Cloudy Beer

My first career brew is Irish Red Ale and it's ready to drink. My wife and I were really impressed with the taste and cleanness of the beer. We both feel it was a bit cloudy though. Any reasons for cloudy? Any ways to fix or prevent cloudy beer?

HB is typically cloudy. There are things you can do to clear it up like adding Irish Moss or finings. People use other methods like racking to a secondary or cold crashing. Other people enjoy their HB being a little cloudy. It's a matter of personal taste.

You can try using either Irish moss or Whirfloc tablets in the boil at the last 15 minutes. These are fining agents that help the proteins coagulate and drop out of suspension when cooling.

In addition, how long was the beer in the primary or secondary. If the beer is left long enough, most of the trub should settle out nicely. In addition you need to be careful when racking to be sure you are not disturbing the trub layer and stirring things up. You can also use a hop bag over your racking cane to act as a filter when transferring to the bottling bucket.

Cheers and congrats on the first beer!

Thanks much. I had it in the primary for 2 weeks then bottled. When siphoning it in the bottling bucket, the beer seemed really clear. But when poured it into a glass yesterday it just seemed cloudy and hazy. But hey atleast it tasted good. Thanks for the ideas guys.

Chilling the hot wort is probably the biggest opportunity to clear up beer.

I use sanitary ice cubes to top up and cool the wort and my beer is super clear..(except my wheat beer )

A wort chiller or ice are great time savers and reduce risk of conrtamination in addition to clearing beer.

For most, Just let it sit for a few weeks, it will most likely taste even better, and should be clearer.
what kind of fining you use is dependent on what is causing the haze. when the beer warms up, does it clear up?

cheezydemon3 said:

Chilling the hot wort is probably the biggest opportunity to clear up beer.

I use sanitary ice cubes to top up and cool the wort and my beer is super clear..(except my wheat beer )

A wort chiller or ice are great time savers and reduce risk of conrtamination in addition to clearing beer.

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I have a question about chilling wort. I use a wort chiller and get down to pitching temps quickly. When I get close to the right temp I pour through a strainer into my fermentation bucket. Is that the wrong thing to do? I mean, if I am chilling my wort to get the solids to fall to the bottom, am I undoing all that good work by pouring everything into my fermentation bucket?

Cheers, Max

EDIT : found my answer.

HibsMax said:

I have a question about chilling wort. I use a wort chiller and get down to pitching temps quickly. When I get close to the right temp I pour through a strainer into my fermentation bucket. Is that the wrong thing to do? I mean, if I am chilling my wort to get the solids to fall to the bottom, am I undoing all that good work by pouring everything into my fermentation bucket?

Cheers, Max

EDIT : found my answer.

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NO!! That sounds fine.

Some evidence suggests that straining actually makes beer cloudier. I don't strain, and the thinking is that protiens are able to cling to the "bits" and fall out of suspension during fermentation.

I DON'T strain, and my beer is crystal.

Good to know. I guess I don't need to strain since I use muslin bags for the hops and lots of people, like yourself, don't strain anyway. I started straining before I used bags and just continued.

I would strain the wort through the grain bag to rinse, or Vorlauf, if you will.
Ideally the still hot wort could be passed back between 2 vessels, transferring maybe a colander or strainer with the grain bag in it.

I do NOT use a bag, but I dump the grains into a large strainer that I suspend over an empty pot, I then dump the wort back and forth until there is little to no sediment. this is before chilling and only takes 5 minutes or so.

I just want to point out that BIB may let some small particles through that I am actually filtering or vorlaufing out.

I don't filter out the Hop bits after boil.

eppo said:

For most, Just let it sit for a few weeks, it will most likely taste even better, and should be clearer.
what kind of fining you use is dependent on what is causing the haze. when the beer warms up, does it clear up?

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I can't say the beer is clearer when it warms up because I haven't tried that, but what i do notice is the beer seems much clearer in the bottle before refrigerating.

duboman said:

You can try using either Irish moss or Whirfloc tablets in the boil at the last 15 minutes. These are fining agents that help the proteins coagulate and drop out of suspension when cooling.

In addition, how long was the beer in the primary or secondary. If the beer is left long enough, most of the trub should settle out nicely. In addition you need to be careful when racking to be sure you are not disturbing the trub layer and stirring things up. You can also use a hop bag over your racking cane to act as a filter when transferring to the bottling bucket.

Cheers and congrats on the first beer!

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That's a genius idea. I've been losing about a gallon of beer when bottling due to so much sediment. I'm going to try this next time.

Homebrew should NOT be cloudy! If it is, that means there is an issue somewhere. Some kinds, like wheat beers, can have a haze just as the commercial version does, but "cloudy" should not be the norm for homebrew.

The first thing to do, now that it's finished, is wait for it to carb up well, and then try sticking them in a fridge for two weeks or so. That should encourage any yeast still in suspension to fall to the bottom as well as to drop chill haze that might be occurring.

