Hey Guys: Been a while since I posted. I am about 5 years into the hobby and have about 100 batches of experience. For 2020 I want to enter a couple of my favorite recipes into competitions, however a persistent "problem" continues to be chill haze. My beers come out crystal clear, up until I put them in the fridge. I have tried irish moss, which has little effect. When cooling my wort I use a wort chiller and get the temp down quickly. Chill haze does not really bother me, but given that I want to enter my beers in competition, the "problem" will be a death sentence, especially in my styles of choice (tripel and wee heavy). I have never cold crashed my beer, but am at a point where I think this is my last option. Can you guys provide insight on the following 4 points? I am a bottler, not a kegger. Do I need extra yeast at bottling? In the past I have bottled low gravity lagers without adding yeast and have had no problem with carbonation. How different will things be with an 8% ABV beer? How critical is it that I cool the beer quickly? I plan to put the fermentor in an empty fridge at 35F. The beer is currently at 58F, for optimal results can I just put it in the fridge, or should I use an ice bath to "rapidly cool". How much better are the results if I add some gelatin to the fermentor? If I do it I will do it once the beer is at 35F. How concerned should I be with oxidation (caused by pressure changes)? Given that these two beers are not very hoppy (wee heavy and tripel) should I be okay? Its not like I am brewing an IPA. If its a real cause for concern I can use some carbonate tablets to form additional CO2, or even sub out air lock for a bung. EXTRA. Is there some other way to clear the beer? Has anyone tried cold conditioning the bottled beer? I always store bottled beer at room temp, but would leaving bottles at cold temp for extended period cause the haze to eventually settle to the bottom of the bottle? As always, I appreciate the thoughtful comments. Best.
ADDITIONAL INFO. US05 is the Wee Heavy Yeast and T58 is the Tripel Yeast. Happy to post full recipes if the full context is helpful, but recipes are relatively "off the shelf".
So, if you're certain the haze is chill haze, and it sounds like it is... "My beers come out crystal clear, up until I put them in the fridge."... Gelatin might help. I've only had to resort to gelatin once, and it was not for chill haze, but to get yeast cleared. However, gelatin can pull proteins out, so it might help. A protein rest might help, because it reduces proteins up front. But it could also result in a thin wort/beer. You might also want to mash at a low-ish pH, which can help proteins coagulate and drop out, as well as helping avoid extracting tannins (which are what combine with proteins to make chill haze).
Thanks, I am very certain its chill haze. I like the idea of a protein rest for the tripel and some of the belgian beers, but too late for this batch. I will likely take a pass on a protein rest for the wee heavy as body is pretty key on this recipe and I tend to run the mash at 155-156 to get the desired body. Good point on pH. I have not checked it recently but historically I run low 5s.Some acid malt / lactic acid might do the trick in the future, but its a little late for that this time around.
@VikeMan understood that you used gelatin once for yeast removal but have you ever cold crashed an ale?
Well, almost all my beers are kegged, and chilled while carbonating, so they are effectively cold crashed. ETA: I have cold crashed a few in the fermenter. When I've done that, I've monitored pressure and made sure it stayed positive.
The following is all anecdotal. Maybe there’s something useful in here. I’ve been been brewing about 5 years, too. I probably get 8-12 batches per year depending on what life throws at me. I make all kinds of stuff. I noticed chill haze when I started brewing with malted rye, which lines up with @VikeMan ’s comment. I submitted an experimental Belgian to the National homebrewing competition last year which included malted rye, some naturally growing herbs, etc.. It didn’t make it past the 1st round (although it did respectably), but chill haze wasn’t mentioned. I’m sure t would be a different story with a Pilsner.
I bottle and been using gelatin along with cold crashing with good results - no haze when chilled. Drop temp to ~50F, add gelatin, then crash to ~33-38F for a couple of days. The let the temp free-rise to ~65F to bottle. If others have a better method, please chime in.
I never added yeast at bottling and never had an issue with low carbonation. From what I've read on this forum and others, there are plenty of active yeast cells after the cold crash - even when using gelatin. My bottling procedure (5-6 Gal. batches): * Boil sugar (amount by weight) in 3/4 cup or so of water (RO in my case) to sterilize. I used to use dextrose but found no perceivable difference when using cane sugar. The amount of sugar is calculated for the volumes of desired CO2 (got info from Palmer's book and other sources on the net). * Pour the sugar solution in a sanitized bucket. * I fill a racking tube with Starsan solution. Let gravity start the siphon into a waste container until wort comes through, then let it mix with the sugar solution in the bucket. * During bottling I gently stir the wort occasionally to keep the sugar mixed well. * Never forget to rdwhahb.
