Cloudy/Hazy Bitter

I just kegged a "Theakston" BB clone. It was based on Graham Wheeler's recipe, but using extract. I made a few modifications to bring the bitterness towards what Theakston's BB should be according to the bitterness calculator in BeerSmith.

However, my beer is really cloudy. It tastes OK. I only noticed this as I began siphoning it from the fermentor into the clean, CO2 purged keg!.

I figured "what the heck, just get it into the keg and under CO2 and worry about the cloudiness later."

Can anyone offer any advice, possible explanations as to why my beer is cloudy? Also, what should I do with it?

Currently, my thoughts are to leave it in the keg and allow it to carb to about 1.6 volumes CO2 at my keezer temp of 54F (serving) for a couple of weeks. I hope that the beer may settle and clear, maybe the first couple of pints will be cloudy, but slow dispensing and keeping the keg steady may prevent excess settled-out junk in subsequent pints.

Thanks,
Charlie



My final recipe version for a 5 gallon batch was:

5 lb 5.9oz pale LME
5.8 oz 20L crystal malt
2.6 oz Cara-pils (to improve head retention)
0.68 oz Northern Brewer hops - full boil
0.32 oz Fuggles - full boil
0.32 oz Fuggles - last 15m
0.11 oz Irish Moss - last 15 min.
dried Windsor Yeast

Specialty grains were steeped 30 min at 160F in 2 g H2O
Then the extract was added.
The boil lasted 90 minutes.
I used my homemade wort cooler to cool to 70F (took approx 15m).

Wort removed from trub (a little made it into the primary fermentor).

OG was 1.040
FG was 1.011

I simply left the fermentor bucket in the basement for almost two weeks, then cold crashed (not much though) for two days (in garage, beer temp 41F).

Everything sounds fine, so I'm not sure what to tell you. Normally, windsor yeast clears the beer well, forming a tight compacted yeast cake in the bottom.

What was the FG? Was the beer done for at least a few days before you kegged it?

Yooper said:

Everything sounds fine, so I'm not sure what to tell you. Normally, windsor yeast clears the beer well, forming a tight compacted yeast cake in the bottom.

What was the FG? Was the beer done for at least a few days before you kegged it?

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Sorry, the FG was 1.011

Charlie

unionrdr said:

Was that a stable FG or just the first test? you got the wort chilled down in 15 minutes,so it not chill haze. At two weeks,maybe the beer hadn't cleaned up & settle out well before you kegged it. My partial mshes from the biab style are ever so slightly misty going into the fridge. But they settle out crystal clear. I think it's from the finer crush biab needs leaving the fine silty stuff in suspension.

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I suppose, it may not be a stable FG. This is my third brew since I began home brewing again (I cannot remember details about my previous brewing - over a decade ago). My more recent brews reached a stable FG within a week, at which point I racked them into a secondary, waited another week then kegged.

With this brew, I decided to forego the secondary, but didn't think about taking daily FG readings!!!!!

Maybe I need to take the keg off CO2, just leave what is in the head space, wait a week or two, then rack into another keg. This way, I'd be using a keg as a secondary fermenter, but I can't see any problems with that!

Ideas?

Charlie

If the beer is young (and it sounds like it is), it'll clear just fine in the keg in the kegerator. Just give it at least 3-4 days without moving it, and it should be much clearer.

Thanks for the replies, I'll leave the keg under CO2 pressure.

Funny thing though, I sampled a wee bit, and at first sip I thought that it was pretty insipid. Then I realized that my beer drinking of late has been Scottish Ale and chocolate porter. I said to myself "this is a Yorkshire bitter, so it'll be much more mellow." Anyway a couple of sips later, and I realized that the insipidness was just a good mellow northern bitter flavor. Of course this means that it may be too drinkable after a couple of weeks in the keg!!!!

Charlie