How do i combat chill haze
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Leave'em in the fridge for a few days,up to 5-7 days & it'll settle out. Getting the hot wort chilled down to pitch temp in 20 minutes or less will eliminate or greatly reduce chill haze at fridge time.
I've used a wort chiller for all of my batches and never had any chill haze issues until recently? I know that wheat beers tend to be hazy by nature but does that apply to Pilsen beers? That's the common factor in the last 2 of my brews that have ended up hazy after being crystal clear at the time it was siphoned into the keg.
I'm starting to wonder if chill haze isn't my issue and instead it's CO2 related.
homebrewdad
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This. Long term refridgeration helps a ton.
Well,it could be like my 1st partial mash pale. It wasn't like chill haze,but it went in clear,but got a bit clearer over 5 days than it was. Just didn't look like the usual foggy chill haze. I think the grains have some other quality that produces something a lil different. I'll have to keep an eye on this next pm batch to seif this lil more clear thing happens again.
I'm not too clear on what changed between your previous beers and the ones now with chill haze. Can you elaborate?
jkendal,
The main differences are:
1. My last 2 beers I've been less diligent about getting it into a keg and I've had them sit in secondary longer. Normally I'd ferment 2 weeks, 1 week in secondary and then right into the keg.
2. Used Pilsen Malt Extract, which I'd never used before
3. Been having keg issues and had 2 kegs go bad so I'm paranoid and not using that particular keg anymore.
4. Wondering if I need Food Grade CO2 or to clean my CO2 hoses?
You can see I'm all over the board here, but I've done 18 extract brews this calendar year and the last 2 have been cloudy when the rest have been crystal clear. You can see why I'd be puzzled and wondering if it's equipment related.
I remember one pale ale I brewed where I'd used extra light DME in it,which is the same as pilsen basically. Took a little longer to clear than a like pale with light DME. It could be that pilsen/extra light malts are more temperature sensative? I always assumed that food grade gasses were needed.
OK, you're not bottling, correct? Normally I associate chill haze with bottling. If you're kegging only (like me) and you haven't experienced this before using pilsen LME (which I've never used), you might need to let the keg chill a bit longer. I usually crash-cool my fermenters a few days before kegging (sometimes a week). Then I let the keg sit a week on gas at serving temp while they carbonate naturally. And I wouldn't worry about leaving your beer in secondary for longer than you normally do. Longer is most often times better anyway.
As to the problem with your 2 kegs going bad, when was the last time you replaced your transfer tubing? I had an infection one time and couldn't figure it out. I was doing everything right to avoid infection. Then I read an article about spring cleaning and it said you should replace inexpensive items (like transfer hoses, stoppers, etc.) every year or so. I tried that and my infections stopped. Now I replace them every year. Tubing is cheap - a batch of brew isn't.
Also, are you cleaning your keg parts periodically? Just soaking in cleaner and sanitizer between every brew isn't enough. Try boiling all the keg's parts every 3 or 4 brews - especially the dip tube. Get a long brush for the dip tube, too - sometimes bacteria can hide in there. Replace all the rubber gaskets periodically (every year or 3).
EDIT: cleaning your CO2 hoses isn't a bad idea, either. Especially if you force carb and beer backflows into the tubing. If that's happening to you, I'd replace the tubing right away and stop force carbing. Let your kegs sit on gas at serving pressure (and serving temp) for a week, letting them carb up naturally.
And on the question of food grade CO2, that's only a concern if you're getting your CO2 from someplace other than your LHBS, like a welding supply company - if that's the case, just tell them what you're using it for - sometimes CO2 gas can have impurities in it that's only used in welding applications. At least that's what I've heard...
highgravitybacon
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I had massive issues with haze in general until I started treating my brewing water. What I do with my water isn't going to apply to you, but in general the calcium in our water is fairly low so I added sufficient calcium chloride to get calcium to 70-80 ppm.
Before it got really cold, when it was getting into the high 30s outside at night, I just put a bunch of beer in a rubbermaid container and left it outside for about a week. Worked great.
