Clearing beer

[Naich]

My beers have always been a little hazy so I've been trying to make my beer bright and clear for the last few brews. I used to use gelatin finings to clear the yeast, but it took ages and they always had a bit of chill haze. So I started racking them and chilling to around 5C for around 5 days to speed things up.

The first time I did this the yeast dropped out before I bottled and by the time I'd kept them at 20C for about 4 days to fizz them up, everything looked clear and bright. Hooray. But then I stored them outside in the beer hutch at 10C and the chill haze kicked in, making them go cloudy.

So the next time I bought some Polyclar, racked and chilled to 5C for about 3 days, whizzed up and lobbed in the Polyclar and left it for another 2 days before kegging. It was slightly yeasty on kegging, but after 4 days at 20C it dropped out and the beer was bright and lovely. Then I put it in the beer hutch at 10C and it turned into what looks like pea soup. It's cloudier than the one I didn't use Polyclar on. I thought it might have been the sediment being stirred up but when the beer warms up the clouds thin out until it's clear again. It's definitely chill haze.

Am I doing something wrong here? I used a hand blender on the Polyclar for about 10 minutes - in fact I almost burnt the bloody thing out before deciding that it was as mixed as it was going to get. Is it supposed to stay opaque or should I be mixing until it goes clear? Should I be using finings to clear the yeast before adding the Polyclar? Am I giving it enough time at 5C? How exactly do other people do it? Am I going to stop asking questions? Do you believe in life after love?

[phatboytall]

Do you use an imersion chiller?

I never had any problems with cloudy beer, then I got two minor infections in a row (slight taint to the taste of the beer, enough to annoy me but not enough for my father in law to notice or complain!!) so i stopped using it for 2 brews to isolate the issue. It stopped the infection, but transfering hot to the FV then slowly cooling with the lid on has left me with a new problem.....CHILL HAZE!!

Will be back to imersion chilling and sterilising my chiller more.

Oh and I do believe that dam song was the begining of the Autotune hell we now find ourselves in! Why does every song have to sound like its being sung by an underwater robot?

[Kev888]

Hi,

I experimented with finings some time ago, and whilst they worked for general yeasty stuff I never managed to make much difference to chill haze. I only dabbled with them so I'm no expert at all, but I have a theory (which could 'well' be wrong) that it could be because the proteins don't precipitate out until it really chills, so whilst warmer its difficult for the finings to attach to them. I sometimes wonder if I should try fining at about 0c or something..

My beer still gets chill haze occasionally but I reduced it by upgrading my IC to improve the cold break (and also after fermentation I now crash cool to just a few C for several days). Palmer says that cooling the hot wort quickly gives a better cold break, so I've got myself a plate chiller (which obviously cools just a bit of wort at a time very quickly); but changes in my brewing circumstances mean I've not actually tried it yet.

There are also those that say a down-side to plate (and CFC) chillers is that the wort waiting in the boiler stays hotter for longer than with an IC, so I had wondered about recirculating through the plate chiller rather than just using it as a single-pass process.

EDIT: Hmm - having read this post, it seems to comprise some ideas but very little thats concrete.. apologies for that; treat with caution!

Cheers
kev

[guypettigrew]

The finings I use are Brupaks auxilliary and then isinglass finings. They work a treat in my beer, which I always keg.

I use an immersion coil chiller, which gets the wort from boiling to 20C in about 10 minutes. Pretty fast! It's then left for about 30 minutes to settle before running it from the boiler to the FV

The beer is usually kegged 4 or 5 days after pitching, once the initial fermentation has died down. At that point priming sugar, dry hops and auxilliary finings are added. the beer is then moved to a cool place. Currently an insulated shed (or "beer cellar" as I prefer to call it!) is being used. It's at a fairly steady 12C at the moment.

When the beer has been there for 24 hours and has cooled down, the isinglass finings are added. The beer is clear in 24-48 hours. It then carbonates and matures and is usually OK to drink after another 3 days or so, but improves over the next couple of weeks, of course. I've never had a problem with chill haze.

