[kramerog]

Taste is primary, but as my brewing becomes more consistently good, I'm beginning to approach the crossroad as the OP puts it of wanting my beers to be clear if that is what the style calls for.

[Pinski]

I currently have a DIPA brewed exactly one month ago that has exceptional clarity and tastes damn good. It's the Heady Topper clone from October BYO except I added more late and dry hops to bring the total to a full pound of hops in 5 gallons. My conclusion: hop haze is nothing but an excuse for not caring about clarity.

Whole or pellet hops?

[cornershot]

I currently have a DIPA brewed exactly one month ago that has exceptional clarity and tastes damn good. It's the Heady Topper clone from October BYO except I added more late and dry hops to bring the total to a full pound of hops in 5 gallons. My conclusion: hop haze is nothing but an excuse for not caring about clarity.

Whole or pellet hops?

Pellet

[chinaski]

I like clarity when it should be there, but I'm glad it's only one point of 50. That there tells me that in the eye of the general public, its overrated. Too highly valued might be a better term.

For BJCP judging this is true (sort of).  Someone made a point that despite it only being a one point category, clarity in beer might really bias the judging of latter aspects of the beer- flavor, mouthfeel, overall impression.  I suspect that this is true.

I tend not to stress about it in terms of adding clarifiers to my beer, but don't mind a bit when a pour a nice clear pint...

[leejoreilly]

As the saying goes, "you eat first with your eyes"; I'd say we drink the same way. If you expect a beer to be clear, then cloudiness may be a bit off-putting. Same thing if you expect haze and don't get it. I'm not sure there is a consistent relationship between haze and taste, tho.

[a10t2]

I don't like posting beer porn (I love it!), but I thought this pale ale I tapped today was a pretty good example of where my personal standard is for clarity in ales. There's a little haze, but nothing I find objectionable in a hoppy beer. And it's 13 days old as of now; I expect it will be totally bright in a week or so.



11 gal batch, 11.8°P, 200 g (7.0 oz) total hops, all pellets. One Whirlfloc tablet at 15 min, 30 min whirlpool, 3 day cold crash, 8 mL Biofine in each keg, 4 days resting in the keg to finish up carbonation and clarification. Pretty typical brewpub (i.e. non-filtering) process and turnaround for a 4.9% beer, I think.

[klickitat jim]

Pretty beer!

I'd suspect that a cloudy beer that is supposed to be clear would tend to make the taster more alert to a fault in flavor or aroma. Making them go on a fishing expedition for the fault and might even imagine one. Conversely, I suppose a clear beer could make people assume it's fault free, and overlook slight faults that actually exists. At the end of the day I prefer my brews to be nice and brite but I don't think it's vital

[el_capitan]

That is a pretty beer!  I think cold-crashing makes a big difference in clarity.  I skipped that step on my last batch of APA and it's taking forever to clear up.  First pitch from a fresh pack of WY1450 - could be the "first generation curse" coming into play. 

This is the first I've heard of carbonation keeping yeast in suspension.  Interesting to read that so many of you are letting the beer cold condition in the keg before carbing.  I might have to give that a shot in the future. 

Also, do you guys think there's a big difference between Whirfloc and Irish moss?  I'm still using up a big bag of Irish moss from 5 years ago.  I have about a pint jar left to go.  At 1 tsp per batch, that's going to last a few more years...

I've read that Irish moss is way more effective if it's rehydrated overnight.  I did that on one batch, but haven't bothered since.  Maybe I'll start doing that and see what happens.