Chill Haze?

[Otto Von Blotto]

I've noticed with a couple of brews, that when I put them in the fridge for a while to get cold, they get this hazy appearance about them. When they're warm they look clear. What causes this, do Whirfloc tablets have any effect on reducing it?

 

Cheers,

Kelsey

[Wayne (Captain Yobbo)]

I have the same thing with a few brews but yet some brews i have made have been very clear will be good to know how to deal with this

[Jimmy]

I shall once again quote Mr. John Palmer (man, I read this stuff like the Bible, don't I):

 

"Cause 1: Chill haze This is the number one cause of cloudy homebrew. It is caused by an insufficient cold break during cooling after the boil.

Cure: Use a wort chiller.

 

Cause 2: Starch If you made an all-grain beer and had incomplete conversion, or added/steeped a malt that needed to be mashed to an extract batch, then you can have residual starches in the beer that will cause cloudiness.

Cure: Watch the mash temperature and mash longer next time.

 

Cause 3: Yeast Yeast strains that have low flocculation, such as German Hefeweizen, will cause the beer to be cloudy.

Cure: Use a different yeast strain if you want a clearer beer.

 

In all cases, cloudiness can be combated by adding fining agents (e.g. isinglass, gelatin, Polyclar, bentonite) after fermentation. When all-grain brewing, the clarity can be enhanced by adding Irish Moss towards the end of the boil."

 

Looks to me like a Whirfloc tab might just do the trick. Never had that problem with any partials myself, though.

[SteveD14]

Yep I get the same problem. Lovelly clarity at room temp but a tendancy to haze when chilled.

 

My understanding is that it is mainly caused by poor cold break, i.e. not chilling the wort quickly enough. I also thought that finnings do not cure this.

 

Bearing in mind that i am only doing extract brewing at the moment I guess its hard to combat since Coopers and other kit manufacturers do not reccomend boiling thier product due to it boiling off the bitterness and darkening the wort. Therfore you cant chill to get the "cold break"

 

Does anyone have a known solution for reducing chill haze in extract brews (I guess using a non kit yeast is one but I have quite a lot of faith in Coopers yeasts otherwise and they seem to get good raps from most people)

[Guest]

Cold conditioning i felt helped, it you are doing just kits, i really wouldnt worry about it.

 

Also, further boiling of the kit wont drive off bitterness, it will increase it, it will however drive off aromatics (if there are any)

 

Finings if you want but i never bothered.. If partial brewing a somewhat new product called brewbrite is tits

 

Yob

[GrahamB8]

Why bother its a homebrew, the original beers were never filtered or had additives, clarity is what people have been brain washed into thinking there beer should look like from buying filtered, additive laiden commercial garbage.

 

I like haze, its part of my brews charector, if you dont like it then buy a ceramic mug.

[Matty A]

Just leave it in the fridge a little longer before you drink it.

 

I often put a keg of crystal clear beer in the fridge and it becomes as cloudy as.

 

After a couple of weeks it is back to being clear.

 

I wouldn't worry too much, I like the look of the cloudy beer (it keeps the father in law away)

[AdamH1525226084]

It could just be condensation on the outside of the FV [biggrin]

[SteveD14]

Thanks for the replies chaps,

 

sorry If I hijacked your thread Kelsey but I had been thinking about posting on this very subject myself so hopefully we are both getting the info we wanted.

 

Yep I know that in the old days Beers werent that clear, and yes I usually pour a Coopers Sparkling Ale with all its yeasty goodness, but hey it's also nice to see a crystal clear, chilled lager in a long tall glass isnt it?

 

Anyway will try to keep a few for longer in the fridge (Hard work though, still struggling to "build up" a decent stock level)

 

Also as a sideline I treated my first few brews to a dose of Gelatine after final OG had been reached, and left for two days before bottling. Then after that I have not used any finnings at all and to be honest after a few days in the bottle I cant see any difference.

Do many of you use finnings in the fermenter or is it more common among the brewmasters out there to just let time do its thing and let things settle in the bottle ?

[Matty A]

I don't use finnings. I normally let it ferment until I believe that it is finished (the same gravity readings over a couple of days and a good FG). Then I leave it in the fermenter another week, and then I cold crash it at 2C for a week and keg from there. I get crystal clear beer that way.

 

The beers I don't use my fermentation chamber for I just a week after the fermentation has finished.

[PB2]

Have a read of this Brewing FAQ.

 

Kelsey, what are the ingredients of your brew?

[Otto Von Blotto]

Yeah I usually leave it in the fermenter for 2 weeks before I bottle it. I need a separate beer fridge to leave them in for ages though :( I don't use finings either.

 

The ingredients on this brew was the EB kit with 1kg of LDM, and some EKG boiled for 10 mins. I did another brew with the APA kit + 1.5kg liquid Amber Malt and it gets a haze but not as much as the EB + LDM. I might just put one at the back of the fridge for a couple of weeks and see how it turns out.

 

Cheers,

Kelsey

[PB2]

Maybe they are a bit young and/or fermented with a less flocculent yeast??

 

Infection can also present a haze...

[Otto Von Blotto]

Sorry, forgot to mention I used the kit yeast. They've been in the bottles about 2 months now, I guess infection's a possibility, they taste fine so if they are infected it's minor I'd guess. The clarity is fine at room temp, it's only when they go in the fridge they develop the haze. Anyway it's no big deal, I was just curious about it. I'm not gonna stop home brewing because of a bit of haze[lol] I love brewing, trying out different things and making beers that taste great.

 

Cheers,

Kelsey