When you make the beer, make sure you get a nice rolling boil. Use some "Whirlfloc" in the kettle with 10 minutes left in the boil. When you chill the wort, chill fast to under 70 degrees. The combination of whirlfloc (a seaweed type of fining) and the fast chilling, lots and lots of excess proteins will coagulate and fall to the bottom of the fermenter. This is called "cold break". It looks terrible! Big goobers of coagulated protein- but it's a good thing!

Ingredients also make a difference in the clarity of beer. Wheat, for example, has more protein. Some yeast strains are non-flocculant and take a long time to clear the beer. If you use a strain like S04, the yeast will actually compact down into a tight little cake at the end of fermentation, leaving nice clear beer on top to rack off. Sometimes really hoppy beers may have a hint of hops haze, but even that isn't all that common in a well made beer.

Keep at it! Each time you brew, you'll get more practiced at it.

cheezydemon3 said:

I would strain the wort through the grain bag to rinse, or Vorlauf, if you will.
Ideally the still hot wort could be passed back between 2 vessels, transferring maybe a colander or strainer with the grain bag in it.

I do NOT use a bag, but I dump the grains into a large strainer that I suspend over an empty pot, I then dump the wort back and forth until there is little to no sediment. this is before chilling and only takes 5 minutes or so.

I just want to point out that BIB may let some small particles through that I am actually filtering or vorlaufing out.

I don't filter out the Hop bits after boil.

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Yea don't do this with hot wort. You will oxidize it vs at cooler temps you will oxygenate it. Yes they are a different process. Just pour through a sanitized grain or hops bag after the wort is cool.

NFamato said:

I can't say the beer is clearer when it warms up because I haven't tried that, but what i do notice is the beer seems much clearer in the bottle before refrigerating.

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Do a search for chill haze. That's what you are dealing with. The easy option is give it a couple extra weeks in the fridge and it will clear on its own (in most cases).

Typical cause is not cooling the wort fast enough after the boil.

When you guys say chill the wort down to 70 - 80 degrees after the boil, how quickly are we talking about? How many minutes?

NFamato said:

When you guys say chill the wort down to 70 - 80 degrees after the boil, how quickly are we talking about? How many minutes?

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Ideally, 15-20 minutes from boiling to 70 degrees.

Also, some yeasts don't create a hard pack at the bottom of the bottle. I will pull beers out of the fridge and they are crystal clear. However, if I am not careful about my pour, a little yeast will go back into suspension and create haze.

One of my favorite yeasts is s-04 for this reason. Those babies flocculate hard and make for really bright beer without the need to add animal bits.

Draken said:

Yea don't do this with hot wort. You will oxidize it vs at cooler temps you will oxygenate it. Yes they are a different process. Just pour through a sanitized grain or hops bag after the wort is cool.

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Hot side aeration has been pretty well de-bunked, and considering that I do this with hot wort (it has to be hot or you will get a stuck sparge) on EVERY brew with no issues, I think it is OK.

HibsMax said:

HB is typically cloudy. There are things you can do to clear it up like adding Irish Moss or finings. People use other methods like racking to a secondary or cold crashing. Other people enjoy their HB being a little cloudy. It's a matter of personal taste.

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Homebrew is not "typically cloudy." It's no more cloudy than any commercial bottle conditioned beer, which can be crystal clear, but with a little sediment in the bottom of the bottle.

My HB is crystal clear.

I find that for me, long primaries, and then at least a week refrigeration nets me extremely clear beers regardless of whether or not I use finings or not. And "pouring from the shoulder."

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyXn4UBjQkE]Episode 013 - How To Pour The Perfect Pint Of Homebrew - YouTube[/ame]

The only "cloudy" homebrew, OR commercial beer, should be intentionally cloudy, such as hefes, which have low flocculating yeast in it. And are meant to be cloudy.

My beers have been crystal clear and i do the following based on feedback in this forum.
1) Whirfloc 15 minutes before end of boil.
2) Use a wort chiller to get temp down quickly after boil
3) Extended time in primary and i don't use a secondary (good advice i got from Revvy).
4) Cold crash for two days
5) Add gelatin 1 day before going in the keg

I can read a book through my beer.

I add no finings to my kettle. I leave it in the primary close to 3 weeks usually. I let it sit in the fridge for several days before I open it, and I have clear beer.

tonyc318 said:

I add no finings to my kettle. I leave it in the primary close to 3 weeks usually. I let it sit in the fridge for several days before I open it, and I have clear beer.

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What beer is in the picture? Nice clarity.

Draken said:

Do a search for chill haze. That's what you are dealing with. The easy option is give it a couple extra weeks in the fridge and it will clear on its own (in most cases).

Typical cause is not cooling the wort fast enough after the boil.

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I agree. In my limited experience, reds seems especially prone to this. Couple weeks in the fridge usually clear it up

NFamato said:

What beer is in the picture? Nice clarity.

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The one on the left is a honey Kolsch. The second one is an amber ale. Both extract kits from Northern Brewer