Chill Haze??

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HopSong

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I did a search for "chill haze" There are a ton of posts.. but, I couldn't find a definition. I just put a bottle of my first brew in the frig this morning and it developed a "sediment" on the sides of the bottle.. Looks like something growing on the sides.. which was not there before putting in the frig.

Will this settle out? If I turned the bottle on it's side and rolled it to "disturb" the sediment.. will it get back into suspension and fall to the bottom of the bottle?

Thanks for any pointers.
 
Chill haze is a collective term for a number of proteins that are semi-dissolved in your beer. In room temperature, these proteins are dissolved (well not really dissolved, but suspended) in the beer, so they're invisible. When you chill the beer, the proteins come out of suspension and form a cloudy haze in the beer. Hence "Chill Haze"

Best way to avoid chill haze is to cool your beer as rapidity as you can, and get a good "cold break", which lets these proteins drop out of suspension completely and end up as trub, rather than end up in your beer.

As for your "sediment": What you are probably looking at is yeast that has dropped out of suspension and collected on the sides on the bottle. These is a known technique for clarifying beer, and is known as "cold crash". In it you take beer that has been bottled and allowed to carbonate, and cool is down below the dormancy temperature of the yeast (typically you just put it in a fridge) The yeast goes dormant and falls out of the beer, and you get a clearer beer. Chances are if you shook the bottle and then set it upright, the yeast will collect again in the bottom.

Hope this helps
 
Thanks Boist.. I expect the flocculation on the bottom.. hope that's the correct term. It's what is attached to the sides of my nice clean bottles that had me stumped.
 
If it's dusty looking,& a white to light tan color,it's yeast. Rollin it gently to shake it loose,then back in the fridge should help. To me,chill haze reminds me of a heavy fog bank. As fridge time marches on,it settles to the bottom like a fog.
 
I wrapped it in a towel (I didn't think it would be a bottle bomb.. :eek: ) and rolled it on the counter. We'll see if that helps.

Is this something that the residual yeast will ultimately clean up..? I don't really have a problem with it.. but, next time, I do one of these Coopers kits, I'll probably use Whirlfloc. With the Coopers DIY, ya don't need a chiller.. Hopefully, it'll all turn out great for my first born child :D
 
What I'm saying is,the residue IS the settling yeast. It just clung to the sides of the bottle for some reason. Were the bottles scrubbed out well? It reminds me of why bubbles stick to the side of the glass. Dirty residue,or that oily film from soaps with spot eliminators in it. Do you use soap to clean the bottles? I use PBW & a bottle brush,& it all goes to the bottom...
 
Maybe that's where I went wrong. All my bottles LOOKED clean.. no obvious "stuff" in them. I just soaked for an hour in Oxyclean.. rinsed very well and sanitized.. didn't use a brush. I just put one bottle in the fridge two days ago to give it a taste when I noticed the cloudy appearance. I'll leave that one bottle in there for another few days and try it on Sunday. The rest are just sitting in my bathtub in boxes. I bottled on day 23 (10/28).. so they have been sitting in the tub for about 12 days now. Maybe it's really too early to test 'em out? This is my Coopers "Lager" Ale. Temp in tub is from about 62-68.. nite vs day.
 
I'd give'em 3-4 weeks,the better being 4. Especially at 62-68F. Then fridge for a week or two. But chill haze can last a couple of days if the wort wasn't chilled down fast enough. The faster it is chilled down,the less haze you get,& the faster it dissapears.
 
Could it be residue from the Oxyclean? Is it on any of the empty bottles that you might have soaked in Oxyclean, and not used since? Starsan will counteract it.:mug:
 
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