Haze

[Wez]

I've noticed that my AG brews do not get the same crystal clear brightness as my kits used to. After fermentation has ended I do as I used to with kits which is add 85gm dry light spray malt when kegging leave for 5 days in the kitchen (20 degrees) then move to the garage to mature until it's ready to drink.

The haze is difficult to describe, the beer looks clear when you hold it up to the light but you cannot clearly see your fingers through the other side.

I thought it might be chill haze as i've been keeping a keg in the fridge but by pouring a glass and letting it come up to room temp I think i can rule that out

What could cause this and how can I fix it? I don't use any finings as I'd like to keep things as plain and simple as I can additive-wise, may be I should

BTW the beers all taste great, much much better than kits i've had and the TLC-Twist that I did is awesome but I want them to look good too as I want to be able to proudly serve a pint of my own to friends without them holding it up to the light and thinking (wrongly) "Hmm This is going to have me on the crapper for days.... "

[Matt]

You should employ finings Wez - get some Whirfloc tablets.

[iowalad]

How long do you leave your beer before consuming? I tend to brew low gravity beers (5% ABV or less). By a month after brewing they are usually bright without any finnings.

[Wez]

more than a month

[Wez]

I'll try that this w/end thanks DaaB

[mysterio]

There are a few things you can do, the biggest IMO is to use some kind of copper fining such as Whirlfloc (very effective) and most importantly leave the cold break that this helps generate behind in the kettle. Immersion chilling in the kettle and filtering through the hops does this really well.

Isinglass works well if you get fresh stuff but i've found it can be of varying quality sometimes, plus if you've got any veggie buddies you can't give them any beer. Leaving the keg in the fridge at 10C for a week or two works really well at dropping the yeast out though.

[Wez]

I've been using a teaspoon of irish moss, is that enough?

[Chappie519]

I use irish moss 15 mins before the end of boil, then chill (20mins), dran off into fermenter and pitch yeast. Serve in a month. No finings and very clear brew!

Cheers

[Vossy1]

I also suffer from the dreaded haze Wez. As it doesn't affect the taste I've tried a few things to sort it out but I've not exhausted my efforts yet.

I've used whirlfloc and Irish Moss and the haze is still there. I've also tried aux and IG finings and it's still there. I've increased my primary and secondary all to no effect.

I was leaving playing with ph ti'll I was more comfortable with AG and my herms but seeing that it may have an affect I'll have to buy something to measure the ph next....as long as it's shiny it shouldn't be too painful

I'm also going to try and recirc from the plate chiller back into the copper as mysterio suggests as my cold break is horrendous.

[Wez]

I'd love to sort this out before i brew this weekend...i'm not so sure about thechill haze thing now...just poured a keg fridged pint and it registers at 14.1C and I cant see through it although i know it's clearer than that....it tastes ok tho?

[Vossy1]

Cheers DaaB, will give it a go

[oblivious]

If you live in a hard water area you will notice a huge improvement by adjusting the ph, i've tried all* of the above vossy/wez and it had no effect but the first time I added gypsum to the mash I ended up with a very polished beer without altering anything else. I now use crs but if you don't want to fanny around with ph strips get yourself a tub of 5.2 for £8. Chances are your efficiency will go up and it will sort your haze problem and if you don't like the idea of spending £8 every dozen or so brews, by that time you should have the confidence to use crs in the mash that will cost you about £2 for dozens of brews.

*I filter out the cold break through the hops but don't use a plate chiller.

How much gypsum do you add to the mash?


Is CRS, carbonate reducing solution

[oblivious]

Thanks for that DaaB

How much of the CRS are you adding, it just the text below if form Brupaks suggestion you need up to 26mls of CRS to reduce the alkalinity by 160 ppm for 30L of water. Or are you just adjusting the ph with the CRS?

Example: You are brewing a Bitter and the total alkalinity of your water as CaC03 is 195 p.p.m. In order to bring it within the target range of 30-50 p.p.m. you will need to reduce the alkalinity by 145-165 p.p.m. From the following table you can calculate the amount of CRS to be added. N.B. All brewing liquor should be treated with CRS, not just that used for mashing.

CRS in millilitres per litre

CRS 0.35 0.52 0.70 0.87 1.05 1.22 1.40 1.57 1.75


Alkalinity -64 -96 -128 -160 -192 -224 -256 -288 -320


The table shows that to reduce the alkalinity by 160 p.p.m. CRS should be added at a rate of 0.87ml per litre. Thus for a standard 25 litre brew, which will probably require 30 litres of liquor, 30 x 0.87 = 26mls of CRS should be added. After adding CRS, several minutes standing time should be allowed to release the carbon dioxide produced by the neutralisation of the excess acid.

[oblivious]

I have a very similar hardness to you, I might give your method a try, have you ever used Five Star 5.2 pH Stabilizer?

[oblivious]

I suppose since it a buffer it’s much harder to go below pH 5.2 compared to just adding acid.