Chill haze is driving me crazy.

I'm getting mad chill haze in all my beers but my hefeweizen, which is unusually clear till I pour the yeast in. It's not really driving me crazy, the beer still tastes good, but it's odd. What could it be, the cold break?

Sorry, I should have searched before posting, but it's about to be


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late.
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My guess is that you're not getting a good enough cold break when you chill the wort. One suggestion I have is to use whirlfloc, if you're aren't already using it. It seems to work better for me than Irish moss, and even with NO other finings, my beer is crystal clear.

Chill haze is very hard to completely eliminate in homebrew. You could try finings in your boil like whirlfloc or irish moss, or try chilling your beers for an extended period of time. My beers clear up alot after sitting in the cold basement for a couple weeks. The haze causing proteins tend to settle out in time. If your beer tastes good, who cares.

I was just using the ice bath in the sink method, but that only covered half the pot and took a long time. Now I submerge it all the way in an ice bath and it cools a lot quicker. I'm yet to open one of those batches, so we'll see.

I haven't gotten a wort chiller because I can't hook anything to the old, corroded faucets in my apartment. Maybe it's time to make the landlord change the faucets.

smizak said:

If your beer tastes good, who cares.

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I hear ya. That's pretty much what it boils down to. On the other hand, it would be cool to master the process.

I just picked up some pollyclear today....I'll let you know.

I've tried using gelatin in a keg with no luck. I know a few people that swear by isinglass (I don't want to go near the stuff because it's made from the bladders of fish) They all pour it into their secondary before they rack.

brokenanchor said:

I've tried using gelatin in a keg with no luck. I know a few people that swear by isinglass (I don't want to go near the stuff because it's made from the bladders of fish) They all pour it into their secondary before they rack.

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Gelatin is made from ground up bone. How is isinglass any worse?

carnevoodoo said:

Gelatin is made from ground up bone. How is isinglass any worse?

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Fish have feelings.

True...good thing I only used it once. Probably why I've never been a fan of jello either...though I suppose it's in quite a few foods

Plus I'd rather have my beer taste like a steak than all fishy

Wasn't a protein rest the traditional cure for chill haze?

batches_brew said:

I haven't gotten a wort chiller because I can't hook anything to the old, corroded faucets in my apartment. Maybe it's time to make the landlord change the faucets.

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You may find my solution a little better -havent had much experience with haze because most of what I've made is dark anyway (wouldn't be able to see any haze -you can't see through the beer! ) I use a copper coil wort chiller -one end is hooked up (via long vinyl hose) to a small pump pond (picked up at Lowes for about twenty bucks) the other has a vinyl tubing that goes into the bucket -the bucket is filled with ice, the pump is at the bottom, and just enough water to get the flow started (the hot water from the chillers' outlet will melt the ice in fairly short order). It works pretty fast. If you really wanted to give it a kick, you could add some salt to the water (which would lower the effective temp. of the water in the bucket). Anyway, it beats using the sink and wasting the gallons of water.

+1 to NIghtbiker. Good method, conserves water!

To Brokenanchor: Are you vegan? If so, props, 'cos that ain't easy. If not, why kick against gelatin and isinglass?

To the OP: If you mash, try protein rests. Use a kettle coagulant like Whirlfloc in all worts you want to end up bright. Use fining agents like Isinglass or gelatin, and add them when you rack to secondary; add the fining solution just like you'd add the sugar solution at bottling time. Really stubborn haze might require fining with Polyclar. Cold-aging (lagering) also helps a lot. Usually the solution lies in a combination of the above.

Chill haze is a fascinating specialization in brewing. There's a lot of literature out there. Google "chill haze" and "chillproofing", and be prepared for the flood. A lot of it is really technical, but if I can muddle through it, so can you!

Bob

I recently solved my chill haze problem, I tried everything. I started using an IC with prechiller in an ice bath, whirlfloc, etc. None of it worked, until I read a suggestion in another thread, that just maybe I wasn't getting a good hot break, by not boiling hard enough. So I crank the heat way up next time, and voila! No more chill haze!
I always let it just boil because my setup fills my kettle to within an inch of the rim, and I didn't want a boilover. But that is a risk that I now take, because the results speak for themselves.

Rush said:

Fish have feelings.

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No, it's OK to eat fish, 'cos they don't have any feelings.

I'd wager not getting a good break to drop the proteins in the solution. I had the same problem before I went AG because I wasn't using a wort chiller. Now, wort chiller + whirlfloc tabs and my beers have no chill haze at all.

Rush said:

Fish have feelings.

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And whatever used to own the bones ground up for gelatin didn't?

Fish feelings are what makes them taste good.

Chill haze is basically proteins that attach to polyphenols and tannins at low temps. Once they get warmer, the bonds break and the haze goes away. The only real cure for chill haze is to either remove the proteins causing the haze or not make them in the first place. Protein rests during mashing can help, and paying attention to your grain quality and mash schedule can help as well. The most practical approach seems to be to make sure you get a real good cold break by chilling your wort as quickly as possible. A good hot break helps too. Other than that you can fine and add things like silica but be careful of using too much because you can mess up the head retention on your beer.

Gordie