drummstikk
Well-Known Member
I'd like to have a serious conversation about chill haze and how to remove it.
By chill haze, I mean that I have a crystal clear beer at room temp, and a turbid beer at refrigerated temps. All my beers give the same result, and I use standard Weyermann, Rahr, Briess, Simpsons malts and White Labs yeasts.
What I'm already doing: rolling 90 min boil, whirlfloc 5 min before flameout, immersion chilling with agitation, crash cooling after fermentation, fining with gelatin, 1/2 tsp / 5 gal, heated but not boiled to dissolve.
What sort of works: lagering for > 2 weeks. Reduces chill haze to be sure, but beer is still not clear.
What does not work at all: crash cooling followed by 1 um filtration. Many report this works, but I've noticed an adamant minority of posters reporting the same result I got. And, it makes perfect sense: chill haze particles are reported to range from .1 - 1 um. They're too small for this filter size!
What I haven't tried: PVPP or silica gel or bentonite. People report that polyclar will bind to tannins, eliminating chill haze, but is this actually true?
Let's have a real discussion about chill haze, where everyone is on the same page about temperatures and times. Let's not have the typical convo, which goes something like this
Specifically, the "Chill and filter" crowd and the "filtering can't reduce chill haze" crowd need to look deeply into each other's eyes and reconcile their findings. How can both results possibly be true?
Finally, cold conditioners and PVPP users -- do these methods actually give brilliant beer at fridge temps? Please post photos so others can know what you mean by "clear", and also so we can get some nice clear beer porn.
Thanks in advance!
By chill haze, I mean that I have a crystal clear beer at room temp, and a turbid beer at refrigerated temps. All my beers give the same result, and I use standard Weyermann, Rahr, Briess, Simpsons malts and White Labs yeasts.
What I'm already doing: rolling 90 min boil, whirlfloc 5 min before flameout, immersion chilling with agitation, crash cooling after fermentation, fining with gelatin, 1/2 tsp / 5 gal, heated but not boiled to dissolve.
What sort of works: lagering for > 2 weeks. Reduces chill haze to be sure, but beer is still not clear.
What does not work at all: crash cooling followed by 1 um filtration. Many report this works, but I've noticed an adamant minority of posters reporting the same result I got. And, it makes perfect sense: chill haze particles are reported to range from .1 - 1 um. They're too small for this filter size!
What I haven't tried: PVPP or silica gel or bentonite. People report that polyclar will bind to tannins, eliminating chill haze, but is this actually true?
Let's have a real discussion about chill haze, where everyone is on the same page about temperatures and times. Let's not have the typical convo, which goes something like this
- 5 or 6 posts: Solve the problem in the kettle, you clearly aren't getting a good cold break
- 3 or 4 posts: Chill and filter, works for me even though I'm just using a 7 um filter, I get "diamond" clear beer
- 1 lone dissenter: 1 um filtration cannot and does not remove chill haze
- 3 or 4 more posts: I'm going to just go ahead and pretend that naysayer never posted -- filtration works for me!
- everyone else: Dude, clear beer is only a light switch away.
Specifically, the "Chill and filter" crowd and the "filtering can't reduce chill haze" crowd need to look deeply into each other's eyes and reconcile their findings. How can both results possibly be true?
Finally, cold conditioners and PVPP users -- do these methods actually give brilliant beer at fridge temps? Please post photos so others can know what you mean by "clear", and also so we can get some nice clear beer porn.
Thanks in advance!