Beer Cloudness

[abellote]

Hy all,
So a few weeks ago I brewed an all grain ESB and it turned out to be a very cloudy beer.
Since my previous batches were clear (except for a little cold haze) I was wondering what could have done this. In this batch I did 3 things different from what I´ve doing:

1) I really fine crushed my grains. I was trying to raise efficiency and wanted to see what I would get from a fine crush. In the end all my husks were crushed, so I´m getting the idea I sent some phenol compounds to the wort which turned to polyphenols during the boil, resulting in beer cloudness. I also had some trouble lautering, so no more fine crush.

2) In order to save some cooling water I kept stirring the wort during the cooling process (like when you make a whirpool). I have a immersion chiller that did the work in less than 8 min. After cooling I let the wort sit for 10 min before transferring to the fermenter. I´m thinking stirring the wort during cooling may have some impact on protein coagulation, and hence beer cloudness. Any ideas?

3) I didn´t use Irish Moss this time, because I read that it could affect foam stability, and I´m trying a beer with a nice head, so no Iris Mosh.

Can anyone help me find which factor had the most influence (if any)?
Just to be sure it is not yeast in suspension, since the wort came out from boil already pretty cloud and I´m using S-04 (very flocullant yeast).

Thanks for the help guys, and sorry for any english mistake.

André

 

[weirdboy]

I think #1 or #3 may have been a factor. I am not sure I could pin it on either one, though.

However I have a couple of comments related to what you did:

1. Have you tried malt conditioning? You can get a finer crush and still have intact husks. See this page:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Malt_Conditioning

2. With an immersion chiller, I stir my cooling water every single time, as do many others. IMO stirring actually helps the cold break because your wort cools much faster that way.

3. I don't use Irish Moss much. I use whirlfloc usually, but I am not aware of a connection between using it and lack of head retention. I use whirlfloc on every batch I make (except when I forget to add it) and don't have any problems with this. More important IMO is having enough body in the finished beer. This means using crystal/cara malts and/or mashing at higher temperatures.

 

[GetLooseontheGoose]

I am assuming this is a Haze, and not just a chill haze... Right?

Ok, I think this has to do with 1) you may have crushed the grain to fine, and 2 the typical reason; you have unconverted starches. Now this may be from the grain being to finely crushed, and/or your sparge temp may have been too high. always sparge with 180f or less.

Now i see it's an ESB, you can add Diastase Ensymes to the secondary to break down the starches, or add "hefe" to the name.

Hope this helps.

 

[weirdboy]

I wouldn't add Diastase Enzymes to an ESB. In all likelihood You will end up with a much drier beer than it ought to be.

 

[EoinMag]

The fine crush and ensuing extra starch and protein extraction combined with the lack of irish moss or any copper finings will have combined to produce a hazy beer, IMO.

 

[abellote]

Yeah, I think it might be the crush. As for the starch I don´t think I had any since I did an Iodine test and it turned out negative for starch, so maybe it´s just protein. Next batch I´ll do a regular crush and stir during cooling and see what will come out.
Thanks for the help.