Cloudy beer

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pperrydawg

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Feb 11, 2012
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Is there any reason my Kolsch would get more cloudy the longer it was bottled? I tried my beer one week in and it was pretty good and had decent clarity in just 1 week. Then I tried another tonight (almost 3 weeks bottled) and it tasted not so great and was more cloudy. What's up with that? Could I have just tried a bad one? Highly disappointed.
 
Kolsch yeast makes a kolsch. US-05 is an American Ale yeast. Can you take a picture of what it looks like in the bottle or glass? If it racked over with little or no sediment and now it has sediment it still has activity. What did you do to carbonate?
 
I made a BB Koelsch with Notty... I know that yields it NOT a koelsch. It's more like a blonde ale now. Mine is very cloudy but quite tasty. I did brew an extract kit (my first brew), rack to secondary after 1 week because I needed my primary for another brew, kept in secondary for 2 weeks then cold crashed at 35F for 2 days then kegged and carbed. It's quite hazy, can't even think about seeing through it, but it is delicious.
 
I was thinking I could go with a better yeast, but it was my maiden batch so I didn't know better. It's just hard to understand how it could be clear on the initial bottle I opened and get cloudier? I bottled with priming sugar that came with extract kit from northern brewer. Again, the carbonation is pretty good just doesn't really taste like a kolsch. Closer to blue moon type beer really.
 
Bottled beer will also get "chill haze" from the proteins reacting to the cold temps. This is a result of a relatively slow cooling of the wort on brewday before fermentation. 2-4 weeks in the fridge at under 40F will clear up the chill haze.

If you didn't use any, Whirlfloc is very cheap (like $2.00 a 10 pack) product that goes in the boil that coagulates proteins and helps clear up your beer without all the wait.
 
I think your exactly right on the fridge haze. I only threw about a third of the batch in the fridge and I just checked the batch still at 70 and it is pretty clear. Mystery solved! (hopefully) :)
 
Try to chill your wort down to pitch temp in 20 minutes or less to elliminate or reduce chill haze at fridfge time. It takes a good few days for the foggy chill haze to settle out. 2 weeks fridge time will give thicker head & longer lasting carbonation. It'll also compact the yeast dregs tighter on the bottom of the bottle to allow more beer to be poured out.
 
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