Re: why isnt my extract brewed beer clear?

Hi.


I have been making extract recipes but am struggling to end up with a clear beer at the end. *I use a keg. And run off 5 or 6 bottles from each batch. *The keg is out in an outbuilding so is kept cool.


I have been using Irish moss for the last 15m of the boil.


The recipes use just hops an pale dried malt extract that I have ordered from the home brew company.


Do you think this is because I haven't boiled all if the dried malt, I usually boil just under half of it in about 8l of water and add the rest to the fermenter when I top up with cold?


I have cold crashed a couple of the bottles in the fridge for several days and they remain cloudy, kind of, like a wheat beer. This leads me to believe that this is protein and not remaining yeast?


Its driving me nuts, can you offer a suggestion?

I've used decent yeasts, and on the last batch I even used Kwik clear wine finings.

What is the purpose of the hot break? I don't recall ever seeing the malt foam up. Is this probably my problem? I have read that this clumps up the protein and makes it drop out better, along with the Irish moss. Maybe as I'm adding majority (prob 2kg) after the boil? Its all I can think that might be wrong with my technique. The beer is good taste wise. Bitter, happy etc, as expected.

Can anyone offer any advice or confirm my assumptions regards to the DME?

When I extract brewed I added some of the DME after the boil, to avoid a high gravity boil in the smallish pot I had at the time. I dissolved this in the hot wort immediately after boiling so it dissolved quicker, but it didn't result in cloudy beer.

It can take an annoying long time for the beer to fall clear, and often longer than expected, but this can also help to avoid drinking beer before its properly conditioned.
How long has it been? Even some quality yeasts can be slow to clear.

I now use an immersion chiller to cool my hot wort (as well as Irish moss) and still get chill haze in beer that's been in the fridge, even though its crystal clear at room temperature. If you don't mind your beer un-chilled try cold crashing then allowing to come back to room temp.

dan125 said:

When I extract brewed I added some of the DME after the boil, to avoid a high gravity boil in the smallish pot I had at the time. I dissolved this in the hot wort immediately after boiling so it dissolved quicker, but it didn't result in cloudy beer.

It can take an annoying long time for the beer to fall clear, and often longer than expected, but this can also help to avoid drinking beer before its properly conditioned.
How long has it been? Even some quality yeasts can be slow to clear.

I now use an immersion chiller to cool my hot wort (as well as Irish moss) and still get chill haze in beer that's been in the fridge, even though its crystal clear at room temperature. If you don't mind your beer un-chilled try cold crashing then allowing to come back to room temp.

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I emailed the home brew company. They believe that it is due to the boiling (it is their own brand spray maltnin 3kg bags).

Its been in the keg for 6 weeks. Some bottles cold crashed in the fridge for a week.

They yeast has settled, I think its definitely protein haze in there.

I guess next batch I'll find out, they reckon they never have a problem clearing the beer but do a full boil.

mine are slightly hazy too despite irish moss at 15 minutes

am going to use finings on my current IPA to see what difference that makes

cheshirehomebrew said:

mine are slightly hazy too despite irish moss at 15 minutes

am going to use finings on my current IPA to see what difference that makes

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I use finings in all my wine. The Kwik clear stuff is awesome. It drops the yeast out really fast. Can be used for beer as well so I would recommend it. I have read that gelatine works wonders as well.

agreed, have used quick clear in my mates ultra cloudy banana wine and it cleared in 48 hours bloody marvelous stuff !

cheshirehomebrew said:

agreed, have used quick clear in my mates ultra cloudy banana wine and it cleared in 48 hours bloody marvelous stuff !

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I have used KwiK clear for many months and it will clear a DJ of wine in 48 hours.

hot break has nothing to do with any foaming that may or not occur at the start of a boil, its a clumping together of proteins that occur partway through a boil.

and if your not boiling all the dme then your not going to acheive a hot break with it.

you can just make out the 'clouds' of hot reak in this 1040 dme solution after 45mins simmering


ive seen a few utubes and howto vids confusing the initial foaming of a rolling boil with hot break and the two are different things entierly, if hot break was happening at the boil start commercial brewers would boil for 5 mins..

boil the whole dme mass..

Fil said:

hot break has nothing to do with any foaming that may or not occur at the start of a boil, its a clumping together of proteins that occur partway through a boil.

and if your not boiling all the dme then your not going to acheive a hot break with it.

you can just make out the 'clouds' of hot reak in this 1040 dme solution after 45mins simmering

ive seen a few utubes and howto vids confusing the initial foaming of a rolling boil with hot break and the two are different things entierly, if hot break was happening at the boil start commercial brewers would boil for 5 mins..

boil the whole dme mass..

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This is just the confirmation in was after.

Now desperately drinking my single hop centennial so I can do another boil, although work keeps getting in the way!

Chippy_Tea said:

I have used KwiK clear for many months and it will clear a DJ of wine in 48 hours.

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this was a 5 gallon carboy and it still worked like a charm

I had a few lads round yesterday meaning the keg took a bit of a hammering. Did another boil today and boiled all of the malt. Did a 10l boil.

The wort is noticeably clearer before even pitching the yeast. I'm pretty sure that this will sort my problem out. Its my fourth extract brew, hopefully this one will be perfect!

how hot did you do it, was it a full rolling boil ?

Getting a clear beer was a fun project for myself and finally for a crystal clear pilsner at serving temps.

Make sure you get a good rolling boil and all your extract needs to be boil for at least 15 minutes. Its also critical to get a cold break and cool the beer to 26.6c as fast as you can. When transferring to primary perform a whirlpool and get all the solids to the center of the pot and use your racking cane to transfer from the outside of the pot. Be ready to lose some beer but its all in the sacrifice of clarity, get stingy and you will have haze. Before bottling cold crash the beer for a day or 2 to allow the proteins to form at serving temps and add gelatin to drop them out.

Good luck!

cheshirehomebrew said:

how hot did you do it, was it a full rolling boil ?

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Yes was a rolling boil. Boiled half the malt initially, and then added the rest for the last half. Thought that would help with hop utilisation.

I'll report back after ferment, I'm confident this will really help though. I'm also planning to use gelatin in the keg. I've got dome sachets of gelatin finings from wilkos for 75p a pop.

Right... I've got another lot kegged up and it's still very murky even after a month, been in the cold for 3 weeks also.

I'm wondering if I can add gelatin to it now or is it too late? Its currently primed and carbd but if I open it I can still use co2 bulbs in it. Isn't too late to mix up some and chuck it in the top?

Just to clarify as well. The finings I added to the feenter weren't actually gelatin as I originally thought. They were chitosan. Wilkos own brand... Seemed to be pretty useless!

Add the gelatin, I rack my Pilsner into a second container after fermentation cold crash it for a few weeks. Then add the gelatin and leave it for a week. I then transfer the brew into a corni keg and force carb the brew and leave it in a fridge at 1C for a further 4 weeks. I get crystal clear Pilsner lager that looks like its been commercially filtered

My next batch was still quite hazy. It took me an eternity to cool it to pitching temp. I think that not getting a decent cold break isn't helping. Also its dry hopped as well which I think can trouble clearing.

Next batch is in the fermenter now. After the boil I put the pan in a sink with cold water, and changed the water 3 times. This plummeted the temp. By the time I had topped up to full volume it was 22c 😉😉

No dry hop this time. I'm hoping for a big increase in clarity..

If not, then I guess I'll sup it all up and change something else til I get it perfected. Ha ha.

Oops. My Smiley's seem to have not shown up right...