Some of the recent brews I've made have become hazy upon bottling from a keg (Beer Gun)... the catch is, that they've been perfectly clear before bottling, and when dispensed out of a beer gun into a glass. The details: All three beers (IPA, Red Ale, Wheatwine) upon completion of primary fermentation (12 days @ 65) were moved to the fridge (34 F) and cold conditioned for 6 days, after which PVPP and/or Silica Gel were added to drop yeast out of suspension (Silica Gel and PVPP) and remove any chill haze (PVPP). After 5 additional days, all three beers were perfectly clear and were racked to a keg (Keg hopping was used for all three beers) and force carbonated. When dispensed from a tap line or beer gun into a glass (Cold and room temp) the beers were all perfectly clear at 34 F. Upon bottling from the beer gun, the beers become hazy after a couple days in the fridge. My thoughts are either 1) I didn't actually chill the beer cold enough to promote haze formation, or 2) Something I'm doing during sanitization and/or cleaning of my bottles is promoting the haze. One weird note: when I prepare my StarSan solution, regardless of water temp or vessel, my StarSan solution goes cloudy in a matter of 2-3 minutes. I'm wondering if the StarSan is the culprit here, as I never had this problem with iodophor (I should have tried an iodophor sanitized bottle(s), but I bottled all three beers on the same day). Thoughts? Similar experiences?
I've had similar experiences with Star-san, using the local tap water, which is very hard. With that in mind, I've switched to using RO water, which stays clear and useable for much longer. I'm puzzled by the chill haze. I can't imagine it would have anything to do with your sanitizer--there wouldn't be enough of it there to have a significant impact, I would assume. Does the bottled beer clear if you warm it to room temperature?
No, the bottled beer doesn't clear upon warming. Thats the really weird part, especially when coupled with the fact that the beer is perfectly clear at the same temp when serving from the keg or beer gun.
Can't help here unfortunately, but I am very interested to hear possible explanations/fixes, as I am about to use the identical method to bottle some beers. Like yours, these beers are kegged, "filtered" using gelatin, and crystal clear.
Could there be any problems/contamination issues with the bottles themselves? Did you do anything different to prepare these bottles before sanitizing (any strange cleansers or label removing tactics)?
Do you have a recent synopsis of how your base brew water looks, including any amendments done to it on your part for all three beers that you experienced haze? If you're using tap, perhaps the city recently added something new, or an increased amount of something else, that would have possibly affected your beers. There's probably nothing wrong with your StarSan... just the tap water you use to make the solution.
No contamination issues, all beers taste fine, no signs of infection. As far as bottle cleaning, 1/2 the bottles were new, the other 1/2 were previously used and cleaned with just hot water to remove labels, no soap or weirdness.
Well, that would indicate this isn't the "normal" chill haze caused by proteins etc. and since it's not in the keg, the only guess I could offer was that maybe there was a film of some sort (soap, starsan?) on the bottles. Maybe try cleaning a bottle thoroughly, then heat sanitizing in the oven?
Our city water is pretty foul tasting (Chloramines+ whatever else the old pipes in my house add) so I use Spring water plus CaCl2 for my hoppy brews; I'm at work so I don't have my exact altered water profile in front of me. For cleaning and sanitizing I've been using the city tap water, which according to hopfenunmaltz (see below) and my calculations based on my city's water report (Alkalinity ~180, Res.Alkalinity ~140), is pretty alkaline. Its looking like unless I switch to RO water, I may have to start using iodophor for sanitizing my bottles, if the cloudy starsan left in/on the bottles is causing my beer to cloud.
Suggestion try using a carbon filter for sanitization, brewing and bottling. Water in nor cal not much better, chock full of chlorine. Also, how are you sanitizing the line on the beer gun?
The line on the gun is soaked in a StarSan Solution (I treat it like a racking cane and fill it full of water and then let it suction the StarSan through until filled) for 5 min then hooked up to the gun. I usually shoot the first bit from the gun into a glass and chuck it, so I've never looked at the clarity of the beer coming through early on. I'd assume if the line was suffering from the same issue as my bottles, I might not see it due to the higher flow rate through the tubing.
His starsan is not cloudy. His starsan "solution" is cloudy. That points to either the starsan OR the water. In this case, the OP already noted that he may have high alkaline water, which is most likely the source of the problem.
Have you tried cutting the beer gun out of the equation? If you take a bottle-filling cane and pour slowly into a bottle and cap it off, what happens? I'd try this and then point to said water source if the problem persists.
