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**nolabrew85** · 01-18-2013, 02:32 AM

So I racked my wheat ale on top of blueberry puree in secondary just over 2 weeks ago and has been sitting at about 65 degrees. It has a nice color but it is very hazy. I am not a freak for clarity but would like it to settle a bit more. Can you cold crash an ale right before bottling to clean it up a bit? Or would it not be effective? Or worse yet, would it subdue the ale yeast so much that the beer would not naturally carb?

**501irishred** · 01-18-2013, 12:59 PM

You can absolutely crash cool your ales. I always crash for 24-48 hours before bottling with no problems. Being a wheat beer, you will still probably end up with some haze, but that's to be expected.

solbes · 01-18-2013, 01:18 PM

You might have some pectin haze from the blueberries. I made a blueberry wheat last summer that was a little hazy. I used the same german wheat yeast (WY3333) that I use, and it ALWAYS drops crystal clear within 2 weeks, so I know it wasn't that. Pectic enzyme might help with this if you wanted to clear for aesthetics.

If you have yeast in suspension, 48 hour cold crash would help alot. So would racking to a clearing vessel.

**unionrdr** · 01-18-2013, 01:21 PM

Wheat beers are traditionally supposed to be hazy though.

solbes · 01-18-2013, 01:34 PM

Hefe's and Wit's are supposed to have yeast in suspension (or you can mix it from dregs as you pour). Traidtional wheat should not have yeast in suspension, but may be hazy due to proteins from wheat. Krystalweizens will drop fully clear.

**nolabrew85** · 01-18-2013, 02:04 PM

All of that makes sense. I am expecting it to be a little hazy because of the proteins in the wheat (I did not use heffeweizen yeast because I don't want those flavors to interfere with the blueberry). I did not know about the pectin thing though. I will probably just coldcrash it for a day and then bottle it up!! Thanks for all the advice!!

**nolabrew85** · 01-22-2013, 12:47 PM

I don't have room in my lager fridge to cold crash the ale because the lager is taken forever. So I have thought about putting it outside out of the sunlight for a day or so. It os supposed to be in the low 40s the next few days. But I am wondering if I should be worried about dexterous little varmin like raccoons and cats getting into the fermenter. Thoughts?

**501irishred** · 01-22-2013, 05:06 PM

If your using a bucket and a coon is able to get the lid off, please trap it. I would like to buy it off you as I am tired of fighting with them myself. Not to mention it would be way cool to be able to say you have a raccoon as part of home brew equipment!

Clean the airlock, change the solution (removing the smell), and keep it covered. Should be fine.

**nolabrew85** · 01-22-2013, 05:31 PM

Ha. I was just worried about the coon being able to rip the airlock off, but you are right, if I clean it up it so it doesn't smell, he probably won't be interested.

**nolabrew85** · 01-22-2013, 05:33 PM

Also, those lids on the 6.5 gallon buckets are hard to remove. I am always nervous that I am going to spill the beer everywhere while trying to open it.