Trouble shooting a cloudy beer

Hey guys, I'm relatively new to AG brewing...I've got 4 batches under my belt. I'm doing BIAB. I had a question regarding my most recent brew. I created the recipe myself and I am quite pleased with the results. This is the first beer that I have had problems with being cloudy and can't figure out why. It also tastes a touch "yeasty", not too bad though. Here is the grain bill.

9.5# Pale Malt (2-row)
0.5# Cara Pils
0.5# Crystal 20L
0.25# Munich

OG: 1.052
FG: 1.011
WLP002

I mashed for 60 minutes at 150 and batch sparged at 168.
Primary was at 66 for 17 days, then keged. It's been in the keg for 4 weeks now and it is still cloudy. I don't think it is chill haze since it remains cloudy the entire time I am drinking it. Any thoughts??

Could it be a hop haze? did you dry hop in in the keg?

CA-LT1 said:

Could it be a hop haze? did you dry hop in in the keg?

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I don't think so. I did not dry hop and had 2.75oz of total hops in this one.

how long has it been cold? does the keg get moved, like, you have to take it out of the fridge to pour a glass or something? My experience has been, once a keg sits in the kegerator for 1-2 weeks, it's crystal, unless it's infected or I dry hopped the crap out of it in the keg

It's been keged and cold for 4 weeks. I don't move it around. I let it carb for two weeks then taped into it, I thought it would have for sure cleared up by now. Like I said, I have never had this problem before. My beers are usually clear...especially after being in the keg for a few weeks. My only thought is that it needed a longer primary but 17 days doesn't seem like I pushed it too much. This one has me perplexed.

BryceL said:

It's been keged and cold for 4 weeks. I don't move it around. I let it carb for two weeks then taped into it, I thought it would have for sure cleared up by now. Like I said, I have never had this problem before. My beers are usually clear...especially after being in the keg for a few weeks. My only thought is that it needed a longer primary but 17 days doesn't seem like I pushed it too much. This one has me perplexed.

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Did it look cloudy still in primary before you kegged? I usually wait until the beer is almost totally cleared in primary, then cold crash, then keg.

The ONLY cloudy/yeasty beers I get in kegs are the ones I was impatient on, hehe.

Honestly I can't remember how cloudy it was in the carboy...it may have been a bit cloudy still. I know it didn't jump out at me as being extremely cloudy though. I like the recipe so I may have to try this one again and be a bit more patient with it and see if I can get it to clear up.

BryceL said:

Honestly I can't remember how cloudy it was in the carboy...it may have been a bit cloudy still. I know it didn't jump out at me as being extremely cloudy though. I like the recipe so I may have to try this one again and be a bit more patient with it and see if I can get it to clear up.

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Word. Irish moss in the boil works great, too.

You can try to clear the beer with gelatin. It's also possible that you didn't get great protein seperation during the hot and cold break for it to settle out. Did you use a counter flow chiller to cool it down rapidly? I would try gelatin and see if it will clear it.

You could try an experiment first by pouring a pint glass and use a small amount of gelatin gently poured on the top of the beer and see the results.

If you do, please post pics of before and after to see if that's fixes it.

I usually use whirfloc at the end of the boil, I wonder if I accidentally left it out. Never tried gelatin, I may look into that and give it a try. Thinking back though, I think the weekend I brewed this one was pretty hot out. I remember it took a while to cool it down to pitching temps using my immersion chiller, so it's possible I did have some issues with protein separation. I just purchased a pond pump that I plan on using to recirculate ice water through the chiller. Brew day is tomorrow so I'm curious to see how fast I can chill it down using this technique.

Whirfloc, that's what I couldn't remember the name of. I love that stuff. Try the gelatin, search the threads here. It works. When you circulate and chill, try whirlpooling before you transfer, it's pretty amazing how much junk can stay in the BK.

Thanks for your thoughts and input guys, appreciate it. I'll be doing this brew again and keep these thoughts in mind.