Dry-hopping and clarity

[mtbiker278]

I did a couple of searches, but couldn't find a definitive answer.

I have Yooper's DFH 60min IPA clone in a Secondary crashing in the fridge at the moment. After two weeks in the fermenter everything looked great and was pretty clear. I dry-hopped with pellets in the primary for another week, and then racked to a secondary to crash. Upon racking I noticed there was definitely more haze than before dry-hopping. I let it reach 38F and then added gelatin to help clear it up. It's been about a week sitting in the fridge and I see that some sediment has settled out, but the beer doesn't have the clarity I was hoping for. Obviously I can let it sit longer in the fridge waiting for everything else to fall out, or keg it and condition for a few weeks while it carbs.

So the big question is have other people noticed that when they dry-hop they get a haze? Is there a difference between pellets/plugs/leaf in terms of clarity? What about the amount of hops used?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Yooper]

It sounds like it could be two things- chill haze and/or hops haze. Really hoppy beers can have a hops haze that doesn't fade.

I like clear beer, too, but this beer doesn't age well. It's better to drink this one fresh, even if it is a little bit hazy! The good news is the last few pints will probably be crystal clear!

 

[mtbiker278]

I hope it isn't chill haze. When brewing I had 40F water going through my chiller and it dropped the temp below 100F pretty quick.

I'm guessing it's hop-haze cause it looked fine before I added the dry-hops. After the dry-hopping it had a fair amount of haze to it even warm.

I guess the only fix is to keg it, and dispose of it properly.... ;-)

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

Dry hopping with any significant amount of hops will add a haze. Most people who are into dry-hopped ales will like to see that haze because it indicates a dry-hopped beer.

You could try using gelatin or something else to clear it up a bit, but I wouldn't waste the time.

 

[mtbiker278]

I did add gelatin to the secondary after reaching 38F. It doesn't seem to have much of an impact. Base on Yooper's experience (and since it's her recipe) I'll probably just keg it and see if anything changes over time. I'm not bothered by a little bit of haze, but I did want to confirm that it was coming from the dry-hopping

Thanks again!

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

You can precipitate chill haze with a long cold stabilization period. Charlie Bamforth, noted that the temperature is more important than the time. If you can drop the temp to 34º, and hold it for a week or two, you should drop any chill haze.

In my experience, a dry hopped beer will have hop haze until you finish it.

 

[mtbiker278]

Well I just kegged this beer. It actually doesn't look too bad in a glass, but I think some time in the fridge will do it some good. Just curious, but do commercial breweries dry hop their beer and then filter it for clarity? I know most operations have a filter in there somewhere, but I wasn't sure if dry-hopping was a practiced more by homebrewers.

 

[mtbiker278]

Wasn't sure if anyone knew this info, but I'll ask again.

Do commercial breweries Dry-hop? For instance, is DFH 60min a dry hopped beer? I wonder because of the clarity they have. Do they have a filter to remove the Hop-haze?

I was able to achieve excellent clarity on my non-dry-hopped beers, just wondering if there's something that'll improve the dry-hopped ones.

Thanks!