Why is my beer so clear?

I brewed an Austin Homebrew Supply American Wheat Ale extract kit on 1/5, subbing in S-05 dry yeast for the hefe yeast. I didn't use Irish moss or any other clarifier. I fermented it for 2 weeks at about 63F, then bottled it with 4.5 oz priming sugar. Today, 4 weeks after brew day, the beer is crystal clear, clearer than any of my other batches. And it's a wheat beer. Go figure. Tastes great, by the way.

Hefeweizen, german wheat, beers are the cloudy ones. American wheats are supposed to be clear.

Glad it came out well. Cheers!

It's the yeast. You didn't use a hefe yeast.

Talk about fast replies. So hefe yeast is what makes it cloudy? Good to know.

The yeast is the cloudyness you see... it is not very flocculant

Hefe yeast doesn't flocculate (settle out of suspension) very well, while US-05 flocs pretty well. That's part of what makes a hefe a hefe, you're drinking more of the yeast. Even an American Wheat yeast is going to be cleaner and clearer than one of the traditional Bavarian strains.

i have a question on this subject. I am brewing a hef, actually got it in the fermenter right now. My LHBS didnt have any hef yeast so i got bavarian dry
yeast. will mine end up clear?

was it a bavarian wheat yeast?

Yes it was.

The Pol said:

The yeast is the cloudyness you see... it is not very flocculant

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Thanks (and to the bird as well). I had assumed it was the wheat, but low flocculance makes more sense.

As an aside, I was talking about this to my wife while she was drinking a beer from this batch. She suggested I post the question on the forum. She wasn't even a third of the way through her beer before I got the answer. This place rocks.

You could try drinking it "mit hefe" - swirl the yeast up from the bottom of your bottle and pour it out into your glass. That is a traditional way of drinking a hefeweizen.

GT

mmmmmm all this talk of hefe is making me thirsty

My "On Deck" recipe kit is a Bavarian hefeweizen with Wyeast Weihenstephan 3068 yeast. My question is, do I follow all of the same processes that I would for brewing any other ale in order to have the cloudiness in the final product, or should I lessen the time in secondary, or not use a secondary at all?

XCWill said:

My "On Deck" recipe kit is a Bavarian hefeweizen with Wyeast Weihenstephan 3068 yeast. My question is, do I follow all of the same processes that I would for brewing any other ale in order to have the cloudiness in the final product, or should I lessen the time in secondary, or not use a primary at all?

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There's really no need to secondary a hefe, 10-14 days in primary and you're ready to go. Everything else is the same.

"Why is my beer so clear?"

Wow, that's about the most bassackwards question I think I've seen in the beginners brew forum.

Hopefully that'll be the worst thing you have to deal with.

Lil' Sparky said:

"Why is my beer so clear?"

Wow, that's about the most bassackwards question I think I've seen in the beginners brew forum.

Hopefully that'll be the worst thing you have to deal with.

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Goes along with - "Why has my fermentation started?" and "Why isn't my beer contaminated?"

And the granddaddy of them all...

"Oh, no! I think my beer isn't ruined!"

I recently did basically the same thing while making an American Wheat and got the exact results you got....

+1 on what Got Trub said....if you want it cloudy, pour 3/4 of it into your glass, swirl around the last 1/4 to mix in the yeast in the bottom and then pour it in your glass....mmmm tasty.

hefe = yeast
weizen = wheat
weisse = white
dunkel = dark

love me some wheat beers