Finings & Clearing

Finings have been used for many years to help clear wine and clear beer after the fermentation is complete. Wine and beer will clear naturally, but this can take a long time, so finings are use to speed up the clearing process.

Traditional finings, called isinglass, are made from the swim bladder of the cod fish. 

More modern finings (Chitosan and Kieselsol) are made from either gelatine (from animal bones) or crustaceans (sea creatures).

More recently, finings are now available that are derived from fungi, which means they are vegan friendly finings.  Up until recently, finings made from fungi have been very expensive, but new techniques have now made vegan finings as good as and similarly priced to more traditional clearing agents.

If you want a crystal clear white wine or a beer that you can see through, we have a range of finings to clear your beer and clear your wine for sale here that can be used to add the finishing touches to your homebrew.

Finings work due to the process of attraction.  The sediment floating around in your alcohol is positively charged. The finings is negatively charged.  When you add the finings to your alcohol, all the positive and negative particles attract each other, form large clumps that become to heavy to stay suspended in the alcohol and so sink to the bottom, clearing your beer or wine in the process.  

If you have added finings and your wine or beer is not clearing, read our blog on what might be causing your beer to be hazy and what might be causing your wine to be hazy.