Suddenly Hazy

General Homebrew Discussion
1

Hey all, I’ve been having clarity issues on my last three brews, like supper cloudy. I figured a few possibilties, but not sure. Any other ideas would be helpful. Here’s what I’m thinking:

  1. It could be that the calcium levels are down because of all the rain in my area. I do add salt back in to bring the calcium  well above 50ppm. Also one batch was RO water with salts.

  2. I switched to a homemade hop spider that uses paint strainer bags. I clean and rinse before use.

  3. Something after the boil is causing the heavy haze. (my post-boil sample is crystal clear after a short time )

I’m not necessarily wanting to use findings to solve this problem. Any help would be great?

2

Grain bills and yeast would help.

3

does it only happen once the beer is cold? if so does it go away once the beer warms up again?

as Steve says, more details.

4

How do you chill your wort? Is it taking longer in the summer months? Its possible that you’re seeing chill haze if you;re not getting a good cold break

5

The last recipe I did:

Grain bill is 75% 2-row, 14% Maris Otter, 11% Crystal 20. Citra .01 oz. @ 90min, .75 @ 30min, 1.70oz whirlpool for 1 minutes, and 2oz dry hopped.

90 minute boil with no difference in mash or sparging.
I use whirl floc with 10 minutes left in boil.

I leave break material in the kettle  by siphoning out of kettle into better bottles.

“post boil after a short time” means that I pull a sample when the wort has cooled down to about 100F. After maybe 20 minutes the proteins bind and sink to the bottem of the tube leaving the wort clear.

It could be some bug. I used a new siphon on the last batch. I don’t really taste anything negative.

Chilling does not make it worse, maybe slightly better after a while.

I must reiterate: it has been over the last few batches I’ve done.

6

I use and immersion chiller. It takes me 20 to 30 minutes to get wort down to 80 F.

7

if it really gets better if you chill than it could be yeast refusing to floc out. although in that case I would expect it to drop bright eventually.

8

This picture is after 5 days at 38F and some co2 pressure.

9

what’s the yeast?

could also be an infection although that seems unlikely. I was thinking the head looked a little anemic which could be ferm temp issue but I am not familiar with that causing haziness. and it could also just be a 5 day old beer and so a little under carbonated.

10

WLP 001

11

Are all these beers dry hopped? It’s hard to tell from the resolution of the picture, but it reminds me of what a lot of my dry-hopped beers look like - especially with a high oil hop like Citra.

12

One batch was not dry hopped, but that one was also brewed with a very low flocculant strand. And the picture was done with my phone.

13

I can’t understand why you wouldn’t want to use finings… :-\