Irish moss Seaweed ( Carrageen) is usedfor coagulating proteins near the end of the boil, the sole purpose is to make it easier to separate the wort from the break material (trub). These proteins cause beer to become hazy when it is chilled. Irish moss has a negative charge and attracts the proteins helping them settle to the bottom of the brew pot.
Carrageen is a perennial algae or seaweed, growing to about ten inches. The body of the plant is flat, cartilaginous, double-layered, and forked with a fan-shaped outline. The colour is usually yellow-green to purplish-brown when fresh, but turning to whitish-yellow and translucent after drying. The internal tissue is made up of reticulately linked cells and the bark layer is at right angles to the thallus (fronds).
It is found from the coast of Iceland to the Baltic, from northern Russia to the south of Spain, Morocco and the Cape Verde Islands, and also in parts of North America and some Japanese coastal regions. Carrageen grows just below the waterline to depths of up to seventy-five feet and attaching to rocks and stones. In the summer in North America and in the winter in Ireland, the plant is pulled up by hand or with a rake at low tide, and dried in the sun.
"So now you know"
