To Refine Beer, Ale, Wine, or Cycler
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the isinglass
Soak isinglass shavings in 1 quart of liquor for clearing.
Whisk daily until dissolved.
Clarify the cask
Draw off a third of the cask and mix in the dissolved isinglass, pearl-ashes, salt of tartar, and burnt alum.
Stir well and return the mixture to the cask. Stir with a clean stick.
Seal the cask.
The liquor will become clear in a few days.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Isinglass
- Fish-derived protein that binds suspended yeast and haze particles so they settle out.
- Pearl-ashes
- Alkaline potassium carbonate that helps the fining agents work by adjusting the liquor's acidity.
- Salt of tartar
- Calcined potassium carbonate that raises alkalinity, supporting the clearing action.
- Burnt alum
- Acidic aluminium salt that helps haze particles clump together so they drop out.
The step that matters
Dissolving the isinglass fully before mixing. Isinglass must be fully dissolved into the liquor before it is added to the cask; undissolved shavings will not spread evenly and can leave cloudy patches or specks instead of clearing the whole batch.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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