Cloudy American IPA?

[MJBrewTime]

I know I'm ahead of schedule but I've just opened a bottle of my first try at home brew with the Youngs American IPA kit.

I'm in the final stage of a 2 week conditioning so the batch was due to be ready this coming Sunday so I've opened a bottle 5-6 days early.

It looks really cloudy to me! Is this normal? I've let it set/rest in a glass and it hasn't really changed at all. The taste is ok, not as nice as I had hoped.

Any tips for me or is it a bad batch? I have read somewhere it gets better with age? Cheers !

 

[Robin54]

To me that doesn't look right..did you tip all the **** from the bottom of the bottle in you're glass??

 

[MJBrewTime]

Umm I may have done actually. In the brown bottles against the light it looked pretty clear lol.

When I siphoned it from my fv to bottling bucket I did it through a kitchen sieve and caught tonnes of sediment during that process so was expecting a much clearer beer!

I'll wait til Sunday then it's had 2 weeks in cold darkness and try again, should I leave about an inch of liquid in the bottom of a bottle when pouring?

 

[wfr42]

I found this helpful and stick the text on any labelled bottles I give to friends

https://drive.google.com/a/kaeser-blair.com/file/d/0ByU44-AmLRqXblpaXzQ3Rk1xeHM/view?pli=1

 

[terrym]

First the sediment you collected in your sieve was probably all hop particles from the dry hop process. Yeast will not be filtered out in this way.
My experience of this beer and the yeast was that it took time to settle out and clear. Assuming you have carried out the carbonation stage in a warm place and it has therefore finished I suggest you find the coldest place you have and store your brew there to encourage the yeast to lie down. You could put a few bottles in the fridge and this might work after a few days.
The good news is that once it has cleared you should be able to drink it. In fact if you leave it the effect of the dry hop lessens with time which you may or may not want.
PS. As far as pouring your beer from the bottle, your aim to get as much clear beer out of the bottle and leave behind as much yeasty beer as possible (obviously!). This is dependant upon the yeast itself, how much yeast there is in the bottle, and how long it has packed down in the bottle. You will usually leave about 10mm in the bottle, less if you are lucky, after you have decanted off the clear beer from the yeasty stuff. The more bottles you empty, the better, and less wasteful, you will become :thumb:

 

[MJBrewTime]

Thanks for the tips guys.

For all i know I might have just pulled a bad bottle from the box, quite unlikely though.

I had them boxed and out of sunlight for the carbonation in room temp for 2 weeks which was the best I could do.

Then for the next stage they've been in my cold dark garage in the same boxes again for 2 weeks this coming Sunday. I might stick a couple in the back of the fridge this Friday with the aim to open on Sunday on the 2 week mark, I'm getting impatient waiting now! :)

How do micro/craft breweries get it so right and clear? Is it down to equipment and quality of ingredients I guess?