hazy beer

[brewsybrewsy]

I keep consistenly getting hazy beer when brewing a 100% blonde ale. I dont ever get this when brewing any of the various styles of bitter! Does anyone have any ideas ??

[orlando]

There are so many potential answers to that. Would need to know more about your process.

[Charles1968]

Your mash pH may be too high. Pale malts don't lower mash pH as much as roasted malt. As a result, the mash and sparge extract haze-causing tannins from the grain husks. To get your mash pH down for blondes and lager, you need to treat your water or substitute soft mineral water.

At this time of year you can lager beer for a few weeks in the cold, which will drop out the haze and give crystal clear beer. Other things that help: a rolling boil; irish moss at end of boil; slow sparge; use a flocculant yeast; avoid wheat malt.

[Rick_UK]

All beers will clear down given enough time - I once had a weiss drop clear after a few months! As mentioned above a number of factors such as water treatment, yeast and malt characteristics can all affect clarity. I also find more hoppy beers take longer to clear, especially when dry hopped - I assume it's due to very small particles (pollen maybe?) from the hops.

Fining and/or crash cooling is the way to go if you want to speed things up greatly. Pretty much all commercial pale ales are fined with isinglass AFAIK.

Rick

[brewsybrewsy]

Ok thanks guys for your replies and ideas.

It might be in my sparge process, i just jug the liquor around the top of the mash tun a litre at a time and keep about half an inch of liquor on the top which goes all milky cloudy everytime I jug the liquor in. I do it this way because I used to have a sparge arm but it broke and I dont want to start and batch sparge it again, but maybe I should let the grain show a bit on top and transfer a bit more wort over to the copper first and then the level has dropped in the mash tun and then jug the liquor ?

Ive looked at the yeast and im happy using safale 04 and I use dwb at the specified percentages so my ph off the first runnings is approx 4.8 - 5.0

[orlando]

Ok thanks guys for your replies and ideas.

It might be in my sparge process, i just jug the liquor around the top of the mash tun a litre at a time and keep about half an inch of liquor on the top which goes all milky cloudy everytime I jug the liquor in. I do it this way because I used to have a sparge arm but it broke and I dont want to start and batch sparge it again, but maybe I should let the grain show a bit on top and transfer a bit more wort over to the copper first and then the level has dropped in the mash tun and then jug the liquor ?

Ive looked at the yeast and im happy using safale 04 and I use dwb at the specified percentages so my ph off the first runnings is approx 4.8 - 5.0

Something you can try to disperse the "jugging" is to get some tin foil spread it over a cake cooling stand and then punch small holes in it, spread this over the top of your mash and then carefully put back the wort. I got myself a tin foil tray that a chicken came in, which is a little more rigid and reusable,even washed it after the chicken was no longer in need of it.

[Charles1968]

Ok thanks guys for your replies and ideas.

It might be in my sparge process, i just jug the liquor around the top of the mash tun a litre at a time and keep about half an inch of liquor on the top which goes all milky cloudy everytime I jug the liquor in. I do it this way because I used to have a sparge arm but it broke and I dont want to start and batch sparge it again, but maybe I should let the grain show a bit on top and transfer a bit more wort over to the copper first and then the level has dropped in the mash tun and then jug the liquor ?

Ive looked at the yeast and im happy using safale 04 and I use dwb at the specified percentages so my ph off the first runnings is approx 4.8 - 5.0

I don't think the water level is likely to be the problem, but you should definitely check your sparge water temperature (not too high) and alkalinity (ditto) and maybe slow down the runoff to no more than a litre a minute. Also, try a thinner mash with a larger mash liquor volume and a shorter sparge. It's possible to get very clear wort out of your mash tun if your procedure is good, which will give clearer beer. The quality of the grist also makes a difference - perhaps change your supplier.

At this time of year you can get rid of most haze by lagering beer in the cold, but it's much easier if you minimise haze in the first place.

[sweatysock]

I have had similar hazy beer when using 100% Maris Otter. I added 250g of crystal to my last brew (3750g maris otter) and it was much clearer with not much added colour. It did look a lot better in the glass as well.

[brewsybrewsy]

Thanks to everyone who took the time to help answer my questions. I will work my way through your suggestions and will post my findings in the near future. Cheers

[captain caveman]

I had the same problem untill the most recent brew where I began water treatment. Adjusted the alkalinity as suggested by beersmith, and it's the clearest beer I have brewed yet, and tastes more rounded/ finished.