Wheat beer clarity

[HoosierCountry]

I am getting ready to brew my first wheat beer. I've been researching but still cannot find a good answer as to what causes the cloudiness in wheat beers...yeast, proteins?? How is this controlled by the brewer? Just the other night I drank a Gumballhead (clear) and an 80 acre (cloudy), both being American pale wheat ales. Are some wheat ales simply clarified using fining agents where they would otherwise be cloudy or is this more about the malt bill/yeast selection. Thanks for the help.

 

[Hello]

Well, I believe or have believed, that it is unmalted wheat that is high in protein that leads to cloudy wheat beers. I've had gumball head and I guess I did not consider it a true wheat beer. To me, clear and wheat beer is a bit of an oxymoron. Or maybe I'm the one who is misinformed.

Perhaps gumball head uses a wheat yeast that drops clear. I haven't looked into their recipe at all though. Do they even use yeast like that?

 

[johngaltsmotor]

The proteins from wheat are what normally makes wheat beers cloudy. But there are filtered wheat beers that are clear. Erdinger makes some incredible wheat beers (mmmm Dunkelweizen.... and one of the variations is Krystal which is filtered and nearly completely clear.
I'd be surprised if you can get that clear simply by a heavy dose of fining agents and extended time at low temperatures but it may be possible.

 

[McKnuckle]

It's the long-chain proteins in wheat that causes this, especially at the 50% grist level that is expected in a stylistically accurate wheat beer. Yeast is present by design, but usually falls to the bottom of the bottle. It's customary to agitate this and pour it out with the beverage.

Commercial breweries sometimes filter to the point of clarity, and if you store homebrew wheat beer for long/cold enough, it too will fall clear.

 

[HoosierCountry]

Thanks for the replies

 

[yohoe]

Wheat yeast have very low flocculation, which causes the haze. To get rid of the haze, either cold crash for ~2 week and/or filter at .5 microns