First partial attempt

[Herby]

I had my first attempt at mashing a small amount of grains to add to my brew the other night, and it didn't go 100% as I expected (things rarely do).
I was putting down a kit lager, and had a kilo of pilsener grains to add to it. I put the grains in the esky then added 2.5 litres of water at 70 deg. The temp of the water fell down to 60 deg (I was hoping for about 65). So I slowly added another 500ml of boiling water, which bought the temp back up to 64 (which I was happy with). After 75 minutes the temp was 62 and I strained the grains and sparged with 3 liters at 70 deg.
However, the wort that I ended up with was really cloudy.
Does anyone know if this will eventually clear, through the ferment and CC process? I was hoping for a clear, clean lager.

[two headed brewer]

Herby,
I have one in the bucket at the moment that I used 1/2 kg pale grain. This was very cloudy, so sounds the same as yours. This has since completed fermenting and have late hopped a cascade. It is still a bit cloudy but has improved. Tasted out of test jar and will be a good drop. Today I will turn the fridge up a few notches to cold condition and clear it and bottle next w/e.
Seems all will be fine as long as you give it time to clear.
Bally

[Dogger Dan]

It will be Ok,

Try using some Irish Moss in your boil which will prevent chill haze later.

Finally, if you really get into mashing you will recirc the initial sparge so it will run cleaner.

Dogger

[two headed brewer]

Dogger,
what is Irish Moss?

[Dogger Dan]

Irish Moss is a dried seaweed sometimes called carragheen. It is used to extract the proteins from the wort. The proteins are positivly charged, the Irish Moss negative so the two attract and precipitate out.

Now chill haze is a reaction between the proteins and the tannin in the beer which at room temp is soluble. As the temp drops, clear room temp beer becomes cloudy as these become insoluble. It will not hurt you, it does nothing to the taste of your beer. Normally you add poly clar (small plastic beads) to the wort and this will attract the chill haze as it falls through the wort. I have tried it once or twice and it hasn't worked for me.

The best way of avoiding it is to limit the protein in the wort by

1. Using a protein rest during your mash. (resting the grains at a temp of 113-122 deg F during the mash). For those of us who infuse our mash, we cant regulate the temp so we can't do a protein rest.

To accomodate that

2. Use a couple of tsp Irish Moss in the final 15 min of the boil.

So now I have everyone scared, please don't be. This will only happen if you are using grains. The malts you get in the kits and in other forms of malt extract have been made to limit the protein. (The brewery has gone to the extra lengths to do the protein rest.) By the way Irish Moss is cheap as dirt.

One day I will be a RIMs system, in fact I have most of the bits now, just need to put it together. This will allow me to recirculate the wort through a heat exchanger and let me do the protein rest like the big boys do.

Actually though, they may not do the rest, they may add an enzyme which dissolves the protein or add silica gel to achieve the same thing as poly clar. No wonder you get a hangover from commercial beer.

Dogger

[two headed brewer]

Thanks Dogger,
thorough reply! Will try and source some IM.