I now know why some of my kegs dispense cloudy beer

My German Alt beer was consistently cloudy. From first draw to last spluttery glass. (tasted great though). I kept referring to the recipe and no...no wheat...no oats..nothing that should make a murkey brew.

After polishing off the keg in two weeks, I popped the lid and looked down to see my dip tube buried about 1/8th inch into the sediment that had formed.

Apparently, the sediment was not fluid enough to get sucked out with the first couple beers. That dip tube was simply too long and centered in the very bottom of the keg.

I removed the dip tube and gave it a bend so that now it is riding about 3/8" above the bottom. Well above the normal sediment layer. I figure I'll loose a half-glass of beer but so what.

Any one else have a problem with dip tubes constantly sucking "goo" because they were too long?

Are you force carbing or natural priming? I use a secondary, crash cool, then force carb and the first and last pint is clear.

I force carb and use a secondary, but I prolly am not leaving in the secondary long enough, hence some additional fallout in the keg. Hopefully the dip tube clear of that fallout will solve the problem.

I don't have the capacity (yet) to crash cool with my sanyo full and no freezerator. I have a couple of batches that I just racked to kegs and stuck out doors (covered in plastic) where the temp is 37-45 the last few days. I'll bring those in after a few days and maybe even rack them off those kegs and into fresh kegs.

I don't know that I can prevent fallout in the keg, but maybe I can avoid it.

I've had very little trouble with cloudy ales and I keg directly from the fermenter most of the time. Typically, I'll leave a batch in the fermenter 3-4 weeks. In the cold time, I put the fermenter outside over-night before kegging.

There's always gonna be some be at least some sediment in there. Really depends on how flocculant the yeasties, how long you've left the beer in secondary, and how careful you are racking it into the keg. Bending the tube shouldn't hurt it...but you'll lose a couple pints.

I just ditched the last of 1-2 pints of my munich dunkel last night. It was coming out SUPER cloudy....and I was kinda tired of choking it down

I've never done it but I've heard of many people cutting the last 1/2 inch or so of the dip tube for just this reason.

krispy d said:

I've never done it but I've heard of many people cutting the last 1/2 inch or so of the dip tube for just this reason.

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I did cut off 3/8" off the dip tubes that were straight. The other tubes had a bend in them and I just gave them a bit more bend. I estimate I'll loose more like 8-10Oz.

BierMuncher said:

I don't know that I can prevent fallout in the keg, but maybe I can avoid it.

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Your yeast strain will also affect this. Some yeast strains flocc out earlier than others. I use Nottingham a lot, and this particular yeast strain floccs out very well. I usually leave the beer alone at least 10 days after it has finished actively fermenting. When I transfer to keg (even from primary) my beer is crystal clear. It packs solid at the bottom of the fermenter. At the end of my keg, I usually have just a light, but firmly packed film of yeast on the bottom of the keg. I never get it in my glass.