Chill Haze driving me insane

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grasshopper1917

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Im not sure what I can do to help with chill haze on my beer it seems to happen totally randomly. I make mostly coopers prehopperd kits with malt extract and a bit of sugar. I leave it in primary for a week then rack to secondary for 2-3 weeks.

It seem like 50% of my batches I suffer with chill have - but I cant figure out why only some. For instance some of the batches I leave in secondary for 2 weeks are crystal clear while some i leave in for 3 weeks get the haze.

The are all clear in the bottle - it is just when i get them chilling in the fridge that some pour cloudy. Its not that I dont enjoy them jut as much - just wish i could figure out why some get the haze and some not??
 
Do you brew the same kit every time? If so, then that is a little strange. If not, then I expect your hoppier beers may come a little hazier, as well as anything with wheat or rye in it.

You can reduce chill haze with Irish moss or Whirlfloc in the kettle, as well as by chilling your wort as quickly as possible. Time in cold storage also will eventually clear chill haze.


TL
 
While chill haze seems permanent...it will fade with time at cold termperatures.

Several things may help:

Use whirfloc tablets during the last 10 minutes of your boil.
Use gelatin in your secondary to help bind the yeast and clear the beer.
Give your beers extended chill times...more like 3-5 weeks and not just a day or two in the fridge.

My beers are pretty clear, but I keg.
 
just a wild guess but when you say a bit of sugar you mean corn sugar right? you using the kind you get from a home brew store not the stuff from the supermarket? the stuff from a supermarket has cornstarch added to prevent clumping that will cause haze.
 
After the boil, how are you chilling the wort down to pitching temperature? Chill haze can often be caused by too slow of a cool down process. Are you doing an ice bath or using a chiller?
 
Im making coppers pre hopped kits - they are no boil. I mix the kit - the malt and any sugar in about 5 liters of water on the stove - keep it a hot temp for 15 minutes to kill any bacteria if there may be any - dump er in the fermentor - then top it up with cold cold water to get it down to low 70's.
 
homebrewer_99 said:
Ceramic mugs...it doesn't cure haze, but if you don't see it it won't affect your taste perception...;)

+1

I deal with chill haze as well - mine doesn't really bother me though. If I were in your shoes, with your priorities - I would invest in a way to quickly cool the wort and put the beer in the fridge at least a week before drinking. This should give you a good cold break and the extended cooling will help cause the remaining proteins to drop out...


At least that is my understanding, I don't bother with the clarity because I still have too many other things I am obsessing about. :mug:
 
At least that is my understanding, I don't bother with the clarity because I still have too many other things I am obsessing about. :mug:

Same here but if I am serving to others I make it as clear as possible. That way they don't get the jitters.
 
I dont think that I have made a clear beer yet as I cant keep from drinking it.. I started brewing 10 gallon batches in hops to build up a pipe line but I just started drinking more! Go figure! :rockin:
 
What I do to kill my haze is Irish Moss in the boil. Then I take my kettle and set it in the sink packed with ice to quick cool to around 80. Then I add to fermenter and top with cool water and usually pitch yeast when temps are near 65-70 range. When I transfer to secondary I add a little gelatin to help. Good news is it doesn't affect taste.
 
I tried something new that I assure you will bring your wort down to pitching temps in minutes. The day before you brew you take two gal of filtered water and put .5 gal each into 4 one gal plastic bags, freeze them solid. one brew day cut open the bag and dump one
bag at a time into the hot wort. With 3 bags it should be plenty cool. Mine was cooled to 67F within 3 minutes and almost perfectly topped of at 5 gal.

I bet it works for you too.
 
My experience has been that my beer gets chill haze immediately upon being cooled. It begins to clear up a little after a week in the fridge, it's pretty clear after two weeks, and crystal clear after three weeks.
 
Here's the easiest way to get rid of chill haze,but you'll need a fridge to do it.Cool the beer in the secondary to below your regular serving temp.eg,if you serve it at 40 deg.,chill it to 36 deg. Wait a couple of days for the chill haze to form.Pour in your finings.I use gelatin,it works everytime.Wait for the chill haze to drop out and then bottle,or keg,whichever you use.When you serve it at your regular serving temp...Voila,no chill haze.
 
What is the general consensus about freezing spring water? Seems like a good idea to me, and seems like it would work quickly. Also, you'd be using an "internal" ice bath, so it seems much more efficient. Any downsides, though? Like, the parts that are affected first (i.e., the right-at-boiling-temperature wort), would they be cooled TOO quickly? Is that possible? If this WOULD work, it would really, REALLY simplify the wort cooling process. So, what drawbacks?
 
Frozen, purified water (or pre-boiled) works fine... but you'll need a new plan when you go to full boils... as most do.
 
Keeping your beer 32F or slightly below for a week will clear it. Nothing else matters.

Yes, this often helps but is definitely not a 100% solution. I've got beers in my beer fridge that have been chilling at 32 for several months and still exhibit chill haze on pouring.
 
I
The are all clear in the bottle - it is just when i get them chilling in the fridge that some pour cloudy. Its not that I dont enjoy them jut as much - just wish i could figure out why some get the haze and some not??

Probably something to do with the exact rate of cooling, since that's
probably somewhat different every time you do it:

http://***********/stories/article/indices/23-clarity/490-conquer-chill-haze

Ray
 
So water freezes at sea level at 32F. Since beer contains alcohal, doesn't it freeze at a slightly lower temp?
 
