How common is chill haze?

[rhys333]

I've been brewing for almost a year and thanks to great advice on HBT I'm producing some awesome tasting beers. A lot of my brews do have chill haze though, and I'm wondering how common this is and if there's an easy remedy. Surprisingly, my last beer (Moose Drool brown ale clone) is perfectly clear. The only change from other batches is that I used maltodextrin instead of carapils for body and head. I've decided I don't like maltodextrin and will be switching back to carapils for future batches, but that's another topic and I'll probably start a separate thread on that.

Anyway, I'm wondering if chill haze is more common than not with other brewers. I should note I do BIAB partial mash batches, though will be stepping up to all-grain brewing this spring.

My cat's breath smells like cat food

 

[StLouBrew]

I can't speak to remedies, but nearly every batch I've brewed in my upstart brewing career has had it. Then again, I've never used irish moss, or gelatin or taken any real measures to promote clarity. If it tastes good, I'm satisfied. My guests sometimes have an issue with the haze, but I can live with that too.

 

[doby]

its common, letting it in the fridge for 2 weeks will cure it, I have patience for everthing else in brewing but I lose it at that point

 

[harebearva]

its common, letting it in the fridge for 2 weeks will cure it, I have patience for everthing else in brewing but I lose it at that point

^this.. I've had pale beers that had to condition 3-4 weeks in the fridge after carbing to settle out the haze. There's a pretty good episode of "Brew Strong" on the brewing network about beer haze. Hope this helps.

 

[NTXBrauer]

Conditioning in the fridge is ideal to remove chill haze, and the previous posters are spot on with this information. I can attest that after I started using irish moss, I have produced a clearer beer as well.

Look into cold crashing your beer, prior to bottling/kegging. By doing this, you should get a much clearer result, as the cold crashing process will help to settle most if not all of the sediment and yeast left in suspension. Cheers!

 

[davekippen]

Great info above. It can start in the kettle too - improve your cool down time and rack clearer beer into your fermenter will help. Cold crashing is the best thing I have found to make clear beer. Well, that and oodles time of course. I had a Hefe that is as clear a beer as you will ever see - after it sat for about 6 months LOL

 

[doby]

oh yea there are alternatives but ,,,,,,,,,,, have a spare fridge, filler her up ahead of time

 

[rhys333]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I use irish moss, but never tried fridge conditioning, gelatin or cold crashing. I'd like to cold crash, but I'm not set up for it... just the one fridge and its busy cooling food. Think I'll give gelatin a whirl and see what happens. Ultimately, its no biggie... I'm happy with great tasting beer, crystal clear or otherwise

My cat's breath smells like cat food

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I use irish moss, but never tried fridge conditioning, gelatin or cold crashing. I'd like to cold crash, but I'm not set up for it... just the one fridge and its busy cooling food. Think I'll give gelatin a whirl and see what happens. Ultimately, its no biggie... I'm happy with great tasting beer, crystal clear or otherwise

My cat's breath smells like cat food

Wait a minute. You're from Edmonton, AB, it's winter, and you can't cold crash your beer. I think you just aren't trying. :cross:

Set your fermenter outside for an hour or two, monitoring the temperature so the beer doesn't freeze. Bring it back in when it gets down to about 0 to 3 C. and it will crash out a lot of the yeast and proteins. It will take it quite a while to warm back up and that will be part of the cold crash.

 

[unionrdr]

Also,chilling down to pitch temp in 20 minutes or less helps as well. If you mash with grains that aren't well-modified,you may need to try a 90 minute boil,where you boil 30 minutes before bittering hop additions. This helped clear my hybrid lagers more,as did Five Star Super Moss. Letting the beer settle out clear or slightly misty before bottling helps too. Then one to two weeks fridge time. Chill haze starts forming as soon as the bottles chill down in the fridge. Time gets the haze to settle out like fog.

