How fast do you have to chill to avoid chill haze?

[Sadu]

My latest beer tastes delicious. It's super-clear in the bottle at room temps however quite opaque in the glass after chilling in the fridge. From what I have read this is chill-haze / cold break material caused by not cooling the boil fast enough.

This was an all grain batch that I cooled from boiling to pitch temps in 30 mins. I actually had to work my ass off to chill it that quickly. I thought I did ok. Used a small 6m/18' immersion chiller plus put the whole kettle in an ice bath.

So my question is this - how quick does one have to chill the wort to avoid chill haze?

I crash-cooled and fined with gelatin, the beer is super-clear in the bottle so it would be nice if I could get it looking that good in the glass next time.

I probably have the hardware and experience to do it faster next time, maybe 20 mins, but any quicker would definitely be out of reach without a bigger chiller.

 

[k1ngl1ves]

If it's important to you, then get a bigger chiller. Lol!

I use a 1/2" x 50' IC. I also use a CFC at the same time....

 

[Sadu]

The chiller I have has been used only 4 times so I can't really justify the expense of a new one yet, as much as I'd like to shave another 20 mins off brew day.

Chill haze is a minor annoyance in the scheme of things but since I'm largely happy with the rest of my process this is worth focusing on if there are some small tweaks that can be made without a big spend.

So I'm interested to know whether other brewers with 20-30 minute chill times are getting chill haze in their finished beers?

 

[hockeybrewer]

It usually takes me at least 30 mins, most of the time its longer and I've never had chill haze. That said I don't care about clear beer just its taste. I only use Irish moss and cold crash.

 

[Dixon9717]

Do you use tap water with your IC? If so get a submersible pump put it in ice water and hook up to IC. I did that until I got a 50' IC works pretty well.

 

[casualbrewer]

Whirlfoc ?

 

[dwhite60]

Use an opaque glass. I find it helps, at least psychologically.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[flars]

My latest beer tastes delicious. It's super-clear in the bottle at room temps however quite opaque in the glass after chilling in the fridge. From what I have read this is chill-haze / cold break material caused by not cooling the boil fast enough.

This was an all grain batch that I cooled from boiling to pitch temps in 30 mins. I actually had to work my ass off to chill it that quickly. I thought I did ok. Used a small 6m/18' immersion chiller plus put the whole kettle in an ice bath.

So my question is this - how quick does one have to chill the wort to avoid chill haze?

I crash-cooled and fined with gelatin, the beer is super-clear in the bottle so it would be nice if I could get it looking that good in the glass next time.

I probably have the hardware and experience to do it faster next time, maybe 20 mins, but any quicker would definitely be out of reach without a bigger chiller.

If this was a wheat beer it will be hazy. Just part of the style for a wheat beer.

Using Irish Moss in the last 15 minutes of the boil can help drop out the haze producing proteins during the chilling process. Chilling the wort below pitching temperature will also help. This will take some extra time and extra ice to get the wort in the mid to upper 50°F range, but it does work.

Longer chilling in the refrigerator will also help with dropping the proteins to the bottom of the bottle. Some beers may take a week. Other beers may take a couple of weeks.

 

[Sadu]

Thanks for the replies. I used Irish moss for this brew. Will definitely be recirculating iced water through the chiller next time. Opaque glass, heh, will keep that one up my sleeve.

Beers were in the fridge only 24h so will try leaving them a bit longer. Recipe is a blonde ale, no wheat so haze isnt what I was looking for with this one.

Thanks again.

 

[CJ-3]

Let them chill in the fridge for a week or so and they will be much more clear.

 

[kh54s10]

It take me at least 1/2 hour, longer in the summer. Some of mine have chill haze and some don't. The last one was a keg dry hopped IPA. The first few days it was almost opaque. The last few before it kicked were crystal clear.

Me? I don't worry about how clear my beer is.

 

[Calichusetts]

Over the years, and over the course of this site and its advice, I've just learned to deal with it. Done all I can to avoid it, sometimes super clear...sometimes not. Done nothing...sometimes clear, sometimes not. If you really like clear beer, just get some gelatin or another fining agent and forget about the rest.

Does wheat contribute? Yes
Does a slow chill contribute? Debatable
Does cold crashing help? Yes...maybe debatable.
Does irish moss help? Maybe...?

