Chill haze - Kwik clear / Polyclar

[Sunter0100]

I have been getting a haze on most of my all grain beers. I am assuming it is chill haze as they are perfectly clear during the first couple of weeks when warm conditioning. The haze develops as soon as the beers are put outside to cold condition. Various threads seem to recommend Polyclar and Kwik Clear for finings. I have the following questions:

1. Would you use both of these or just one?
2. Can they be used together?
3. Is there something better I should be using?
4. Are they both safe to use in the bottling bucket or should they be added a few days before bottling?
5. Will they remove all of the yeast and prevent conditioning?

Any advice on how to remove the chill haze would be greatly appreciated.

[gnorwebthgimi]

I found I had a chill haze so I started adding protafloc to the boil. All beers have been 100% clear since

[Sunter0100]

Sorry should have mentioned, already use protofloc in boiler. Beers clear perfectly once bottled but get hazy once cooled.

[Jocky]

Polyclar ideally needs filtering out before serving, or at least you need some way of racking the beer off it very carefully.

An alternative, but non-vegan friendly, is to use gelatin.

[gnorwebthgimi]

Do you use an immersion or counter flow chiller? They should help to cold crash any proteins that cause a chill haze.

If you don't, or the cooling isn't very effective, then this could be something to improve.

[Goulders]

I have recently started using gelatin. Chill to about 5c. Rack to a secondary on top of gelatin and chill at 5 c for 72 hours then keg.

[Jocky]

Do you use an immersion or counter flow chiller? They should help to cold crash any proteins that cause a chill haze.

If you don't, or the cooling isn't very effective, then this could be something to improve.

Sorry, but I don't believe it is that simple. I cool my entire wort in under 15 minutes - and most of that time is going from about 35 degrees. I get a pretty amazing cold break and very clear wort into the fermenter, and yet I still get chill haze.

[Sunter0100]

Yes I use an immersion chiller and it chills down to 22 degrees in 10 mins after the 30 min aroma stand.

I don't have the facility to chill down to 5 degrees. Would gelatin still be effective if I can only get it down to 10 - 15 degrees in my garage? Any other suggestions to reduce the temperature without having electricity in my garage?

[Goulders]

I don't think it would be effective. By chilling down and then adding gelatin at the lower temperature, the gelatin will drop out the proteins causing chill haze. To be honest, I don't think chill haze is a big issue. If you are putting bottles in the fridge and then letting them warm up to serving temp, the chill haze should dissipate.

[Capped]

75min boil, half a protafloc last 15mins. CFC takes wort from 90ishC to 20ishC in 20mins. Tons of break gunk in FV. Two weeks in FV at ambient temps, no fiddling with fridges an' stuff. Bottle with no finings and the bare minimum of priming sugar. Star-bright within a week and stays that way forever and might, just might develop a just-perceptible haze if left in the fridge for 24 hours. Dunno if you guys are doing something fundamentally wrong somewhere or using dodgy ingredients/any yeast other than the mighty Notts or whatever, but haze just ain't an issue here.

[gnorwebthgimi]

Sorry, but I don't believe it is that simple. I cool my entire wort in under 15 minutes - and most of that time is going from about 35 degrees. I get a pretty amazing cold break and very clear wort into the fermenter, and yet I still get chill haze.

It may not be that simple for many people, but it is that simple for me.

There are many other factors such as amount of adjuncts, such as wheat etc. etc. etc. it's best to look for the most obvious answer first.

[Jocky]

75min boil, half a protafloc last 15mins. CFC takes wort from 90ishC to 20ishC in 20mins. Tons of break gunk in FV. Two weeks in FV at ambient temps, no fiddling with fridges an' stuff. Bottle with no finings and the bare minimum of priming sugar. Star-bright within a week and stays that way forever and might, just might develop a just-perceptible haze if left in the fridge for 24 hours. Dunno if you guys are doing something fundamentally wrong somewhere or using dodgy ingredients/any yeast other than the mighty Notts or whatever, but haze just ain't an issue here.

My extract beers were all chill haze free, whereas my all grain ones now are all susceptible to chill haze below about 9 degrees C, so I suspect that it's something to do with the mash, although I'm also suspicious that some people that claim they don't get chill haze don't have their fridges particularly cold

[deanrpwaacs]

+1 for the gelatine . It works very well . You can get veg versions but i dont know if they are as good or work the same .

[chris.laws.54943]

I have recently started using gelatin. Chill to about 5c. Rack to a secondary on top of gelatin and chill at 5 c for 72 hours then keg.

Goulders, do you soak the gelatine as normal (for cooking purposes) or do you rack straight on to the "dry" gelatine sheet?

[Jocky]

Dissolve it in hot water (about 60-70C - enough to pasteurise). Use the minimum hot water you can to dissolve it. Boiling it will stop the gelatin being as effective.

Once all dissolved dump it into your beer (fermenter or keg depending upon what you want to do), swirl the beer a bit to distribute it and then put the beer back in your fridge for 24-48 hours at a cold temperature (as low as you can!).

Rack carefully off the gelatin.