cloudy beer only when pressurized?

[firsttraxx]

Hi folks,

Friday a buddy of mine and I met up for a flyfishing getaway at the cabin. He arrived first, found the kegerator and poured a beer.

I arrived 4 hours later, and he brought a beer to me while I unloaded gear. The stuff was crystal clear, aromatic, and perfect. I assumed this was from my keg of Ranger, but he corrected me - tap on the left. Redneck IIPA. My troubled homebrew.

I was shocked. Last week, this stuff looked like a thunderstorm. Cloudy and depressing. No aromatic tones. Now, it's perfect.

I'm stoked. We fish. I catch Jack. He slays trout. I eat crow.

We return to the cabin, and the keg of redneck IIPA starts pouring slow. Busted prostate slow. Beer's still perfect, but something's wrong. I discover that the gas to the Redneck IIPA is still off at the manifold.

Simple. Flip gas on at manifold.

Boom. Cloudy-ass beer.

Son of a ...

Help me validate a theory, will you?

I'm thinking that while I was gone, and the gas to the keg was off, stuff settled, and clear beer resulted. It had previously been in primary for 3 weeks, secondary for 3 weeks, kegged for one week. Once things were repressurized, sediment was stirred back into solution, and cloudy beer happened.

So, I should rack this stuff to a new keg for serving, being careful not to transfer the sediment, right?

I should also make my buddy wait in the driveway from now on if he's going to embarass me on the river, right?

 

[Hammy71]

Yeah, you stirred up the sediment. You can transfer, let it sit (and it'll clear on it's own), or better yet, just drink cloudy beer.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

If you don't move it around, the gas shouldn't stir up any sediment. Is your serving pressure too high maybe?

 

[day_trippr]

[...]I should also make my buddy wait in the driveway from now on if he's going to embarass me on the river, right?

Here's what you do to get even: offer to tie a "killer" fly on his tippet, then tie on a fly that you've already cut off just in front of the barb (I mean no point, no barb, just a bend)...

Cheers!

 

[firsttraxx]

Hammy: Makes sense. It seems like the dip tube is at the lowest point so any sediment should have drawn off with the first few pints, but I suppose stirring the whole thing up would bring back all remaining sediment. Nothing wrong with cloudy.

BBL: I think I had to shift the keg to get to the regulator. I'll be reorienting things when I'm at the cabin next. Right now, I'm serving at 6 or 7 PSI, but I may drop that to 5 if I can get it to clear. Good suggestion. Thanks!

day_trippr: Hilarious. I'm totally doing that after lunch/beer break next time. He may be wise to my shenanigans, as I tend to drop rocks in his backpack whenever I get the chance. Still, it's worth a shot.

Thanks, all!

 

[Coldies]

IMO Serving pressure should only affect the beer clarity if its super high and is sucking the additional yeast around the diptube. Follow me here, when the beer is being pushed at 6-7 PSI it's sucking from the bottom at 6-7 PSI, of course your first few pints will be cloudy from the yeast on the bottom but after that most of the time the yeast will be clear of the dip tube, if its suddenly turned up to a higher PSI then obviously its sucking at a higher rate from the bottom resulting in sucking up additional yeast that the low PSI was unable to get . I have had to shift kegs when a new one goes into the kegerator and the beer will stay cloudy for a few hours depending on how much I moved it around. But the next day they are usually clear after the first pint to draw the yeast up.