Any Opinions on this re Chill Haze?

[frazier]

In The Home Brewer's Companion by Papazian, he advocates a method to reduce chill haze: "Add about 1 ounce of finely crushed black malt to your light beers at the end of the mash. The addition will not affect the color significantly, but will absorb some of the polyphenols, tannins, and long-chained proteins that cause chill haze. ... Youu may have already noticed that chill haze is less of a problem ... in dark beers. Aha."

Well I can attest to the last part - my Scottish and Ambers are very clear, but my pales, not so much. So I'm ready to try it.

Anyonee else have any experience with this?

 

[BrewStooge]

Never heard of it, I just stick with Irish moss or in extreme cases gelatin to settle out the undesirables, and there's no chance of darkening a light beer then. Even a tiny bit of black malt added to a brew can change the color pretty drastically. I'd be interested in results though.

 

[asterix404]

I will channel a friend of mine... if your beer tastes great but looks crappy, get red plastic cups.

Irish moss will also work when added about 10-15 min from knockout.

I have never understood the problem with chill haze, if it tastes good, I wouldn't mess with it. Also, you can just let the haze settle out over a very long period, this is in essence what lagering does as well as some other things.

 

[frazier]

Thanks for your replies, but A) I use Whirlfoc, it gives a nice-looking cold break, and the beer is clear at bottling, but still have chill haze; B) I don't really care about the cosmetics, and I like the beer, but a lot of people, who have never tried anything stronger than BMC Lite, ask about why it's cloudy. Significant or not, I'd rather it was clear.

Well, I guess I'll just have to be my own test case!

 

[BrewStooge]

Well to the best of my knowledge (limited at best on some matters) gelatin is about the best clarifyer there is. It can be added at secondary even to pull out just about anything still floating, visible or not. beyond that, I just tell em that the haze is the flavor that gets filtered out for looks by the BMC makers out there.

 

[ErieShores]

A couple weeks in a cold fridge will eliminate the haze.