Cloudy beer after chilling

[hotbeer]

I've seen this before to a small extent and for just a brief time, but this last batch of brew that I bottled is cloudy for an extended period of time after getting chilled in the refrigerator. They are clear going into the refrigerator.

I'm thinking it's mostly just yeast as it has a nasty taste when at it cloudiest. But if I leave the beer in the fridge for at least 4 days it somewhat clears back up and the taste is at least something I wouldn't be too embarrassed to give to another.

It's a basic recipe with just Rahr 2 row and a little bit of Carapils, though I think I mis-measured the Carapils and probably wound up with about 6% instead of the 2% I usually go for.

My other brews with this recipe were good and the only big difference is this time I used S-04 where on the previous two I used S-33 and US-05. Also this is the brew I didn't have my hop inventory correct and had to do some last minute substitution of other hops to keep the IBU's up where I wanted, though the hops weren't the same flavor notes.

Any ideas why this beer is staying cloudy in the bottle for over 4 days of refrigeration? I didn't use any whirlfloc prior to flameout with this batch. Do you think that may have made a difference for in the bottle?

I'm pretty certain there is no infection going on.

 

[DBhomebrew]

I'm thinking it's mostly just yeast as it has a nasty taste when at it cloudiest.*

Where is the yeast coming from? You say it's clear going into the fridge, that means the yeast has flocc'd and dropped.

Clear beer into the fridge, hazy for a few days, clear again. You've got chill haze.

You usually use Whirlfloc, but didn't this time? Yes, you may be seeing more chill haze due to that. Along with a quick chilling, Whirlfloc will help pull coagulated proteins together and keep them in the kettle. Without Whirlfloc, more protein than usual made its way into the fermenter and from there, the bottle.

*Psychosomatic, perhaps?

 

[hotbeer]

Clear beer into the fridge, hazy for a few days, clear again. You've got chill haze.

Does chill haze taste bad? That's why I thought it might be yeast.

Where is the yeast coming from? You say it's clear going into the fridge, that means the yeast has flocc'd and dropped.

Pretty clear as best I can tell from light refracting through a brown bottle. However just poured a glass of the beer from a bottle that has not been refrigerated yet...

So maybe not as clear as I was imagining. It is a tad hazy.

It actually tastes better at room temperature which is about 69°F. I poured this back in a screw top bottle and put in the fridge. So I'll check it in a few hours and post another pic if it's cloudier.

The bottles I put in the fridge 5 or 6 days ago seem to have gotten less cloudy than they were the day after putting them in the fridge. But they are still cloudier than any other beer I've made. I had one of them last night and the taste is better than a bottle 1 day in the fridge, but none as good as the warm beer I just sampled.

I've just not ever seen a haze stay as cloudy as this has.

*Psychosomatic, perhaps?

Perhaps!

This is a recipe I reduced from 6.8% ABV to 3.6% ABV. The original IBU's were 52.4 with a IBU/GU ratio of .88.

The current recipe show a IBU of 35.8 with the IBU ratio a little higher at .99. And this is a 2.5 gallons into the FV with a total of 33.7 grams of hops and 18.3 of those grams stuffed in at flameout.

Chinnook, Cascade, Crystal and Motueka hops. Though I ran out of Cascade for the later additions and used some Citra and Simcoe I had remaining from previous.