why is my beer hazy?

I just tapped a simcoe IPA that i brewed 5 weeks ago, and despite my attempts to get a nice, clear beer, it's still hazy.

I think i did most of the tricks to getting a clear beer: irish moss, immersion chiller, secondary, fine grained bag for dry hopping, and racked the beer through another fine grained bag into the keg. I also cold crashed for 24hrs at 35 degrees prior to transferring from the secondary to keg to help things settle.

Only thing i didn't use was gelatin.

It was an extract recipe with about 3lbs of amber DME, 4lbs of extra light DME, a slew of simcoe hops, and S-04 dry yeast.

The beer tastes good and has the general color i was hoping for, but has that wheat beer haziness and "glow" to it.

Any suggestions for next time?

Wait longer.

Good, descriptive response. Thanks

did you put any specialty grains in it? Put some in a glass and let it set till room temperature. If it is crystal clear after setting out at room temp for a while then your problem is chill haze and you may consider putting some pectic enzyme in it.

Did you get a good hot break? Not as much of an issue with extract, but it can still be an issue.

No specialty grains, just DME. I did get a good hot break...i use the stovetop in conjunction with a heatstick, so it gets hot and boils hard pretty quickly.

Sometimes hops can cause some haze. If it's a really hoppy beer, you could have a hops haze. That doesn't always clear up, but sometimes it does with some time.

Is the haze only there when the beer is cold, but clear when it's warm? If that's the case, it's chill haze. That's fixable by storing the beer about a week in the fridge, to cause the protiens causing the haze to finally drop out of suspension. For your next batch, using whirlfloc (instead of Irish moss) will help, as will a very fast chilling to get a good cold break.

Gritsak said:

Good, descriptive response. Thanks

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keep the keg in the fridge for longer, it takes about a two weeks for my chill haze to drop out.

A couple of weeks at refrigerator temps will probably clear the beer up nicely. Usually my kegs start to clear about half way through. A longer term initial cold crashing will give you that same success but then you can't start tasting it while it is happening. Once you have a pipeline going then leave your beers crashing longer!

Thanks for the replies. I've got a pint sitting out at room temp now to see if it clears once it warms up. However, i keep drinking it so this experiment might not turn out well.


Thanks

Gritsak said:

Thanks for the replies. I've got a pint sitting out at room temp now to see if it clears once it warms up. However, i keep drinking it so this experiment might not turn out well.


Thanks

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The solution to that is to pour another pint!

I let it warm up to room temp (~60 in my cold ass apt)...it's cleared some, but still a bit hazy. So, possibly a combination of chill and hop haze?...we'll see what a couple weeks in the fridge does. I'll look into trying whirlfloc next time.

To be clear, I didn't mean my response to be sarcastic. It's just that the solution to most haze problems is to let the beer sit for quite a while longer, either at room temp or cellar temp.

If you wanna clear it, it's not too late. I regularly hit my kegs with gelatin after tapping and being unhappy with clarity.

Just sprinkle a packet of gelatin into 100-200 mL cold water, let sit 20 min, warm to 180, let sit 5 minutes, (no need to chill), then vent keg, pop lid off, dump in gelatin, seal lid back up (QUICK, cuz it will foam!), purge/vent with CO2 to get rid of any nasty O2 you just may have reintroduced.

In 24 hours in your keggerator, that keg will be crystal clear. (First pour may be hazy as it pulls out the gelatin, but after that you will be crystal).

I made a blonde this past summer that never cleared. Otherwise a few days at fridge temp does wonders. I've gotten really clear beer before when I forgot the Irish Moss. Just careful siphoning and cold crashing.

Ingredients can cause it too, as mentioned, but I am not sure what some of the worst offenders are. I don't worry too much about it because a little haze is no big deal to me.

You better pour another