Cloudy Beers with Flocculant Yeast??

[Munchman]

This is happened to me twice now and I can't figure out why. The first time was a BYO clone of Surly's Bitter Brewer that I made with Fermentis S-04. I took a sample after fermentation and it was nearly perfectly clear. Then I did a sizable dry hop and the beer turned cloudy. Like substantially cloudy - it looked like dirty pond water. A cold crash didn't help and even 2 months in the keg it was still very cloudy, although a bit clearer. Beer tasted great, but not appetizing to look at.

Then I made the CYBI Mirror Pond clone with Wyeast 1968. Same deal - was super clear after fermentation, then dry hopped and super cloudy. I cold crashed and even tried gelatin that time. After a month and a half in the keg it's still not even remotely clear.

Now I know dry hopping will cloud a beer a bit, but I made a Janet's Brown batch and that beer was dry hopped and came out super clear. Same with another IPA I made. Only difference with those was that I used 1056 with them. Cold crashing got them decently clear and then a couple weeks in the keg they were nicely clear.

I can only imagine that other people in general are not having this issue with English yeasts and dry hopping. Any hints of what I should look for in my process to figure out what's happening? I know clarity is not a huge deal, but a clear beer does enhance the enjoyment of some types of beers.

 

[MachineShopBrewing]

Clear beer is a function of having the right particles in the right concentrations so that they bind together and become heavier to drop out. When you dry hop you add in polyphenols and tannins that will cloud up the beer, along with some hop oils which also cloud it up. Tannins and polyphenols have the opposite charge as yeast and proteins. My speculation is that the lower floccing yeast will still be there to grab onto those excess polyphenols to drop them out.

I like to hit mine with polyclar when I have a hop haze that I can't get to drop. That stuff works great for clearing hoppy beers.

 

[maida7]

Dry hops can produce some haze. And chill haze will only form when the beer is cold. So if it was warm in the fermenter when it appeared clear, it may look hazy when it's cold and the chill haze is visible.

There are finings you can use to clear these hazes.

 

[Munchman]

Thanks for the responses. Looks like I should give Polyclar a go and see if it helps with my next one.