Clear Primary, Cloudy Secondary

[roflomingo]

As the title says, brewed an all grain Belgian amber. Used safale-33 yeast and fermentation started right away. Sat in primary for two weeks before racking to secondary, and the beer was fairly clear. After racking, the beer was cloudy, figured I had sucked up some trub/yeast and it will settle. It's been 3 days in secondary and it is still very cloudy without any sign of clearing.

I know there is the whole secondary debate, but I needed the room in primary for another brew.

I looked around the boards but there has not been any conclusion with other posts. So my question is, what gives?

 

[IvanTheTerribrew]

Well before we can come up with an answer we need some info: what's the grain bill and schedule you used? What temp did you ferment at? What was your OG and latest gravity reading?

The gravity will tell you where you're at as far as being finished. Sometimes a beer just may be cloudier than another, if your fermentation is complete and that doesn't settle you can try two things right off. 1) cold crash the beer by putting it in a fridge as cold as you can get it to make the yeast and other stuff fall out of suspension, 2) use unflavored gelatin as a fining agent.

Give us some info and we'll give you our thoughts. Cheers

 

[roflomingo]

The grain bill was:

10# 2 row
2# munich 10L
1# caramunich
1# biscuit

Had a Pre boil of 1.060 and went brain dead and didn't measure after boil. When racking to secondary it was at 1.013. Fermentation was high at 76 and then I put it in water with a shirt and fan to cool it. Not sure what it dropped to because the stickon thermometer got screwed up by the water.

I would just assume that fermentation picked back up? If it was cloudy in primary I wouldn't think too much, but the fact that it was clear and got cloudy was a little weird.

The cloudy doesn't bother me, I'm more after the reason behind this sudden cloudiness. I am going to let it sit for as long as it needs to clear (if it does at all).

 

[IvanTheTerribrew]

If you had 1.060 pre boil then post boil you'd have a higher gravity since the water would evaporate but not the sugars.

Id say let it sit and do it's thing but think about cold crashing or gelatin if you wanna clear it.

I'm not sure why it would turn cloudy, I've only been brewing for a year and hasn't experienced that yet

 

[roflomingo]

Thats about the as long as I have been brewing, have made all different styles, ABV levels, stouts, belgians, kolsch, ipa, etc and have not come across this until now.

I took a look at it this morning, and its hard to explain, but its almost the difference between a glossy and matte finish. I am used to beers have a glow to them, even a stout when you shine a flashlight on them have a glossy finish. This belgian has an opaque matte like color when i shine the light on it. Its just....weird.

 

[RM-MN]

Let me take a guess at what happened but be aware the without all the info the guess might be wildly wrong. You started the ferment at a higher temperature than optimal and the yeast started going like gangbusters, then you put it in a swamp cooler and the yeast quit working. When you put it into the secondary the yeast woke up again are completing the ferment which will make the beer cloudy but you don't have as much yeast as in primary so your reflection is more opaque matte because the light is not reflected but is absorbed. Give the yeast plenty of time to finish and clean up.

 

[Cyclman]

Temp change in secondary?

 

[roflomingo]

That sounds reasonable. It's no longer "cloudy" but it is by no means "clear". It might just be how this brew is going to be.

And I'm ok with that.

Took it out of swamp cooler and it's just sitting in the basement. The temperature has dropped where I am at so it's about the same.