How cloudy is too cloudy?

[Vintah Montoya]

I'll admit that I'm a true beginner at the homebrew thing. And thus I look to you, my most knowledgeable and experienced brew friends, to instruct me in the true ways of holy brewdom.

I'm currently on my third brew, a Belgian Wit extract kit. Added an extra pound of malt in the last 15 minutes of boil to bump up the abv a bit. Brew went wonderfully. Racked to secondary after one week, sg was spot on, abv calculated to about 5.5, exactly where I intended it.

It's been in the secondary for two weeks now, and I was hoping to get it bottled tonight so it had time to carbonate before a dinner party I'm hosting two weeks from tonight. But it seems extraordinarily cloudy. I know it's supposed to have some haze to it, but how cloudy is too cloudy?

Thoughts? Advice?

 

[flars]

Check the SG again. It looks like there may be a thin krausen ring. You Wit may still be fermenting. The cloudiness may be yeast that is still suspended. Witbiers that I have done will look much more clear when looking upward at the top of the beer in the primary.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Agree with flars; make sure it's finished.

If it is indeed finished, there's no harm in bottling cloudy. That's just the yeast floating in it.

It'll drop out over time in the bottle. When putting it you may wish to pour most of the glass and then gently swirl the remainder to rouse the yeast and then put that into your glass as well. Give it a try to see what you prefer.

You may also want to skip transferring to beer to a "secondary" for future batches. It doesn't do any good and may be harmful.

 

[Vintah Montoya]

Thanks for the advice. I'll check the sg again this afternoon and proceed accordingly.

I've been making wines for 6 or 7 years, so I'm used to using a secondary. While I understand that it's not a necessary step, I kinda like being able to see into the carboy and watching the progress. What would be the potential harm in using the secondary? I'm a stickler for sanitation, and the kits I've done thus far (haven't done one from scratch just yet, but looking forward to it once I learn more) all give the option to use a secondary, if you want to, in the instructions. I seriously am looking to learn here.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

If you need a spoon, it's too cloudy.

 

[parjay]

Even if your sanitation is top notch you will be exposing your beer to oxygen. Once fermentation starts oxygen really only serves to make your beer less that what it could be. If you want to see the lengths that folks to go keep oxygen at bay, just do some some reading on lodo brewing techniques: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/forums/lodo-discussion-and-techniques.282/

 

[Vintah Montoya]

SG is 1.020, same as it was when I racked to secondary two weeks ago. Starting SG was 1.062. Using Brewer's Friend online calculator that puts it at 5.51 abv. I'm thinking I'll go ahead and bottle it.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Wine is protected from oxidation via sulfite (and tannins?).
Beer is not protected by sulfites. It can oxidize in a hurry, losing hop aroma and other delicate flavors followed by a change in malt character (for the worse in my opinion) and the bitterness becomes more harsh. It starts to develop the stale taste after a while longer.

Wine is much less vulnerable to wild microbes -- less residual sugar, killer wine yeast, less nutrients, sulfites, sorbate, low pH, higher alcohol.
Beer has plenty of residual sugar and much less protecting it. Plenty of wild microbes, including those in the air, would love to munch on those extras sugars and nutrients.

I definitely understand the desire to watch it. I ferment in PET Fermonsters so I can see inside.

Good luck!

 

[Vintah Montoya]

Great information.

 

[Vintah Montoya]

Ok. So since the SG hadn't budged in two weeks, and the abv is right where I had intended it to be, I'm assuming it's done cementing. I drew a sample. No off odors, but it had a slightly bitter off taste when I tasted it. Not yeasty, not rotten, just not quite right. I opened a Blue Moon for comparison. I put my sample I the fridge for a while to let hubby try it when he got home. It tasted MUCH better after having chilled for a bit. But it is still Soooo cloudy. Decided not to bottle yet. I'll let it sit in the basement for a few days to see what happens.

That is, unless you fine experts have any other ideas.

Photo: left is Blue Moon, right is my Belgian Wit.

 

[parjay]

A couple of hours won't get the majority of yeast out of solution, you're going to need a couple of days.

 

[Vintah Montoya]

Did I say hours? I meant days.

 

[Saunassa]

My pale ale was ok but a bit cloudy. The folks here said bottle it up. Did so and while conditioning it cleared and then when chilled tasted great.
Ymmv

 

[flars]

I just leave my witbeir, and other beers in the primary for three weeks to clear then bottle. I used to secondary but came to realize there is no danger of off flavors from the yeast and when racking to a secondary less beer went into the bottle.

 

[TGFV]

Just remember that you are comparing your with to a wit-like. Blue moon (as far as I can remember at least) is brewed with yeast similiar to an American wit, but has a grain/spice bill of a Belgian wit, so the flavours will be similiar but noticeably different IMO.


All on all I would bottle for carbonating now, keep somewhere warm, and of you are worried, keep it inside a bin (Rubbermaid and others have long bins that work perfect for 5gal batches in 22oz bombers)
And if it hasn't moved since then, it isn't gonna move unless it gets an infection or other rare oddity (like a heatwave killing off 99% of your yeast during primary, and then when bottling it comes back with a vengeace resulting in a full batch of bombs.)