 

[Calichusetts]

Some other options:

Protein rest...if its easy to do a step mash with your system...go for it.

Yeast choice and a controlled fermentation. Some yeasts just don't floc well and some that do, wont under certain conditions. If you can ramp up the temp at the tail end its beneficial in many ways, including making sure you reach FG.

Finally, let your beer warm up! Around 50 degrees or so the chill start to go away. I set my beer fridge to about 45 degrees. Take the beer out and give it a few minutes. By the time I'm halfway through its as clear as its going to get.

Also, some styles simply go against the idea of clarity. IPAs with a huge hop bill and dry hop will probably be cloudy unless you attempt several of the suggestions above. And several of the best hoppy beers out there are cloudy and the ones that arent are using expensive filtering options that would not make sense at the homebrew level. And once you reach a certain darkness in several styles of beer, its really not an issue anymore.

I used to cold crash. Strangely enough, the best results I used to get were from a simple "cool" crash. I would just lean ice packs against the carboy like some sort of arctic stonehenge and bottle a few days later. Very clear beer right off the bat.

I don't really do any of these anymore. I use irish moss out of habit but I am more concerned with producing quality beer than clear beer.

 

[rhys333]

Wait a minute. You're from Edmonton, AB, it's winter, and you can't cold crash your beer. I think you just aren't trying. :cross:

Set your fermenter outside for an hour or two, monitoring the temperature so the beer doesn't freeze. Bring it back in when it gets down to about 0 to 3 C. and it will crash out a lot of the yeast and proteins. It will take it quite a while to warm back up and that will be part of the cold crash.

Cold crashing outdoors is an interesting idea. I'd have to slug 6 gallons of beer up the stairs, sloshing all the way... and then back down again after chilling. Won't this churn it up too much, and maybe undo any benefits of the cold crash? I really have no idea, though it sounds like maybe you've tried this and it works...

 

[rhys333]

Some other options:

Protein rest...if its easy to do a step mash with your system...go for it.

Yeast choice and a controlled fermentation. Some yeasts just don't floc well and some that do, wont under certain conditions. If you can ramp up the temp at the tail end its beneficial in many ways, including making sure you reach FG.

Finally, let your beer warm up! Around 50 degrees or so the chill start to go away. I set my beer fridge to about 45 degrees. Take the beer out and give it a few minutes. By the time I'm halfway through its as clear as its going to get.

Also, some styles simply go against the idea of clarity. IPAs with a huge hop bill and dry hop will probably be cloudy unless you attempt several of the suggestions above. And several of the best hoppy beers out there are cloudy and the ones that arent are using expensive filtering options that would not make sense at the homebrew level. And once you reach a certain darkness in several styles of beer, its really not an issue anymore.

I used to cold crash. Strangely enough, the best results I used to get were from a simple "cool" crash. I would just lean ice packs against the carboy like some sort of arctic stonehenge and bottle a few days later. Very clear beer right off the bat.

I don't really do any of these anymore. I use irish moss out of habit but I am more concerned with producing quality beer than clear beer.

Thanks for the input. I use many of the procedures you mention though I've never tried your cool crash idea. I have a few ice packs and it'd be easy to give this a try.

Most of my beers are slightly hazy at fridge temp, and they clear right up if I let them rest at room temp for 20 minutes or so. Good ale tastes better slightly warmer anyway I find. The IPA I'm drinking right now is like this (high IBU plus dry hop). It took forever to clear, and when it did it left a fair amount of flakey sediment in the bottom of the bottle. The beer tastes great (clear at 8C), but I lose a good 1/2 inch due to sediment. I love the taste of dry hopped beers, but I might not do them too often due to hop $$$ and sediment wastage.

 

[strangebrew14]

I also had a quick question about some of the threads on cold crashing. Is there any gain or downfall to cold crashing before moving to secondary? I like the idea of a clear/clean beer but was worried I would drop out to much yeast between cold crashing primary and secondary before bottling

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