Guy

[Naich]

Thanks for the replies. The wort is usually pretty clear when I lob it in the FV - it usually looks like this:



I don't think the problem is with the wort, Kev. My immersion chiller gets the wort from boiling down to around 30C in about 15-20 minutes and then it's another 10-15 minutes to get it to pitching temperature of around 25. It then gets chilled in the FV to 20C by the time the yeast has started doing its thing. I don't think the problem is there. I haven't had any hints of an infection since I replaced a tap that was the cause of a persistent problem about 6 brews ago.

I would have thought that if the chill haze happens at 10C, then my process of chilling to 5C and then fining would get all the proteins out then. Well, obviously it doesn't. I wonder if it was because it was still a bit yeasty? Maybe I should try isinglass? Isn't it quite difficult to store and use though? Guy - do you use the auxiliary finings in the FV or the keg? The blurb seems to say you shouldn't mix them with isinglass finings.

[Nofolkandchance]

What temperature are you serving at? I serve most beers at 12-13C and don't have any problems with chill haze.

For beers served cooler, ie larger, I have filtered beers crystal clear with no adverse effect to either taste or aroma. I've split brews 50/50 filtered/unfiltered in order to compare and there's very little difference in my opinion (apart from cost). Have you considered this

[greenxpaddy]

Exactly,why would you want chilled beer

For those chilled styles I find a month or two sat on a cool shelf will drop all haze and the beer is better conditioned too. Do you have a good cool place to store ?

[Nofolkandchance]

Exactly,why would you want chilled beer

For those chilled styles I find a month or two sat on a cool shelf will drop all haze and the beer is better conditioned too. Do you have a good cool place to store ?

Friends/family like a chilled beer. You me and others here are in the minority. Fact
In an ideal world yes waitings the answer but two months is far too long for many people

Quote: If we ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent."

[Eric]

Yes, "Exactly".
I'm drinking beer now at about 10C without a chill haze, bloody miracle. Hopefully, tomorrow it will be 12 or 13C and be all the better drink for that. As it may be some time before sub zero temperatures return to chill my beers at the end of primary fermentation, future brews will be more prone to haze if served too cold. Try educating your friends and family, start by asking them if they would consider drinking a good red Burgundy straight from the fridge

[greenxpaddy]

Nearly all my beers taste better after two months. Willpower is easier when you brew to excess though ha ha. Still have something to drink in the meantime

[Viking23]

When wort is chilled with a em.chiller, proteins go to rest in the bottom of the boiler. When tapped over to the fermenter, its best to leave the last 1-2 liter (lots of proteins at rest here) left in the boiler. If you chill with a plate chiller, you will bring along the proteins (from hot wort) when tapping directly from the boiler to the fermenter. Is this how you chill and move you wort to yor fermenter?

[Naich]

My beers are only kept at 10C during the winter, when the temperature is less than that. I have to keep them in the beer hutch which is outside but heated. I keep it at 10C as being a compromise between the absolute minimum temperature I'm prepared to drink it at and electricity usage. It's also the reason I want to fine them to clear rather than leaving them for months to let nature take its course - I haven't got enough room for 3 month's worth of beer. The maximum amount I can have is 1 keg and 40 bottles That's about 2 month's worth of beer and if I have to leave them to settle for a month, I only get one beer to drink at any one time.

What sort of filter would do the job? Something like this? - http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/public/det ... AM20226032 Would gravity feeding it be OK or would it need to be pumped?

[Askari Joe]

I was woried about hazy beer and the fella at my LHBS gave me a very good tip...

"Drink out of a tankard instead of a glass."

Now why didn't I think of that?

[mark4newman]

Hi

Hi

I went through a phase of getting chill haze, in my very pale beers. They were highly hopped, and they started to get a chill haze below 6C (Mates put beer in fridge, and told me!)

I seemed with hindsight, to occur at the same time as I was using a bag of malt, which wasn't my normal type.

I now also use brewbrite (a late kettle addition of polycar), and have changed back to my normal malt.

Since then I haven't got a chill haze

[Nofolkandchance]

What sort of filter would do the job? Something like this? - http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/public/det ... AM20226032 Would gravity feeding it be OK or would it need to be pumped?

No, this is of no use as gravity feed takes forever and filters will clogg up in no time. You would need a Buon Vino Super Jet. The super Jet does 23 ltrs in about 5 minutes. Ill post you some pics to show it in action.