Question about chill haze

[dmfa200]

I did a Sweetwater Pale Ale.
Bottled 5 gal.
After 2 weeks I put half in the fridge cause they are crystal clear already.
I thought I'd see how well they tasted after two weeks.
I noticed that after putting them in the fridge they developed chill haze, but it's been 6 days and they are not clearing up anything like the other half still at room temp. And to top it off they have a nasty aftertaste. Not sure if it's yeast, or what?
Is this normal, and could anyone give me some insight on what I'm experiencing?

 

[Walker]

chill haze is normal for many many people, myself included.

My beers are clear when I keg them, but get cloudy as they chill in the kegerator. After about 2 weeks at serving temps, they clear up perfectly for me.

As for the aftertaste, I can't help much there. Probably something totally separate than the chill haze issue.

Can you describe the aftertaste?

 

[dmfa200]

I'm sorry, but I find it is very difficult to describe off flavors. Especially ones that I've never tasted before. I know bitter, sour, sweet, etc.
Flavors like oxidized, DMS, band aid, mold are hard for me to differentiate.
I did have one bad batch I know for sure, and there was no doubt that it was bad. Smelled like vinegar and tasted pretty awful.
Could it be the chill haze particles? I've heard that you cannot taste chill haze.
I wonder too if it's my brewing water. I used 3g Calcium Chloride and 1g Gypsum and a Campden tablet to adjust 8 gal of tap water. Below is my water report.

Calcium 21
Sodium 5
pH 6.95
TDS 256
Total Hardness 124
Total Alkalinity 103.2
Chloride 7.52
Magnesium 4.82
Sulfate 41.19

I like to drink pale ale and IPA's.
Am I using the Calcium Chloride and Gypsum correctly?
Or should I just leave them out?

Worst case scenario is I've got a contaminated bottling bucket and the off flavor is being caused by it.
I'm tired of bottling. What a PITA. I gonna start kegging ASAP.

 

[Walker]

you are correct about chill haze being flavorless. whatever your off flavor is, it's not the haze.

i'm no help with the water chemistry. i don't treat my water in any way and it's not domething i even think about.

it will be hard to diagnose the flavor issue if you can't decribe it

 

[dmfa200]

So, what kind of water are you using?

 

[Walker]

I use use my tap water. No idea what is or isn't in it, but the beer comes out fine.

 

[dmfa200]

Sorry, but another question...Do you use Campden tablets to dechlorinate your water? If so, how much time do you give the tablets to do their work?

 

[Walker]

Chlorine boils off, so I don't use campden. I literally just take water from the tap and use it, as it, no adjustments or treatments.

 

[Beerbeque]

I definitely disagree that chill haze in bottles is tasteless. The longer I keep my bottled homebrew in the fridge, the clearer it gets and the cleaner it tastes, up to 1 month or so anyway. YMMV

 

[Mermaid]

As far as chill haze goes, I'm experimenting with whirlfloc on the batch that's fermenting now to see if that's any better than Irish moss.

My dubbel is crystal clear in the bottles, develops chill haze in the fridge, and then the haze diminishes slightly as the beer warms slightly after the pour.

As far as your "off tastes" are concerned, I switched to using bottled water only after I learned that the local water supply adds choloramines to the water.

Try bottled water? Just to eliminate water as a possible culprit

 

[BrewChron]

Chill haze is caused when polyphenols and proteins combine at low temperatures. The polyphenols are from the barley and hops, the proteins from the barley. You need to use a fining agent to remove at least the protein or the polyohenols to prevent chill haze. Polyclar removes everything. If you are filtering, you'll need to filter cold after the chill haze has formed, that's how commercial breweries remove most of the chill haze.

 

[dmfa200]

I guess I was premature in deciding that there was a problem with my beer.
It is starting to taste pretty good, and it has cleared up quite a bit.
I think I have come to a conclusion that the higher the gravity the longer beer needs to condition. This one started off at 1.060. I have only been doing beers in the high 40's to mid 50's.
I'll give it another 2 weeks and see how it tastes then.
Thanks again for everyone's input.

 

[Mermaid]

I guess I was premature in deciding that there was a problem with my beer.
It is starting to taste pretty good, and it has cleared up quite a bit.
I think I have come to a conclusion that the higher the gravity the longer beer needs to condition. This one started off at 1.060. I have only been doing beers in the high 40's to mid 50's.
I'll give it another 2 weeks and see how it tastes then.
Thanks again for everyone's input.

The dubbel I brewed at the beginning of August is just now starting to reach the point of being conditioned and carbed enough to be "drinkable". I don't plan on handing any bottles out to friends (or my LHBS) until closer to mid-late December.

I don't think there are many beers that wouldn't benefit from a longer conditioning time (longer than a month).

I also agree with the suggestion of leaving (bottled) beer in the fridge for a week or more before drinking. My brews have cleared up more the longer they are allowed to rest in the fridge.

 

[devilishprune]

I definitely disagree that chill haze in bottles is tasteless. The longer I keep my bottled homebrew in the fridge, the clearer it gets and the cleaner it tastes, up to 1 month or so anyway. YMMV

I agree with you that the longer you keep a beer in the fridge the better it tastes, but I think it's for reasons other than clearing chill haze.

Chill haze is just particles that are soluble at room temperature falling out when you put the beer at a colder temperature. So, these things are in there regardless of whether your beer is cold or not. If your beers are the same age, you shouldn't have any off flavors caused by chill haze when comparing a room temperature beer and a hazy cold one, because they both have the molecules that cause the haze in them.


Similar scenario but not exactly the same:
If I have a glass of water saturated with salt at room temperature and I drink it, it's going to be salty. If I put this same glass in the fridge, then some of the salt is going to precipitate (saturation point is lower at a colder temperature), and assuming that it remains at a constant concentration throughout the water, it's going to taste just as salty and just be cloudy from particles floating around.