Its a systems thing if I had to throw out my opinion. I do the exact same thing I have down with my 1 gallon recipes on my 3 gallon. In fact, I started using irish moss...doing a true cold crash, and have consistently experienced more haze than when I did 1 gallon (no irish, no crash.) So who knows. Find something that works and stick to it.

 

[schematix]

I found I got better clarity when I started managing mash pH.

 

[FatDragon]

Let them chill in the fridge for a week or so and they will be much more clear.

A week (or longer, partially depends on the yeast) in the fridge makes a huge difference. Also, leaving a little bit extra in the bottle when you pour affects clarity. I often drink after only a few days in the fridge and pour until I get the first little bit of yeast in the glass, and my beer is always hazy. I grabbed a bottle last night that had been in the fridge a couple weeks and noticed before pouring that it looked super clear in the bottle, so I poured a bit more slowly and left all the yeast behind (instead of just most of it) and it was the clearest beer I've poured in almost three years of brewing. It cost me an extra half-ounce or so of beer and I won't typically bother because I don't care that much about clarity in my beer, but it was a nice proof-of-concept.

 

[filthyastronaut]

I never used to bother with whirlfloc until a little bit ago, when I started having some dedicated fridge space to store my beer. Beforehand most of my beer was put in the freezer for 15-20 min. and came out at a nice drinking temp, before chill haze could set in. After a few batches that took a week or two to clear I decided to finally throw in whirlfloc, and the last batch I made that wasn't a wheat didn't suffer any chill haze. This is with whirlfloc, biofine, and a pretty standard immersion chill, but no cold crash.

 

[mattdee1]

Yeah, I've pretty much given up wondering why chill haze happens. A good process, and chilling the bottles in the fridge for 2 weeks, always results in reasonably clear beer. But that sparkling crystal clear beer only happens sometimes, no matter how careful I am. And, it has happened in the past when I wasn't careful at all.

 

[unionrdr]

Well, when I started brewing beer, they said to chill the wort in 20 minutes or less to avoid the most chill haze. And try not to stir the chilling wort in the kettle when it gets down close to pitch temp. This will allow the fine stuff to settle to the bottom that got stirred up. Don't believe me? Watch the color of the wort before & after stirring next time you're chilling in an ice bath.
I also pour the chilled wort through a clean, sanitized fine mesh strainer to aerate the wort & get a lot of gunk out. This leaves the compacted trub layer further down away from the spigot in my fermenters. All this gives less trub & that fine, poufy stuff that doesn't seem to compact as well.
And bottled beer only getting 24 hours fridge time is just long enough to cool them down & any chill haze to start forming from dissolved proteins. It takes at least 3-5 days to settle out like a fog in the bottles.
Now, if it needs more than, say, two weeks to clear even a little bit, it's not chill haze proteins. It's starch haze from incomplete conversion in the mash. That won't settle out, trust me, I've tried!

 

[Sadu]

Point taken about keeping the beer in the fridge for longer though - all me beer is new and it does need more fridge time for sure. Will definitely try this.

I read about people whirlpooling to collect the kettle trub into a pile but to me that just adds 30 mins to brew day at a time when I'm ready to pack up and do something else. The cloudyness is a small thing, it's something I wouldn't mind fixing but really I'm glad that I'm posting about chill haze and not "why does my beer taste like ass" or "what is this sour apples smell".

I think I can get the chill down to 20 mins without additional hardware so maybe that will help too.

Pretty sure my mash conversion is fine, got 84% brewhouse efficiency on the last batch.

 

[unionrdr]

What I do is plug the kitchen sink, put the 5 gallon kettle in & fill sink around kettle with cold water 1st. When it gets warm, change cold water. This cuts a lot of initial heat off before ice is used.
Drain the sink, plug again, & fill the sink around the kettle with ice to the top of the sink. Pack it in good! then top off with cold tap water. This gets more ice than water working for you during the wort chill.
And the week or more fridge time also gives longer lasting carbonation, & thus thicker, longer lasting head! ( hey, we all love great head, don't we?)

 

[Sadu]

Just tried another bottle of the chill-hazed blonde ale, this time after a few more days in the fridge.

This one is much much clearer than the last. Thanks for the suggestion.

This forum rocks, I'm glad I asked