Cloudy Beer During Lagering?

Hey Everybody,

So I just racked a Bavarian Pilsner into a secondary fermenter 2 days ago (primary temp was 50F, secondary 40F), and the previously clear beer is now cloudy (with suspended yeast, I suppose). Will this just take some time to re-flocculate or is this not normal?

Thanks!

 

Thanks. Planning on lagering for at least a month... the pilsner was nice and clear during primary fermentation (chilled the wort w/ an immersion chiller) and I suspect siphoning into a secondary probably re-suspended the yeast.

 

Yet another reason to skip doing a secondary...

 

Interesting... I was actually listening to a Basic Brewing podcast with John Palmer speaking on lagering, and he mentioned that resulting off-flavors from autolysis really don't happen. However, I wanted to knock out a quick witbier while the pilsner was taking it's sweet-ass time in the lagering stage, so I had to free up another fermenter.

 

They had an expirement in BYO a few months back looking at flavor differences resultant from letting beer sit on the yeast for prolonged times. There was a difference but nothing that would be attributed to autolysis or considered an off flavor.

Make sure to lager at or slightly below freezing if you can.

 

Yes. 40F is rather high.

I usually secondary lagers though. I never secondary ales. It's to do with the yeast though. I don't want the yeast that I am going to wash to be sitting around at 30F for months waiting for the beer to finish. I could be putting them to use!

 

Is it too late in fermentation to add isinglass? I have about 3 weeks of lagering left, is it safe to add at this point?

Thanks!

 

Bob's rundown on isinglass in this thread is well worth reading:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/how-so-i-use-isinglass-79327/