More about chill haze

[PavlovsCat]

I recently posted about variable temperature chill haze. No chill haze after 2 hours in the fridge, but occurred with increasing time in the fridge. I've used a brisk boil for the hot break, used irish moss in the wort, rapid cooling, etc, etc. I have an amber ale in the secondary that I would like not to have this effect. What would you do? Crash cooling or add gelatin or other finings to a secondary that's been going for 2 weeks?

 

[Chupacabras]

Polyclar in secondary always works, same with isinglass, though it takes longer. Cold crash will do it too if you've got the patience.

 

[PavlovsCat]

The one thing that I do for my partial boils is add de-foamer when it looks like I'm going to have a boil over. I wonder if this inhibits the hot break???

 

[Coastarine]

Gelatin has worked very nicely for my beers that have had chill haze. Fermcap definitely has not inhibited my hot break, if anything it promotes it because it allows me to get a fast boil right away as opposed to easing into the boil, going from boil to simmer and back again like I used to have to do.

Here is a related question, I had a cream ale on tap that was crystal clear. I put some in a 2L bottle and drove to PA with it, and when I got there and chilled it down it suddenly had a haze. Anyone know why that happened? I really don't want that to happen to the cream ale and IPA that I just bottled for NHC.

 

[smizak]

Here is a related question, I had a cream ale on tap that was crystal clear. I put some in a 2L bottle and drove to PA with it, and when I got there and chilled it down it suddenly had a haze. Anyone know why that happened? I really don't want that to happen to the cream ale and IPA that I just bottled for NHC.

I have heard, but not experienced it, that cooling and then re-warming a beer followed by another chilling will cause chill haze again. As I understand it, most beers clear after an extended chilling, mine do especially after I started using Whirlfloc. The precipitated proteins drop to the bottom of the keg/bottle just like yeast do. So if you warm it up, they dissolve and end up in solution again, and any amount of agitation will stir it all up and require another undisturbed chilling.

Although that doesn't explain why it was clear out of the tap, so I might be talking out of my A$$.

I recently posted about variable temperature chill haze. No chill haze after 2 hours in the fridge, but occurred with increasing time in the fridge. I've used a brisk boil for the hot break, used irish moss in the wort, rapid cooling, etc, etc. I have an amber ale in the secondary that I would like not to have this effect. What would you do? Crash cooling or add gelatin or other finings to a secondary that's been going for 2 weeks?

If you bottle, have you tried refrigerating a couple for at least a week straight? Mine are always hazy for the first couple days in the fridge, and then clear up quite nicely.

 

[Coastarine]

So if you warm it up, they dissolve and end up in solution again, and any amount of agitation will stir it all up and require another undisturbed chilling.

That makes sense if we're talking about beer that is bottle conditioned, but my 2L which was clear at bottling shouldn't have had any of those proteins in it, since they settled out in the keg and were cleared by the dip tube.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Just yesterday I read a good BYO article on finings in general. Lots of good info...but it is 10 years old. HTH.

Here's something I found interesting from it (the first sentence is refering to gelatin and isinglass...gelatin/isinglass have a positive charge and silica gel/Polyclar have a negative charge):

The agents that are effective against yeast are generally ineffective against chill haze, because the particles that form chill haze are naturally positive in charge. To get them to clump and settle — or to filter better — brewers add negatively charged finings. These compounds include silica gel (Chillguard is a common brand) and a fine powder of PVPP plastic, known as Polyclar.