AG Clarity issues

My first AG is in the keg now after ~5 weeks combined in primary and secondary. I kind of screwed up the mash in that I mashed too long at too low of a temp so i got a very fermented beer. (1.053 - 1.004)

The problem is this thing has not cleared at all. It looks like a hefe. I have read a lot about mashing principles and I understand that undermodified malts need a protein rest but I only used fully modified grains.

The only thing I can figure that might have caused this is PH or the municipal water I use which I haven't gotten a report for.

Here's the details:

10.33 lb Briess 2 row
.5 lb Dextrin malt
.25 lb Crystal 60L

I did a step mash because I did not know better and the recipe called for it.

30 minutes at 122 F (Probably more like 45)
60 minutes at 150 F

I have a cooler conversion MLT with the braided stainless hose and I vorlaufed about 3-4 Qt's before collecting the wort.

Collected 6.5 gallons and boiled for 1 hour for 5.5 in the fermenter.

Anybody have any idea why this stuff won't clear? I really don't want to make any more AG batches until I can find out how to make them clearer then the MS river!

Will filtration clear this?

Thanks,
Al

Filtration will help, but won't make much of a difference in taste. Did you use any irish moss or Whirlfloc in the boil?

Filtration will clear it, but may affect the taste, is a pain to do, and requires equipment for it. You will likely be fine if you just get the keg down as cold as you can get it with out freezing it (31-32° is great) and wait. I had one take 3 weeks to finally clear up.
In the future you might want to recirculate a lot more wort before draining to the kettle. Just getting the husks and bits is not really setting up a great filter bed in the tun. If you have a pump it makes it very easy, but if not, you can do it manually until it runs really clear.
You final option is to add a bit of gelatin to the keg and let that settle out. I don't have the amount off the top of my head, but a search on Gelatin fining should get you what you need.
Cheers.

Oh yeah, you can always just drink it as is

No, I did'nt use any Irish moss on that batch. I am a bit confused as to how much to vorlauf and how clear the wort will run. I thought the idea was to just keep the particulate matter out of the pot. Usually the first Qt gets all the husk out and then I haven't really noticed any difference in clarity in the next couple of Qts I vorlauf. Are there any other issues that could cause the cloudiness since I have never had this problem w/ DME batches.

THanks,
Al

What yeast did you use? Some yeasts stay in suspension for a long time, and result in a cloudy beer. Others settle really quickly, and result in a clear beer.

-a.

the two things you can do to get good clarity next time are use whirlfloc in the last 10 minutes of the boil and cool it as fast as possible with some type of chiller. Those two suggestions will take care of most clarity issues. AJF suggests that it could be yeast and I agree. If the yeast has low flocculation characteristics, it could be that is your problem.

Just do an infusion mash until you get a few brews down the road. You do not need a decoction mash with todays fully modified grains.

It usually will take the better part of a month to brew any beer and condition it. Above all, have some patience. You do not want to bottle or keg until conditioning is finished 3 to 4 weeks from brewday. You can then bottle or keg.

As others have said,

• Use a fining agent the last 15 minutes of the boil (ie: whirlfloc).
  
• Chill the boiled beer down to fermentation temperature or as close to it as possible. This helps soluable protines to coagulate and drop before transfer to the fermenter.
  
• Chilling your conditioned beer before bottling or kegging (34F) helps to clairify the beer (yeast drops).

Thanks for the tips guys but I think I am doing all you've said. I did not keg the beer until it had 2 wks primary and 2 wks secondary and it is still cloudy.

The yeast is Wyeast 1056 and i know it is not the most flocculant yeast but I have used it many times on extract brews and they have all cleared nicely.

As for cooling, i use a copper coil wort chiller and it usually gets it down to about 80 F in 30 minutes or so. I then put the carboy in an icebath to get to pitching temp.

I haven't tried whirlifloc tabs, I'll try that.

Do AG brews tend to take longer to clear than extract brews? This is a bit frustrating because I have my sanitation, boil, cool and fermentation regimen down pretty tight so the clarity issues must be related to the mash etc. Other than the aforementioned uber fermentable wort I produced, I would not have expected it to perform any different from my extract brews.

Thanks again,
Al

How vigorous is your boil? If you're boiling off 1 gallon in 60 minutes maybe you're not boiling hard enough.(I boil off twice that in 1 hour) I dunno, that's all I got. Oh yeah and whirlfoc/irish moss is your friend!

GIusedtoBe said:

Do AG brews tend to take longer to clear than extract brews? This is a bit frustrating because I have my sanitation, boil, cool and fermentation regimen down pretty tight so the clarity issues must be related to the mash etc.

Thanks again,
Al

Click to expand...

Yes, they can. When I mentioned my 3 weeks to clear up (above) I meant 3 weeks in the keg, at 35deg.
The recirculating suggestion can help with it, as can the boil fining agents (irish moss, whirlfloc, etc). In June, my club's topic was clarity. I will try to get that presentation posted to our website and post the link here.
Does it taste bad now?

Irish moss!!!!! in all your beers.
Cheers
(hay that rhymes)
JJ

Germey said:

Does it taste bad now?

Click to expand...

No its not bad. It taste a bit thin but that would be expected since it fermented out so completely. Just tastes a bit thin right now. Thanks for the clarification.....ba dum dum..

I really am not impatient but since it was my first AG I was just wondering if it was just kind of slow or I screwed something up.

Thanks again for all the tips,
Al