Finings (more cask oriented discussion)

[MeridianFC]

Like a man obsessed I keep harping on what is really one topic. But I digress,

Do any of our learned panel know a practical distinction between Irish Moss (aka Carrageenan) and isinglass (our favorite fish gut clarifier). I started thinking about this recently when I was going to invite a friend over to the Reef in DC when they do their cask night. She is a vegan (don't start, I can't figure it either) so the use of islinglas is verboten. Most of the breweries I'm familiar with from the UK use isinglass but when I did homebrewing Irish moss was the recommended fining. To be honest I could never tell how much of a difference it made.

Obviously isinglass doesn't taste like fish, else no one would use it, but does it add anything to the flavor of the beer it's in? Does Irish moss?

I spoke to the fellow at Franklin's in Hyattsville here and when he does his casks he doesn't filter or fine at all and the beers seem to drop plenty bright.

Are any of our friends in the UK familiar with any breweries that fly without finings at all for their casks?

Is anyone aware of any alternate fining materials or methods?

God, I'm thirsty.

K.

[brewmonkey]

Irish Moss is a kettle addition and Isinglass is post fermentation prior to either filtration or packaging. Isinglass is used instead of gelatin in some breweries, but IMHO is a pain in the ass to work with as you must use cold (34-38F IIRC) water to mix it.


None of the finings add anything that I have been able to detect in the beer. Remember, you are adding them for their ability to attach to remaining yeast cells and then drop out of solution making the beer brite.


When I do my casks I used White Labs 002 for the beer or you could use the Ringwood Ale 1187 from Wyeast, they are both very high flocc'ers and with the proper cellaring will drop pretty brite on their own.