Wheat yeasts, cloudiness and kegging

It is likely too late for this batch as I am kegging this weekend. However, I was wondering how, if at all others are keeping their wheat beers cloudy once kegged.

I am doing a side-by-side comparison of WLP300 and WLP320. The last time I made this recipe I used the 320. It was great in the keg until kicked. However, as kegged beers are want to do, the beer got progressively clearer in my keezer as yeast settled out and the beer lagered.

Is there a way to keep a keg of wheat beer cloudy to the end?

I think I remember reading somewhere that you could add just a small amount of baking flour at the end of your boil. The writer's theory was that it was not fermentable, would not settle out of solution in the beer, and would add no noticeable change to the flavor. But I've long since given up believing that everything I read on the Internet is true.

Flour works well, but it, too, will eventually settle out. Since a Hefeweizen (assuming that's what you are brewing) is cloudy from yeast, just shaking the kegs up or storing them upside down prior to serving will resuspend the yeast into the beer.

Not a hefe. It's an American Rye from Jamil's style profile in one of last year's issues of BYO. He suggested 320 for it. I've brewed it that way a couple of times and have to lock it away from my wife. This time out, I decided to go with a side by side split batch to compare the 320 and the 300. It's always been light colored and nice and cloudy when I first tap the keg. By the end of the beer, it's almost always crystal clear.

Not that I mind terribly. I just like the cloudy look.

How often would you shake the keg, considering I will have it in a keezer? Will that not cause foaming issues?

winvarin said:

Not a hefe. It's an American Rye from Jamil's style profile in one of last year's issues of BYO. He suggested 320 for it. I've brewed it that way a couple of times and have to lock it away from my wife. This time out, I decided to go with a side by side split batch to compare the 320 and the 300. It's always been light colored and nice and cloudy when I first tap the keg. By the end of the beer, it's almost always crystal clear.

Not that I mind terribly. I just like the cloudy look.

How often would you shake the keg, considering I will have it in a keezer? Will that not cause foaming issues?

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Just shake it whenever it starts to clear, and vent the headspace if it gets too foamy.

I don't think you need to move the keg much to stir some yeast back up into solution. I've had a few non-hefes that were pretty non-flocculant (like 1056) and if you bumped up against the keg while you were moving others it would stir some back up every time.

I'd also heard of the flour idea, but haven't tried it out yet. If the assumption is you're adding starches, I'm surprised they settle out so easily. The other thing you can look at is protein cloudiness. Some of the cloudiness from hefes come from the proteins in wheat. Not sure what the relationship is to rye, but if you're currently doing a protein-rest step you could skip that. The other option would be to try to prevent a good cold break by cooling your wort down slowly to keep some proteins in solution, but I'd probably leave that as a last resort.

I'm not looking to over-tinker with it. I just like the cloudy look that I get with the yeast in suspension, and a bit of the tanginess that comes from a combination of the rye, the wheat and the hefe yeast.

I don't use a protein rest. The grain bill is right at about 50% 2 row, 27% wheat malt and 23% rye malt. I guess the next time I make it I could back off on the 2-row and increase the amount of wheat and rye.

The current incarnation of this beer has been in the primary 3 weeks and is still fairly hazy. I'll probably be a little less than careful when transferring and kick up some of the yeast when I keg it.

I could also always go with the low tech solution of drinking both kegs before everything settles out.

Drinking it is always a good way to go! And heck, give the flour a shot. I was thinking about trying it out on the next hefe I do, and I don't see how it could hurt your beer at all. I'd also read the same thing somewhere, so its gotta be true, right?

I wonder if it would have any sort of flavor contribution at all?

winvarin said:

I wonder if it would have any sort of flavor contribution at all?

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Yes. Try drinking a Hefeweizen and a Kristallweizen by the same brewery side-by-side - the Hefe will be more bready.

ArcaneXor said:

Yes. Try drinking a Hefeweizen and a Kristallweizen by the same brewery side-by-side - the Hefe will be more bready.

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I actually meant the addition of flour at the end of the boil. Since it's not yeast that's floating around making the beer cloudy, it's flour. Would that cause a change in flavor?

winvarin said:

I actually meant the addition of flour at the end of the boil. Since it's not yeast that's floating around making the beer cloudy, it's flour. Would that cause a change in flavor?

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Not that I have noticed when I did this with a witbier. I would use plain unbleached all-purpose flour. You don't need very much at all - a tablespoon or two is all that's needed if I recall correctly.

Really all you are doing is adding starches but making sure that the amylases don't chew them up in the mash. You'd probably get the same result if you could predict the end of conversion and stop 10 min. before hand. With wheat, you could probably even keep out a handful of grain from the mash and hit it good in a food processor or coffee grinder and make your own flour out of it. Not sure if you'd want to use malted wheat, but it might work.