Does Wheat Ale Self-Clarify?

[Clint Yeastwood]

I made a cloudy wheat ale in January. Obviously, no finings added. Now the beer is pouring pretty clear.

In my experience, bottled wheat ales stay cloudy. Maybe because the suspended matter doesn't have very far to fall and hide? In a keg, the bottom can be a long way from a floating intake.

Should I expect kegged wheat ales to get clearer with time? I can't remember whether they did this when I brewed them years ago.

 

[dmtaylor]

All wheat beers will eventually clear. How long this takes is widely variable... sometimes only a couple weeks, sometimes a couple months, sometimes a year or more. But eventually they all go clear.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

So basically you're saying I don't drink fast enough.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Do as the Germans do with bottled hefeweizen, shake the keg a bit before pouring...

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Yes wheat beers will clear that’s why even a bottle of Blue Moon has instructions (so I've been told) to swirl the last few ounces to get the sediment. If you want the haze switch back to the dip tube and serve yourself from the bottom of the keg On the next one.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Do as the Germans do with bottled hefeweizen, shake the keg a bit before pouring...

I'll just wrench that keg out of there and shake it like a tambourine with my beer muscles.

 

[Miraculix]

I'll just wrench that keg out of there and shake it like a tambourine with my beer muscles.

Beer muscles. I have to remember that one!

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

They come in the same package as beer goggles.

 

[jsphlynch]

So basically you're saying I don't drink fast enough.

Yep.

Allagash ships their kegs of Allagash White upside down so they get flipped when they're tapped, rousing the sediment.

And they say that part of reason it consistent gets served hazy is that "kegs of Allagash White don’t often sit around for too long in bars."

https://www.allagash.com/blog/flip-swirl-sip-how-to-pour-allagash-white/

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Of course, I have another keg waiting, and it has a floating dip tube already installed.

 

[Miraculix]

I think i will probably never understand the craze for haze in this lifetime.

 

[bellhp]

I think i will probably never understand the craze for haze in this lifetime.

Yup ... i got halfway through the thread before I realized he was disappointed it was clear ?

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I don't really care if it's clear, but I wondered if it was going to happen to every wheat beer, and now that people are telling me some recommend stirring up the yeast, I feel like I should use long dip tubes in the future. But maybe that won't work, because the beer will still clear, and I'll just end up eating a ton of yeast in the first gallon.

I'm not pulling a keg out of the keezer to play with it. That's for sure.

 

[Miraculix]

I honestly also don't enjoy the sedimented and re-roused yeast in German wheat beers. If it's there, I don't mind but I would never think about forcing the yeast back into suspension.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

The more I think about it, the more I think there is no practical way to keep this stuff cloudy, so I won't worry about it.

 

[bellhp]

yeah , I'm just like you I've been out of the hobby for over 20 years and ****'s changed . My Corny kegs ( sitting in a dusty corner of a friends garage) were modified so as to not suck up yeast ... I cut a couple slits in the bottom of the tube and plugged the tube with a small cork so that I was drawing a little higher of the bottom of the keg.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I really love floating dip tubes. I'm using them for dispensing and fermenting.

I put a fat stainless nut between the tubing and the ball to keep the intake from surfacing. If I put it on the tubing, it can slide up, and I'm pretty sure I could end up sucking CO2.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Not all wheat based beer is meant to have yeast haze. Weihenstephaner Kristall Weissbier, and Piwo Grodziskie are clear.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Spaten crystal weiss was my first.

As things turned out, the keg started blowing CO2 right after I left this thread. I got 4 ounces out, and that was that. Switched to the new wheat, made with the same grain but Brangelina Tangerina...I mean Mandarina Bavaria...hops. Lots of bananas. Very cloudy. More yeast flavor than I really need. I guess when I put it in the keezer, I stirred it up.

I may start fining this stuff in the future.

 

[dmtaylor]

I think i will probably never understand the craze for haze in this lifetime.

The craze for haze is due to laze, while he not caught in a daze prays it's only a phase.

 

[dmtaylor]

The more I think about it, the more I think there is no practical way to keep this stuff cloudy, so I won't worry about it.

I learned from the most egotistical brewer to ever hit the Australian airwaves, Graham L. Sanders, to add a tablespoon of flour to the boil. I did so on my last witbier many months ago and it is still hazy today. Starch haze.

 

[rburrelli]

I brewed a Hefeweizen that ultimately turned into a Krystalweizen in a few months.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Fining is looking better and better.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I threw gelatin in the new beer. On the whole, it seems like the way to get the most out of the keg.

 

[Brewsmith]

I brewed a Hefeweizen that ultimately turned into a Krystalweizen in a few months.

Many German brewers of Hefeweizen filter the yeast and package with a lager yeast because it stays in suspension longer. They will also ship kegs upside-down so that when it is tapped right side up, the yeast goes fully into suspension. All this to make a hazy hefe. Otherwise it would more than likely pour clear just like your wheat beer. Or just use your beer muscles!