Can final turbidity and haze come from flour like fines from the malt grinding?

[javert]

As the title say, I'm on the business of tracing the origin of haze / turbidity on my beers and one surprising answer that I've got from HLS was fine flour particles from the grinding that wouldn't drop out of suspension.

On the one hand it feels like being told a bad excuse to cover up a poor malt product; on the other, the turbidity I'm getting does resemble the one gotten on Witbiers which I've actually added flour at boil to get the turbid look.

Is it your experience that grinding might bring flour-like particles that contribute to haze? Is this dependant on the malt or solely on the mill? Could it be prevented by filtering before the boil or should I go for filtering after the cold crash?

 

[cire]

Haze can come in many forms with many different causes. You don't say the type of beer or the method and equipment used, both can have a significant bearing on clarity.

Fine milling will allow for higher extraction but with greater potential for small particles finding their way into the finished beer while just cracking the husk will reduce small items while marginally limiting extraction of sugars. A period of gentle recycling wort through the mash will capture many small particles and a good rolling boil and copper finings will compound most of many remaining to form hot and cold break. Care should be taken when transferring wort to the FV to limit the transfer of haze forming matter.

Haze will be caused by a high mash pH, while calcium is very effective in clarifying beer, depositing oxalates in the mash, break in the kettle and yeast as fermentation completes.

 

[Vale71]

The smalles flour particle is tens of times larger than an average yeast cell which means it will settle much faster than yeast itself. If you have persistent haze you have to look elsewhere for the cause. It could be poorly flocculating yeast but it could also be protein-based haze.

 

[DBhomebrew]

I BIAB. Lots of flour and no vorlauf. I also bottle condition. Most beers will be crystal clear in the bottle after a couple weeks. Into the fridge, they'll haze up again for a few days. Given a week in the fridge, they're crystal clear again.

How long have these beers been given to think about their errant ways?