wort chiller essential or not??

[Rick_UK]

...this just makes me more confused as to why I get the same chill haze with and without forced cooling...

The answer is yeast selection. Let's say you employ swift wort chilling to drop all the proteins, nitrogen, etc, but then ferment with a dodgy flocculator such as US-05/Chico which is infamous for chill haze even after commercial-grade filtration...in that case, we're no longer talking about the relative effects of chilling.

Put it to the test: use a chiller, and an extremely flocculent yeast strain and see what you think.

Thanks seymour - I tend to use Notty yeast with British ales which I brew mainly - and no difference noticed. TBH chill haze is of little concern to me as I prefer my ales cool not cold but I do notice it in winter as I keep my kegs in the garage and they can get a bit too cold in occasion. I'm just sharing my experiences. I read an article by an Aussie brewer who split a batch and cooled one half naturally the other forced - he also noticed no discernible differences.

I guess there's many variables at work with this issue and people will have different experiences - brewing is atter all as much an art as a science!

[seymour]

Gotcha.

Yes, I agree, there are an infinite number of little things which cause our mileages to vary. At the end of the day, I'm with you: I don't require perfect clarity. I usually like my ales quick and dirty, with all the good stuff intact which the mass-producers have systematically stripped away. I feel that many homebrewing clarifying techniques similarly remove beneficial flavour/aroma compounds from the finished beer as well. Each to their own, of course!