Calculating the freezing point depression of a 5% alcohol
solution:

5% by volume is 4% by weight

100 gm contains 96 g water, 4 gm ethanol

moles ethanol is 4g/46g/mol = .08696 moles
molality is 0.08696mol/.096kg = .905833

Freezing point depression is the molal freezing point depression times
the molality or in this case (mfpd of water is -1.86C)

.905833 x -1.86C = -1.63

0-1.63 = -1.63C or 29.1F

But this is only approximate because the other dissolved
substances in the beer will lower it further (but not much
I suspect).

Ray
 
Chill haze can come from cold break in many cases. If you use irish moss, then there should be a nice sedimentation of cold break as you chill the wort. As much as I wish I had a counterflow chiller, it is nice to be able to chill in the kettle, then stir the wort in a whirlpooly motion. The cold break will accumulate in the middle of the kettle and you can conveniently siphon from the edge of the kettle, leaving the cold break behind. This can definitely lessen your chill haze, but may not eliminate it.
 
Yes, this often helps but is definitely not a 100% solution. I've got beers in my beer fridge that have been chilling at 32 for several months and still exhibit chill haze on pouring.

Which would make sense, I think. To my understanding (and I could certainly be wrong here), chill haze is simply the collection of very low molecular weight proteins that come out of solution upon cooling. They're so light that it takes alot of time for them to settle out. And since they're so light, even a tiny bit of turbulence is going to cause them to get stirred right up again.

I'm trying to correct this very problem w/ my current batch (fermenting). I plan on transfering over to a secondary, cooling to below my lowest anticipated serving temp, fining w/ a protein-specific agent after a couple days, keep the beer at this low temp for at least a week more, and then racking carefully off the sediment to bottle. We'll see how it goes.
 
Just found this thread doing a search on Chill Haze. since it's already revived, I'll throw my questions out there. I use Iriash Moss, 1tsp at 15 minutes (5 gallon batch). Also recently started using gelatin as well. I just noticed that what I thought in the past was my beer not being matured enough, may indeed be chill haze.

Here's a Bell's 2 Hearted Pale Ale fresh from the tap -
IMG_19161.JPG


Here it is about 15 minutes later (warmer)
IMG_1917.JPG


And 30 minutes later
IMG_1918.JPG
 
My latest brew also has some pretty noticeable chill haze. Although it does not really bother me, I do wonder what causes it. I used Irish Moss and let it sit in primary for a full month so I think I can rule those out. I should also add that my beer is crystal clear when it's at room temp.

Recently I found this page. http://www.foamrangers.com/malts.html

It said that if you use 2-Row or 6-Row as your base grains you need to do a protien rest to avoid chill haze. I'm pretty new to AG, so my next step is to figure out what the heck a protien rest is and what it involves :confused:

Can anyone verify this?
 
A protein rest is letting the mash sit around 122F for a short time. It can reduce chill haze forming proteins and also proteins useful for head retention. It's no longer necessary with any malts widely available to home brewers today. It can do more damage than good.
 
I didn't drink a clear home brew beer until I removed the chlorine from the water using Campdem tablets. I'm not sure how this could be related chemically, but that is my experience.
 
The best way to get rid of chill haze is with irish moss/whirlfloc at 10min in the boil, and to get an excellent cold break by chilling your wort as fast as humanely possible. The more insoluble proteins and lipids you can drop out as trub, the better, and the best way to do that is to drop the temperature on your hot wort as fast as you can- the faster you do, the more stuff will drop out.
 
Been having trouble with chill haze in my past four brews and can't figure out why. Ive never had the problem before. They are all different yeast strains, so I am ruling out the yeast flocc. One is a big IPA and another is a lager brewed with rye. The hop bill and the rye might be the culprit with those, but I can't figure out why the other 2 are cloudy: a Belgian strong ale and an English bitter. The strong ale has been sitting in the cooler at 35 deg for 2 months now and hasn't cleared up a bit. The bitter has only been in the cooler for a week. I keg and use a plate chiller. In the winter time, my hose water is super cold,so I can get 10g of wort to chill to 60 degs in 15-30 mins. I also use 2T of Irish Moss in all my beers. Anyone have any idea why I can possibly still have haze?
 
I recently had some store-bought beer and found myself turned off by the crystal-clarity..I didn't trust it ;) I've had success with wihirfloc tablets, and a irish moss before that but am coming to the realization that I don't care all that much and am enjoying that feeling.
 
I recently had some store-bought beer and found myself turned off by the crystal-clarity..I didn't trust it ;) I've had success with wihirfloc tablets, and a irish moss before that but am coming to the realization that I don't care all that much and am enjoying that feeling.

I personally do not care whether my beer is hazy or not and I agree with the whole "drinking out of a ceramic mug" philosophy. However, competition judges do! So, for some cruel, masochistic reason, I semi do not enjoy getting my beers raped by some unknown BJCP certified judge's opinion. Therefore, I would like to solve this mysterious beer haze phenomenon!
 
I know this is an old thread, but in case anyone is interested, the following link seems to have greatly improved the clarity of my beer. Also, it's super easy.
I also use the Brunwater spreadsheet for water adjustment, and because of that I usually don't have to add any calcium to the boil, because I get nice big fluffy hot-break flakes.

http://beerandwinejournal.com/proper-boil-ph/
 
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