cloudy beer

Hi,here I am brand new to beer making I have made my first brew from a lager kit,I have followed the instuctions to the letter and now its at the 3 weeks in the barrel stage but it has a nice head smells great but..when i say its cloudy thats an understatment you cannot see through it when it is in the glass..I would be grateful for any suggestions thanks,....Filbs

Another couple weeks should clear it up. Lagers take more time for yeast to work and settle out.

Did u just put it in the primary??

What temperature is it at?

When you are talking glass, do you mean the whole carboy or a cup? In every batch that I have made I was pretty much unable to see through the carboy, but when I racked it to or bottled it, it was much clearer. The only reason for the difference was because the light was unable to penitrate through that much volume in the carboy, but was able to in a small tube.

Thank you...on following the instruction at the stage of kegging 2 days warm and then 2 weeks somewhere cold its now in the conservetory which is cold I am in the UK its winter still here....When I say cloudy I mean when I put it into a glass you cant see through it....Thanks again....Filbs

If it's really cold (< 5C I guess) you may have chill haze. I guess that's what the Baron tried to get at when he asked for the temp. Or you may have a poorly flocculating yeast strain.

Kai

Thank you,could you explain a focculating yeaste strain please,and if it is to cold if I bring it inside would that cure the chill haze,thanks.

filbs123 said:

Thank you,could you explain a focculating yeaste strain please,and if it is to cold if I bring it inside would that cure the chill haze,thanks.

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Some yeast strains are more flocculating than others. That means, a more flocculant yest drops out faster buy forming clumps of yeast. A notorious low flocculating yeast is Koelsh and Alt yeast. You can find the level of flocculation for your yeast on the WYeast or WhiteLabs web-pages.

Chill haze develops from soluble proteins at low temperatures. they simply go out of solution and form this very fine haze that settles very very slowly. Chill haze will go away if the beer is warmed up (> 8C should work). I dispense most of my beers at 10C and they are clear even though they may show haze at lagering temps (1..2C).

I see chill haze as a cosmetic problem that doesn't need to be addressed in my beers right now.

Kai

Thank you,I have tasted the beer today and to be honest it tastes great a good head and smaell but...it looks rank I think if I was served it in a pub they would get it back it looks like it could give you a very poorly head and belly.Do you think it would.

Did you use anything like Irish moss or whirlfloc during your boil to precipitate some of the proteins? That's usually the first step towards achieving clarity (though not strictly necessary). The other, which the Kaiser alludes to, is time at a chilly temperature. By forcing the chill haze to form, it may then precipitate over time, and you can rack the clarified beer off of the trub.

I use both of these techniques with pretty good success, but don't worry about it too much if I don't reach the standard because it's really just an aesthetic issue. In fact, now that my garage is heating up with spring I really don't have a cold storage location.

I am always amazed at the clarity of my beer after I started using whirlfloc tabs! In the last wheat beer batch I forgot and added one of the things and my wheat beer turned out looking about like yuengling! Actually, it's a bit more orange.. kinda looks like orange gatorade in the clear newcastle bottles. It was 60% wheat malt and it's as clear as day (though I did use a a protein rest during the mash).

As for your chill haze - it's a purely cosmetic problem. If it bothers you then just drink the beer a bit warmer. I imagine you're doing extract batches, if so then probably the best thing you could do would be to add some irish moss of whirlfloc in the last 15 minutes of the boil. Finings added in the secondary can also help clarify but I don't recall if they will affect chill haze... frankly I'm not too knowledgeable about this subject since I've never cared much about the clarity of my beers and have typically had very clear beers and have thus never used any finings or done any filtering.