Brewtan B and haze, redux

Ingredients
1

Don’t want to resurrect a lengthy thread I started in the Spring, which didn’t really resolve anything (I had suspected it was a calcium issue,) but… Went back to using Brewtan B, and, lo and behold, all those beers have again had an intractable haze. (My haze troubles had vanished when I had dropped the BTB.) This weekend I’m going to do the identical brew to last, but without BTB, to see what happens.

Meanwhile I have a new suspicion I had almost come around to in that earlier thread:

Brewtan A, which is promoted for fixing a permanent yeast and colloidal haze in NEIPA and wheat beers, is described by the manufacturer as a “medium to high molecular weight” form of gallotannin. Brewtan B, promoted as a preventative of such hazes, is described as a “high molecular weight” form.

So, QUESTION:  Does anybody know if it is possible for Brewtan B to degrade to a lower molecular weight form in (improper?) storage, becoming more like Brewtan A, possibly leading to the experience I’ve had with it?  Could my source simply be no good?

2

I discovered that some of the early shipped batches of Brewtan B were in fact Brewtan A.

3

Wow.  Just wow.  I bought my stash from an eBay-only brew shop; there’s no date of any kind on the package, but it was packaged by Brewcraft USA.  Maybe it comes from one of those early shipments?  I still wonder about degradation,  if anybody has an idea.  I have no idea how it’s been handled, or how old it is, either.

4

I’ve used BtB in 18 batches so far. Other than one batch which took much longer than usual to clear, the rest have cleared in the usual amount of time. My BtB is also packaged by BrewCraft. I bought the first couple of ounces late last year from Country Malt and recently bought some more from Midwest. Other than batch numbers there isn’t any other identifying info on the packages.

5

You got a.

6

Thanks.  Will discard and replace.

7

This might explain something. Should I contact Brewcraft with the lot #.

8

It would be interesting to know when the A stopped and B began.

9

It would be helpful to know what lot numbers to look out for in case there are still erroneous packages in stock at retailers.

10

Let me look into it first.

11

What is the latest retailer to start carrying BTB, is it Great Fermentations?  (I’m thinking the latest to the party would have some from a later shipment, but not knowing all the logistics I could be wrong.)

12

That’ll get you haze issues for sure!

13

I hope so, that is where mine came from.

14

It makes perfect sense now that it’s out there. If Tanal A was substituted for Tanal B (BrewTan is just a rebranded version of Tanal B) than people’s haze issues are explained rather easily.

15

So my original supply just went down the street with the garbage truck.  Ordered some fresh from Great Fermentations.  Hopefully problem solved.

16

Maybe the mystery purple too?

17

Maybe? That I think has more to do with source water iron than anything else though. IIRC, people using RO and Distilled werent getting the purple people eater hue.

18

And I get it sometimes but not others, using the same water.

19

What’s the source?

It could be variations in source water (assuming municipal/private source) but it may also be something to do with grain. Assuming a fluctuating iron content in the grain, it may come and go.

Just thinking out loud.

20

Water is from my well, which is remarkably consistent over the years.  The color shows up before adding grain, so that wouldn’t have any influence.