First brew cloudy

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CwrwNedd

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Hi

Hoping for a bit of advice.

I have just sampled my first brew, a Wherry kit, and although it tastes ok, it is quite cloudy.

Brew went as follows:

Made up kit as per instructions, and left in primary for 10 days until it reached a steady 1012.
Then transferred to a pressure barrel with 100g of sugar dissolved and boiled in 100 ml of water.
Barrel was left at 18-20deg for a further week before moving to my garage which is detached and not heated. It has stood there for 2 weeks.

I moved it into the house this afternoon and left it stand for 3 hours before trying the first pint. As I say it tastes ok, smells quite sweet and retains a decent head, however it is very cloudy and doesn't seem to have cleared much at all since going in the barrel.

I will say that the beer is quite cold probably colder than I would like it to be. Could this be an issue?

Any advice gratefully received as I am panicking now as it is my Christmas beer!




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Just pulled a third pint and the tap stopped flowing. Don't think the keg is holding pressure. Any ideas what to do next?


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What make pressure barrel is it ?
I smear Vaseline on my threads and cap o ring
King keg
May be the beer needs much more than 3 hours, after the move ?
 
I've added a bulb of co2, the barrel pressurised, but hisssed from the metal body until all the pressure was gone. Took off the top and checked the bands, all in place, stripped the charging valve and pressure relief band also in place. Put it all back together and still didn't hold pressure when tested with another bulb. Oh well it's a learning curve, be binning the home brew online barrel I think. Be bottling from now on. Can I save this brew or is it fit for the drain?


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I would say that moving the barrel into the house could well have disturbed the yeast bed again and caused the cloudiness??? Also ales tend to be a but cloudy anyway - so long as it tastes well then its ok.
 
It's the barrel that comes with the 'home brew online' kits. It's not branded.


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The wherry I did with the kit yeast took ages to clear. At least three weeks.
You may find this useful in sorting out your PB leak problems
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=67042.
If you have a leak all cap seals are suspect.
When you have sorted out the leak you will need to reprime from scratch, or use gas. And don't overtighten the cap when you box it up again.
Finally its always a good idea to draw off a little beer from the PB a few days into carbonation to make sure there are no cap leaks and the pressure is building.
 
Thanks Terrym. Not sure what to do with the seals as they all look ok and are new. If I re-prime could I bottle the beer?


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what co you mean by hissing from the metal body? is the valve split or is it a seal? you can get a valve for about £8.
 
It's leaking from the charging valve on top of the barrel. Either from the pressure relief band or from the joint between the metal valve and the plastic cap. I have stripped the valve and it all looks ok


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Surely you need to establish *exactly* where it is leaking and then resolve the issue. Pretty much all spares for your cap are available from a wide variety of sources - https://www.brewuk.co.uk/containers/barrelsbarrels/seals-spares.html

Why ditch the barrel for what may be a 60p valve release rubber or some other split / damaged seal? Although to replace the whole assembly is not expensive.
 
Yeast choice may have something to do with the cloudyness. I recently made a wherry with MJ liberty bell yeast which is quite flocculant, I also racked it to a secondary for a week and it was the clearest beer I've ever made it looked like it had been filtered
 
CwrwNedd said:
It's leaking from the charging valve on top of the barrel. Either from the pressure relief band or from the joint between the metal valve and the plastic cap. I have stripped the valve and it all looks ok


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Click to expand...

Clean all the cap seals and mating surfaces, apply a thin smear of Vaseline to all mating surfaces and then retighten, but don't overtighten.
You will probably find that works.
If the seals are new they should do the job. It's only when they get old and/or get distorted by use do they become prone to leaks in my experience. That's why I keep spares.
 
CwrwNedd said:
It's leaking from the charging valve on top of the barrel. Either from the pressure relief band or from the joint between the metal valve and the plastic cap. I have stripped the valve and it all looks ok
Click to expand...
The Wherry Microkit comes with two valved screwcaps. Can't be sure - someone will correct me here - but isn't one cap intended for adding additional CO2, the other cap to allow pressure to release when too high? Maybe the wrong cap on the barrel?
 
Aphid said:
The Wherry Microkit comes with two valved screwcaps. Can't be sure - someone will correct me here - but isn't one cap intended for adding additional CO2, the other cap to allow pressure to release when too high? Maybe the wrong cap on the barrel?
Click to expand...

The standard barrel comes with a cap that only releases pressure. The second cap is an additional item that is sometimes included as part of a kit sellers put together. It allows the addition of CO2 but ALL pressure barrel caps should have a valve to release excess pressure. You barrel could evetually leak from excess pressure, or if youre really unlucky and have perfect seals everywhere one Home Brew website I saw said they can explode.
 

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