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HI Guys,
Have been on Holidays (sun tanned and thirsty for some REAL beer) (eg mine)
I have cracked open my Pilsner style beer....and OMG!! its bloody beautiful.. ...subtle hops aroma...yum yum...i could go on but im at work and it'll take an hour to get home before i can drink some more...so i'll refrain.
MY Question?
its perfect in everyway but it does exhibit a slight haze in the glass after pouring? What can i do to limit this? Carbonation is good, tight head and laces the glass all the way to the bottom....just this haze? (i might have to leave work early...yum yum!!)
Any suggestions?
Could be a couple of things causing a bit of haze. If that's the only thing "wrong" with your beer, good job!
I'll not insult you and assume you are being careful pouring it not to disturb the sediment.
some more information would be helpful:
Is this an all-grain batch? Did you do a full boil with a good hot and cold break?
Did you rack at all? If so, how long in secondary? -- Getting the beer off the spent yeast and cooling it can cause yeast to drop out of suspension and clarify a beer.
Were any finings used? -- the simplest solution to reducing cloudiness, I have and I'm sure many others have made crystal clear brews using only finings as a clarifying agent.
Proteins and peptides can cause a chill haze. Not all kit manufacturers are great at getting this protein gunk out of their kit, so if you did a "no-boil" kit, that's one possible cause. (cascade and morgan's have come out very clear for me, cooper's is so-so. YMMV)
Hope that helps a little and didnt confuse you more.
Yep, thehipone has covered it. Chill haze can also be a sign that there is wheat malt in the brew. If it is an all grain beer and you have achieved a good hot/cold break then the likely culprit is inadequate conversion/wheat malt. Keep the temps right and/or don't use wheat next time.
If it is a kit then you have less control. Racking and cold conditioning will help, but it might just be worth putting up with. It isn't really a problem. Just tell you mates it is the new Coopers Pilsner! They won't know the difference
Actually guys, you can get chill haze anytime you use grains, it is the proteins coming out of the grains during the mash which are starting to gelatinize at the colder temps. A lot of time it comes from Trub, which is normally that crap you see in the bottom of brew pot along with the spent hops. This is called Hot Break (cause it forms at high Temp) and amounts to some 80 percent of the Trub. On a dark note, there is cold break which can form the other 20 and this then leads to chill haze.
There are a couple of things you can do to avoid it.
1. Use Irish Moss in the boil, normally a tsp for 5 gallons for the last 5 minutes
2. Use 28 g of chocolate malt and steep it like you would any specialty malt then use that in the boil. (It won't impart much on the colour) and tends to be the method of choice of the big breweries
3. Cool your beer down until the chill haze starts to form and then filter (cold filtering) and this will pull out the proteins allowing that you have a filter. Cold filtering is becoming faddy right now, even though it is a method around for years
To check if you have chill haze, the beer will be clear at room temp. You can use finings in the beer but the will not yank out the chill haze. The purpose of the finings is to attract the yeast molecules left suspended in the beer so it clears faster. It does this in part by adding weak electrostatic charges which the yeast is attractred to.
Ironicly, if you use finings be careful what you do use because they tend to adversly affect the head on the beer.
Sorry, I made this sound like a school lesson
Dogger
"Listening to someone who brews their own beer is like listening to a religous fanatic talk about the day he saw the light" Ross Murray, Montreal Gazette
Wow thanks Guys,
To clarify...a simple Kit brew (but all malt n hops used). Im nopt up to all-mash brewing as yet!! Was meticulous with such things as temp ( though not ideal for a true Pils...14C) Racked but did NOT use any finings.
So I'll use some in the next batch!
Both head and Carbonation are good , but will keep an eye on how the finings may affect these (thanks Dogger Dan)
Gough and Thehipone, I didnt cold condition, but have no fear...i have a lager in the beer fridge as we speak that will be ready to bottle in a couple of weeks....hopefully i will remove alot of the haze from this one!
What a great, rewarding, cheap, fun, intoxicating Hobby!
Thanks again guys!
Adam
One thing I didn't mention is that there is no issue with chill haze, It wont hurt you or change your beer in anyway.
Do me a favour and look at one at room temp, if it is still cloudy then your issue isn't chill haze.
Dogger
"Listening to someone who brews their own beer is like listening to a religous fanatic talk about the day he saw the light" Ross Murray, Montreal Gazette
This is like nectar of the gods stuff mate.....even contemplating letting it get to room temp is akin to a deadly sin...hahahha
And thanks for the reassurance it wont hurt me....with the amount ive drunk id be dead by now!!
Seriously though at room temp the whats in the bottle is very very clear it only develops a haze once it has been chilled and poured (slowly) into a glass.
As a further tasting note: the aroma is perfect however the couple i had last night still seemed a tad too malty for my liking so next batch will see a small increase in bittering hops added! I LOVE my HOPS!!
...subtle hops aroma...yum yum...i could go on but im at work and it'll take an hour to get home before i can drink some more...so i'll refrain.