How to obtain a milky/cloudy looking beer.

[lonlonmilklover]

I'm after a near-opaque effect for aesthetics for my next beer project.

Aiming for a very hazy looking appearance for a very light blonde ale.

Would using flaked oats (or rolled oats) or flaked wheat achieve this?

I have tried using water from boiled white rice, and amylase enzyme to convert to sugar, and it tastes terrible lol...

 

[brownni5]

It might help if you gave more specifics. Oats/wheat alone ain't gonna get you there. I use some sort of flaked adjunct in just about every one of my beers, and they're never close to opaque.

For those that brew NEIPAs (I'm not one, so take this with a grain of salt), they rely on combinations of yeast, flaked adjunct, and bio-transformation of dry hops to achieve the opaque look, and sometimes lactose, if I'm not mistaken.

My only opaque beers are stouts, which I suppose aren't even opaque - they just swallow all light!

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

If this is what you are after here is a list of ingredients
Thomas Fawcett Pearl 12lbs
1.2 lbs Corn Sugar
4ml Hop Extract
1.5oz Citra 0 min
2.5 oz Mosaic 0 min
2.5 oz Citra Dry hop 3-4 days
1.5 oz Mosaic Dry Hop 3- 4 days
London Ale Yeast
Dry hop was done near the end of fermentation

 

[lonlonmilklover]

I'm basically planning on making a very light colored ale (a 3.5% blonde ale with just pale 2-row, and willamette hops) and dying it blue w/ a few drops of food coloring. I have made a half gallon batch once to test it, and it's pale enough so that it doesn't turn green, but remains a light sea blue.

I'd simply like to have a slightly cloudy/milky appearance, to aesthetically emulate "Blue Milk" or "Bantha Milk" for a Star Wars themed party.

I wonder if I were to add a bit of water from boiled rice AFTER fermentation / upon serving from a pitcher, if that would be feasible? I don't see any ill flavors resulting from adding a small amount of plain rice water for cloudiness, other than of course diluting the beer. To counteract that, I could simply increase the ABV of the beer easily enough to compensate.

I realize this is a silly idea, but surely it's possible?

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

Sorry Dude, you lost me at getting it blue. I have nothing to offer.

 

[hopjuice_71]

I have brewed a number of hazy IPAs and I always thought that the haze resulted from the combination of heavy dry hop, the timing of the dry hop, and the yeast strain. However, I recently brewed a 4.5 gal batch that was 100% Golden Promise (1.043 SG), no boil hops, 7 oz of hops steeped at 160 F, no dry hops, and Burlington ale yeast. Not totally sure what I was aiming for but I was certainly surprised when it poured milky. A side-by-side batch of a standard pale ale made at the same time with the same yeast from a split starter dropped totally clear. Seems to me it was the huge hop steep. You could try that, it certainly didn't add much bitterness.

 

[lonlonmilklover]

This was my previous recipe for 100% pure aesthetics in mind.

100% Cooked Short Grain Sushi Rice , (2 lbs) w/ 1tsp amylase enzyme for 30 mins at 148F.

I had a sweet lemon cream flavor in mind, to be served still and very cold, around 35F...

I had added lactose to the boil and instead of hops, treated it like a gruit and added some lemon zest just before yeast pitch. (Safale 05). It ended up being about 2% abv, but sadly my addition of lactose to just rice sugar paired with the lemon zest ended up tasting very blandly tart, and smelling like, well, a huge fart.

Hey, at least I got the color and opacity I wanted

(Photos show sample of finished product before and after drop of blue food coloring).

It was a fun idea in mind for a Star Wars theme, (the local Brewfest is on May the 4th) but I may have to resort to simply making a light cream ale and adding some blue food coloring, though submitting to that end will result in it being transparent and ocean-green.

I gave it a valiant effort, but short of investing in an industrial strength carbon filtration system to strip the color from the beer, I may end up brewing a traditional brown ale and calling it "Bantha Drool" instead of Bantha Milk

 

[grampamark]

You might try using a lot of wheat and add something high in protein as an adjunct. Soy flour comes to mind (soy is also high in oil content; higher than oats).

Wheat beers are hazy due to wheat having a higher protein content than barley. Adding a high protein adjunct to a wheat beer might get you the opacity you want. Since this sounds more like a cutesy party favor sort of endeavor, rather than an attempt to win a medal in competition, why not think waaaay outside the box?

 

[day_trippr]

The definitive Blue Beer thread...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/blue-beer-lets-beat-this-dead-horse.643370/

Cheers! (and good luck with that )

 

[RM-MN]

Dump in a tablespoon of flour. You'll get a starch haze that won't go away. If that isn't hazy enough, dump in another tablespoon of flour.

 

[Iseneye]

I was going to mock you for a terrible idea then saw it is for Star Wars and it made complete sense. Good luck!

 

[krenshaw]

Dump in a tablespoon of flour. You'll get a starch haze that won't go away. If that isn't hazy enough, dump in another tablespoon of flour.

never heard of this one.. when do you add it?

 

[Miraculix]

33%pale malt, 33% flaked barley, 33%wheat malt will result in hazy beer.

 

[RM-MN]

never heard of this one.. when do you add it?

I'd add it when fermentation is over.

 

[Miraculix]

I'd add it when fermentation is over.

Yeah and catch a nice infection as well.

 

[lonlonmilklover]

Well, after a few methods, I've given up on using Amylase Enzyme method and fermenting w/ Ale Yeast to create a 100% Rice Ale, for now.

I ended up simply deciding to make Amazake and dye it blue ... and it looks exactly like my white / blue photos above, and even more important: It's delicious

 

[Duffman870727]

Here's what I did with a recently brewed NEIPA, my OG was 1.060 but you can scale it back to be a lighter beer. I used a combination of flaked oats, wheat, and barley that comprised 15% of the grist. Do whatever you want for base malt, and since yours is a lighter beer I'd bump up to 20% flaked grains in the grist. 4 grams calcium cholride, 2 in the mash, 2 in the boil. 2 grams calcium sulfate, 1 in the mash 1 in the boil. You might bump up the sulfates to 4g since a soft, malty beer is not what you're after in contrast to my NEIPA. A 1:1 ratio of sulfate to chloride is balanced, 2:1 sulfate to chloride helps make the beer crisp.

KEY: Mash pH = 5.45! Below 5.4 and protein degrading enzymes are more active, this is the major component of locking in the haze. I added 5oz of hops to the whirlpool, and used irish moss. Fermented with London III yeast. This is a pre-dry hop sample.

 

[WhoDatDad78]

Yeah and catch a nice infection as well.

Couldn't you just boil just enough water to cover the flour, dump the flour in it, cover, cool, and then add it? Sanitary flour soup.

 

[Miraculix]

Couldn't you just boil just enough water to cover the flour, dump the flour in it, cover, cool, and then add it? Sanitary flour soup.

You could also just leave it be