itself by gravity on the way down. But if you've seen success with that in the past it may be worth a try. Thanks.

[beerguy1]

Yes, inject from the bottom. Biofine requires lots of mixing and dropping it from the top won’t allow much mixing. Foaming will be limited because you will only drop the pressure a pound or two. Good luck