I gave the FWH a go with an IPA a couple of months ago.
Started on the keg a few weekends ago and it is still really cloudy, like a wheat beer. Had loads of time to settle and I am well past the first ten pints.
It got a whirlfloc tablet when boiling but that didn't seem to do much.
Taste is great, colour is great and aroma is great so I am not actually complaining.
More a case of letting you be aware if you are going to try FWH. I will look up the recipe and post it later.
Not a complicated recipe because I wanted to test the FWH.
Mashing, boiling, cooling, fermenting and kegging were uneventfull and standard.
Yeast was a WLP051, 3rd generation, that has been working and clearing fine.
No sign of infection at any stage.
Can't think of anything else that would have caused it to be so cloudy.
I tried FWH once and the finished beer was as clear as anything else I've made. I can't say if it made any impact on the flavour though.
I only ever first wort hop and don't have any problems with clarity.
What's the advantage of fwh?
There's a theory that by having the hops in before boiling some of the essential oils will be locked into the wort and remain through the boil to add to flavour and aroma.
I cant find any evidence of this although I will often FWH, one less thing to remember ::)
I cant see how FWH could cause a clarity problem. Nothing that you extract from these hops will remain as solids in your finished beer.
Look to protein or tannin carry over as a most lightly cause of a haze, does temperature effect it in any way?
QuoteNothing that you extract from these hops will remain as solids in your finished beer.
On further reading I discover that a certain amount of polyphenols and tannins are extracted from hops, at what stage and in what concentrations I haven't found yet and whether they could be a contributing factor to a hazey beer.
Sometimes it would be easier if I enjoyed football or some other shite ;D
I have another IPA, using the same recipe but without FWH, that I need to crack open a see if there was any benefit to FWH. If there isn't a major difference I will not be bothering with it again.
Looks like it just needed to age for a few extra weeks. I am drinking it now and it is fine. Normally six weeks is fine but this beer decided to be eight weeks. Pity it is nearly gone now. lovely and clear at the end of the keg.