Cloudy excitable SMASH

[Justin9]

Happy Saturday everyone,
So 3 weeks ago I bottled up my first attempt at a SMASH. 3 weeks on its still cloudy as anything.....I opened a bottle to see if it had at least primed and it looks like I over primed it as it fizzed over the neck disturbing the sediment...I did try some and it tastes great, so much better than my kit attempts....but whys it not clearing?

 

[crowcrow]

How cool has it been? If you can transfer to a very cold fridge (1c) for a week or so that might help. If not then sadly will just have to wait longer - which is a shame for hoppy beers as I like to drink them fresh!

Did you have a stable fg before you bottled or do you think you added too much sugar to prime?

Also were you able to cold crash before bottling?

 

[Justin9]

Thanks for the quick reply!
I bottled, left on the side for a week, transfered to a fridge for a week and then outside into a plastic storage shed.
Was stable Fg, didn't cold crash and I'm no expert at all but judging by the way it spurted out of the bottle, probably for a full minute, losing almost a 3rd of the contents I would assume I over primed, would that be a main cause?

 

[crowcrow]

Could well be too much sugar, are they screw cap or glass? If screw cap you can try chilling and then letting a little gas out before leaving to settle some more. If glass then be careful you don't get a chain reaction of them breaking and going everywhere

 

[The Baron]

What was the FG? I know you said it was stable but it might help us to diagnose it also what hops, leaves or pellets and could the haze be hop residue in the beer which can cause nucleation points that will cause the beer to release its co2 quicker
Ps does the beer taste sweet or dry?

 

[Justin9]

Fg was 1.012
Used fuggles pellet hops, followed the clibit method, I would say it tastes more dry, deffo not really sweet.

 

[The Baron]

Right so the FG is there or there abouts but may be slightly high? and the dry taste tells us that there is not a lot of sugar left so maybe we can eliminate that. I do not know the Clibit method but are the pellets just thrown in or are they used in a spider/bag and was there a dry hop and was this loose or bagged?

 

[Justin9]

I added pellets loose and sieved out at the end

 

[Richard_H]

Firstly in my experience most brews will eventually clear if you leave them to condition long enough, the problem is that the gusher you had may make this dangerous if you have over primed and use glass bottles.

To speed up the process and make it safer to serve I would cold crash in a normal fridge for a few days and try a bottle. If it behaves fine or is a little lively then I wouldn't worry too much but if you still have a volcano then you have to consider taking action to avoiding bottle bombs.

If your finding the head disappears quickly than sadly you probably have an infection

 

[The Baron]

I could still be a possibility it is hop debris that has got through the sieve acting as nucleation points especially as the beer is cloudy which could also be part due to hop debris.
Have you checked your Hydrometer to make sure it is giving the right reading?

 

[Justin9]

Yea tested it in water and seems to be giving the right reading, going to make some more of this, go over the instructions carefully, make sure im sanitising everything well and see what round 2 brings

 

[Stevieboy]

This happened to my first SMASH, which was also my first AG - took an age to clear, and all the bottles did what yours did. No help to you I know, but you're not alone.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Well first of all the important thing is you say it tastes great - brilliant! To be honest at the end of the day the appearance is (mostly) cosmetic, right? If it remains cloudy then just give it an appropriate name like "hazy daisy" and tell people it's a special "unfiltered" brew ;-)

The gushing when you open the bottle sounds like more of a problem, especially if you're losing a third of the contents As others have said, chill the bottles well down before opening - this will definitely help because gas is much more soluble in cold liquids. Keeping the bottles in the fridge will help them clear down more quickly too.

Longer term I personally find that kegging the beer makes it a lot easier to get the carbonation right as you can easily add a bit more gas or let some out. It also means you can serve as much or as little you want at a time, and avoids the (to me) tedious chore of sterilising, priming and filling bottles. The stainless steel 'corny' kegs look really smart too (see photo below). There is a bit of a set-up cost (reckon on about £150-200 to buy the keg, a serving tap, a regulator and a CO2 cylinder) but after that you just have the price of the gas itself which is cheap as chips.

 

[Justin9]

Thanks, the long term aim for me is a corny setup, I just want to make sure I get it right with the basics and manage to knock out a half decent beer before commiting, I've told myself if I can get half decent by Christmas then I'll invest in the new year

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Thanks, the long term aim for me is a corny setup, I just want to make sure I get it right with the basics and manage to knock out a half decent beer before commiting, I've told myself if I can get half decent by Christmas then I'll invest in the new year

Cool!
In that case, may I suggest a copy of this book as an early Christmas present to yourself? It's excellent on basic equipment and techniques, and also has an extensive and really well regarded selection of recipes...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Home-Brew-Beer-Master-Brewing-dp-0241392578/dp/0241392578/