what makes a beer cloudy? i always thought it was the yeast...

[hendrixsrv630]

soo me and my roomate like to go to alot of brew houses and we orderd some hefewizer ( prolly spelled way wrong). anyways it was a yellow looking beer that was very cloudy. i mentioned it must have alot of yeast left in it, and my roomate said its because they didnt filter the beer.

im not an expert on the subject nor is he but i always thought the cloudyness of a beer is determined by the amount of yeast in the beer. i have never really heard of filtering beer? i know when you make the wort you put loose stuff in bags so you dont have to strain it...and when it ferments you jsut leave the yeast cake at the bottom. why would you need to filter a beer?

my question is are beers filtered ( he says all beers are filtered, unless they are labled "unfiltered beer"), and can a beer be cloudy for reasons other then yeast (assuming the beer is healthy and not messed up )

 

[Yooper]

Hefeweizen is a German wheat beer, with a flavorful yeast. In the case of hefeweizen, they are cloudy for two reasons- one is the wheat. Wheat tends to stay hazy. The second reason is the yeast strain. It doesn't flocculate well, and that "bubblegum, clove, fruit" flavor is from that yeast.

 

[hendrixsrv630]

okay well that answers half my question...what about the filtering of beers. iv never really read anything about filtering beers, dont know why you would need to.

 

[Malticulous]

Proteins are the biggest reason. They will fall out in time. Filtering or fining willl get them too.

 

[Fish4666]

okay well that answers half my question...what about the filtering of beers. iv never really read anything about filtering beers, dont know why you would need to.

I believe that most commercial beer is filters.

-R

 

[hendrixsrv630]

okay thanks guy! one more question...do they ever filter beer to get the yeast out?

 

[lowlife]

yes

 

[japhroaig]

clarifying beer is a fascinating subject, and it's one that depending on what exactly you want to do can be simple or more complex than the entire brewing process (maybe a slight exaggeration, but not much).

hefeweizen is supposed to be cloudy, and if you heavily filtered it then it wouldn't taste the same (yeah, i've tried ). this is one of the wonders of homebrewing

 

[Malticulous]

okay thanks guy! one more question...do they ever filter beer to get the yeast out?

It's more about shelf stability and getting the beer out the door in minimum time.

 

[Malticulous]

clarifying beer is a fascinating subject, and it's one that depending on what exactly you want to do can be simple or more complex than the entire brewing process (maybe a slight exaggeration, but not much).

hefeweizen is supposed to be cloudy, and if you heavily filtered it then it wouldn't taste the same (yeah, i've tried ). this is one of the wonders of homebrewing

I've learned Endinger filters their beers (all wheats) and kraeusens with lager yeast. It's again about shelf stability after all they ship to the whole world.

 

[ChshreCat]

It's also about time. They want the beer bottled and out the door as quick as possible. If they waited for the beer to naturally clarify, they'd have to keep it around much longer and have the ability to store a lot more beer than they do. It's quicker to ferment, filter, force carb and ship.