why is my beer clear?

[Ster]

I made a beer with 1/2 wheat dme.
When I bottled it, it was completely clear. 2 weeks later I chilled it, and had tons of chill haze, as expected from a wheat beer.

So after consuming a mini keg (sugar conditioned) and then all of the bottles, I tapped the last minikeg. A week later.. clearest beer I ever brewed. Looks like a watery bud/coors lager but tastes great.

Now I always use irish moss, and I always cold crash.

Why was the last gallon so clear? Was it the extra couple of weeks conditioning? Or the week in the kegerator?

 

[timrox1212]

I would say a little of both. All of my wheat beers turn clear after about 3-4 weeks after bottling no matter what.

 

[wonderbread23]

The haze you initially saw is called 'chill haze' - proteins that clump together and become visible when the beer is cold. When you bottled, the beer wasn't cold enough to exhibit this. If you keep the beer cold long enough, they eventually stick together and precipitate out. That is why the last gallon is so clear.

 

[Ster]

So.. do you chill for several weeks after its adequately carbed?

 

[Bigscience]

To keep a haze, add a T of flour that's been mixed in cold water to the last 15 of the boil. Clear beer just means you did a good job with your process.

 

[Yooper]

Also, keep in mind that "wheat DME" is about 35% wheat and 65% barley, depending on the brand. So, using 1/2 of the DME as "wheat DME" means more like 17% wheat. That's really not enough to create a wheat haze. That's a good thing, to me, as I dislike hazy beers anyway. But if you want a real wheat beer, you can try adding some grains and doing a mini mash with them- wheat malt, flaked wheat, torrified etc, etc, steeped with the specialty grains. Then you can have a higher percentage of wheat in your wheat beer.

 

[Ster]

Actually I prefer clear beers simply because others seem to think its better if its clear.

So let's ignore the wheat. Say I made a blonde ale, and I want it to be clear. Do you chill for a while, after carbed, before serving?

 

[Bigscience]

Actually I prefer clear beers simply because others seem to think its better if its clear.

Not always. I did an AmRye that I went to extreme lengths to make clear even though it was 50% rye. In a comp comments said not enough rye. I attributed this to the fact it was brilliantly clear and people this the haze=wheat/rye flavor. The next time I brewed it I split the batch in two and did the flour treatment to one and made the other one clear. The hazy one scored 9 points higher. I guess some people drink with their eyes first.