Hazy and not

What sort of look are you going for? Are you cold crashing before bottling? Do you use any sort of finings? Do you use any sort of filtration?

 

Sounds like you just have a lot of yeast, hop particulate and possibly starch in suspension. As the bottles sit, things settle out so the second half of the pour is murky.

How do you transfer wort to the fermenter? Do you have a way to cold crash?

 

This is helpful information. What look are you going for though? Relatively clear, or hazy?

 

Personally, I rough filter using a nylon mesh bag over the auto-siphon when racking to a bottling bucket. I don't yet have the means to cold crash, so I'm relying on gravity to do the work at a slower rate when it comes to yeast/proteins to drop out. When I know I'm going to pour for guests, I place bottles in the fridge a few days in advance and let them sit before pouring. I don't care so much about appearance when I'm drinking them.

 

Definitely sounds like yeast. It only takes a tiny amount of yeast to cause a lot of haziness. One thing all my homebrews have in common is a small yeast cake at the bottom of the bottle which inevitably gets mixed in every time I pour. One solution is to include letting the bottle sit still still in the fridge a couple days prior to drinking. Another is pouring all the beer at once -- very carefully and slowly-- into the glass while leaving behind the yeast. Do NOT disturb the miniature yeast cake!

 

I am sorry to read that you feel that way. I have a pretty basic brewing setup in my homebrewery and I have never had problems producing hoppy IPAs.

Is there by any chance a homebrewing club near you? Maybe some other experienced homebrewer would be willing to participate (i.e., watch over) your brewing process and provide input?

On a related note I had a co-worker who homebrewed and he consistently complained of having too much sediment in his bottles. We discussed this a few times and I was stumped. Then at a later date he told me his bottling process was to place his fermenter on top of his washing machine (in his laundry room area) and then bottle. I asked: But you do this the day before and let it settle for 24 hours before bottling, right? He had a dim expression on his face and replied: No, I just place the fermenter on top of the washing machine and then bottle. The concept that by moving his fermenter he would 'stir up' the yeast/trub at the bottom of the fermenter just never occurred to him.

Cheers!

 

I also BIAB and bottle, IPAs have been a pain. Majority have been failures but wild inconsistency. The first few NEIPAs I did, just brita water and whirlpool'd hops were easily some of the best beers I've ever made. As good as the best commercial ones I've had. Then, same recipe/process, zero hop flavor might as well be weak barleywines.

Water treatment has helped but I still have the occasional confusing failure. And I have a similar issue where the bottom third/quarter of my bottles are the most hop flavored.

 

Have you by any chance noted the beer was darker in color than anticipated?

Cheers!

 

My failed IPAs? No. My tripels predicted to come out 3-4 SRM? Yes.

 

Well, there goes that theory.

I was guessing that there might be an oxidation issue with your IPAs with zero hop flavor (aroma). If this style has oxidation issues this will result in hop fade. Another indication of oxidation is that the beer's appearance could be darker than predicted/anticipated.

As to why your Tripels are coming out darker...do you have an extended and/or very vigorous boil when brewing those beers?

Cheers!

 

I saw the color and oxidation thing on a brulosophy experiment (I think...). I stopped cold crashing because I believe suck-back was an issue, the liquid in my lock would always disappear.

I'm usually doing 90min boils when I'm doing Pilsner heavy beers. Started so long ago I've forgotten why-- diacetyl? Something else with a D? As for the strength/vigor of the boil? IDK, I think it looks like what I see in videos.

 

From an article:

“Pilsner Malts are higher in S-Methylmethionine (SMM) than other base malts (e.g., Pale Malt). SMM is a pre-curser to Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS) which can cause flavors described as creamed corn or cooked vegetables in the resulting beer. Conducting a vigorous and longer duration boil will drive off SMM and consequently diminish the amounts of DMS in the wort/beer. Some people like to boil their Pilsner Malt wort for 90 minutes to maximize driving off SMM. I personally choose to boil my Pilsner Malt worts for 75 minutes and that duration works for me. I have read on homebrewing forums that some folks only boil for 60 minutes and they do not perceive DMS in their beers. There are various factors here:

• How vigorous is your vigorous boil?
• How sensitive is your palate to DMS?
• Is a little bit of DMS troublesome to you?

Select the boil duration that best suits your preferences here. Just be aware that Pilsner Malt is indeed high in SMM compared to other base malts.”

As discussed above some homebrewers choose to only boil for 60 minutes and they report there is no perceptible DMS in the resulting beer. Something to consider.

Cheers!

 

You may be doing this or something similar and it may not help at all (tl;dr: YMMV). BUT I bottle now sans auto siphon and just with a racking cane. I put the cane in a bucket of StarSan, get it going orally (this line could come back to haunt me). I then attach the bottling wand (there's some spray), depress the end piece to get liquid flowing through the wand. I then move the cane to my in-fermenter beer, depress the end until Star San is out and only beer is flowing.

 

When I started homebrewing I just used a racking cane and tubing since that is what came with my 'kit'. I have never used an auto-siphon and I never will since I have read too many folks discuss how they see bubbles in the stream when they use their auto-siphon. Those bubbles may just be CO2 coming out of solution but they also might be due to an air leak somewhere. Just regular old siphoning without a contraption 'works' for me.

And all of my hoppy beers (e.g., IPAs) have vibrant hop aroma/flavor. I drank a Citra/Mosaic IPA last evening that I bottled 5/21/22 (so 2.5 months old now) and the aroma on that beer was still very much 'popping' in that beer.

Cheers!

 

As an avid homebrewer and supporter of all who is in the hobby, my question to you is... Is the Beer Good? Forget the looks, does the beer taste good? Without looking at it would you order that beer again in a brewery? You know your limitations with cold crashing and condition so if you are hung up on visuals you will always be disappointed. Or you will never pour out entire bottles and just leave an inch in the bottle where the sediment will naturally go and split the rest of what is good. Even more so if you are bottle conditioning for carbonation, from the fermenter which is what it sounds like. There will always be yeast sediment at the bottom from the sugars needed to carbonate the beer. Great homebrew beer doesn't have to LOOK great. But if you are looking to increase hop flavor in your beers. Get Gypum Salt, start with RO water or distilled water. Do add Gypsum and Calcium Chloride in the beer. Use an online calculate for the water you plan to use to get a good ratio. For IPAs you want a solid 2:1 ratio of SO4 and Cl in the water. For west coast style you would push close to 5:1 SO4 and Cl. This makes the hops bittering sing in your mouth. The opposite is true for Hazy IPAs, you want a 1:2 ratio minimum for SO4 to Cl. This mutes the bittering of hops and lets the flavor ride out more giving that citrus fruit forward perception. My 2 cents.

 

This is true and good advice on water chemistry. My concern with looks is that perhaps it is saying to me, "I could be better." Maybe I solve that look problem and it in turn solves a taste problem I didn't know it had.

 

On the BJCP score sheet, "appearance" is worth only 3 points out of 50 max. Theoretically, you could score 0 points on appearance and still get a 47. This never happens, because that first impression influences everything else.

Most of us drink first with our eyes. Most homebrew competitors know this. Some judges will even admit it.