Cloudy Pilsner

[King Brown]

I've had my pilsner in the fermenter for two weeks now, and the airlock stopped bubbling a couple of days ago so tonight I gave it a gravity test. All was fine, Except the wort is really cloudy, and has a few particals from the hop pellets floating in it (mainly towards the bottom of the hydrometer jar) the temperature has remained at a fairly constant 22 degrees, which I know is warm for lagers, but still within the yeasts working range. My recipe was;

1 tin of thomas coopers brewmaster pilsner kit
1 kg of light DME
500g dextrose
14g Saaz pellets
14g Hallertauer pellets
11.5g Saflager

sanitized all the equipment, boiled the extract, the dextrose and the hallertauer in 2l of water and simmered for 30 minutes, added the saaz after the boil and let sit for two minutes. tipped the tin into the fermenter and strained the boiled ingredients in, then topped up to 23L with cold water. when it was the right temperature I took a gravity reading of 1.049 then pitched the yeast. It was fermenting within less than 12 hours.

I realise most people will tell me to rack to a secondary and keep refridgerated for around 2 weeks, but that is simply not an option for me at the moment. Will time in the bottle let it clear? Im considering using some geletin finings, will this help much? I've never had a brew this cloudy, but it is my first lager, have I just brewed it at too warm a temperature? Its probably worth noting that it smells great and tastes even better, I was just wondering if I could do much to improve its appearance?

Edit: the gravity test this evening read 1.013, which is right in the range im looking for.

 

[buttersd70]

the temperature has remained at a fairly constant 22 degrees, which I know is warm for lagers, but still within the yeasts working range. My recipe was;

Actually, the temperature range for all of the fermentis lager yeasts is 9C-15C. details are on their homepage here

I realise most people will tell me to rack to a secondary and keep refridgerated for around 2 weeks, but that is simply not an option for me at the moment. Will time in the bottle let it clear? Im considering using some geletin finings, will this help much?

Time in the bottle will clear it to a degree. The yeast will flocculate over time in the bottle, particularly if the bottles are chilled for an extended period of time. But without a certain amount of clearing being done before bottling, it's highly unlikely you will get the clarity that you are after, due to more sediment in the bottle itself, which may rouse back into solution when pouring.

Using geletine finings may help, however all fining methods are best done cold, so addition of finings at this temperature are likely to have a greatly reduced effectiveness.

IMHO, the main issue here is actually the effects of the warm fermentation, rather than the yeast. There is slight irony here, though, in that the presence of additional yeast may actually help scrub some of the off flavours produced in the hot fermentation.

My advice; if you can't refridgerate it, then at least get it as cold as you can. Add geletin finings (at the reccommended levels, it's in the article section. Don't add more, that actually reduces the effectiveness). Even if it does manage to drop bright in a couple of days, leave it on the yeast cake for a full week. Once it is bottled, tip the bottles daily to keep the yeast in suspension for a a week (even though you want it to clear, keeping the yeast in suspension during the carbonation will give the yeast more opportunity to consume the aldehydes that are likely to be present). Then give it time in the bottle to age.
$0.02

 

[KGB]

Good post by butters.

22 is fine for an ale, but even with an ale most people around here (myself inc) try to keep it at 18-20. Sounds like a good recipe and you say it tastes and smells good so maybe it'll turn out a winner...? Chilling helps greatly with clearing although I doubt you'll get a very clear beer this time without several steps, including filtering. Then again - does it really matter? Sure a crystal clear beer looks nice in the glass but it makes bugger all diff to the taste unless you have massive amounts of $hit floating around IMO.

Cool it as much as possible, add the gelatin and bottle away. Try and lager it for a couple of months in the fridge and it should clear a fair bit and taste better too.

 

[earle]

Was it the first hydrometer reading you had taken for the brew? I use a sediment reducer but the first couple of samples I take are always full of yeast and hops, rest of the beer comes out fine. I usually leave it settle for about a week after fermentation stops to allow settling of yeast etc. Different yeasts take different amounts of time to settle so if this is your first lager this could be what you're noticing.

 

[0M39A]

Good job on trying new things to better your beers, but, as mentioned, youve done a few things wrong.

firstly, most lager yeasts work best around the 11-13 mark. 22 is way way too hot. would have produced a fair bit of aldehyde (noticeable as a green apple smell/taste). i would also imagine that it would be pretty sulphury.

time can heal a lot of things though, so you never know.

one other thing i noticed is that you boiled 1kg of malt extract and 500g of dextrose in only 2L of water... wouldnt this just been a thick sugary goop?

if you are only doing a 2L boil then 200g would have been heaps for boiling hops.

the reason you need to rack to secondary and keep as cold as possible for a few weeks with a lager, as thats exactly what lagering is. extended periods at a cool temperature helps the yeast clean up after itself and get rid of all the nasty sulphur in your beer. it really is essential. if you do bottle straight from primary, dont go near it for a few months, and keep it as cold as possible.

with the temperatures you had to brew at, you really would have been better with a nice neutral ale yeast.

chalk it all up to experience though

 

[buttersd70]

yeah, the tap should always be cleared when taking a reading. Not only can it give you a false impression of the clarity, it can effect the reading itself.

EDIT: If you want to brew lagers, but cant get the temperature down, the other option is to use wyeast 2112, california lager. Even though it's a bottom fermenter, its

Particularly suited for producing 19th century-style West Coast beers. Retains lager characteristics at temperatures up to 65 F, (18 C) and produces malty, brilliantly clear beers. This strain is not recommended for cold temperature fermentation.

 

[The Big Burper]

Thinks........


Particularly suited for producing 19th century-style West Coast beers. Retains lager characteristics at temperatures up to 65 F, (18 C) and produces malty, brilliantly clear beers. This strain is not recommended for cold temperature fermentation.


Steam beer he we come!

 

[buttersd70]

I forgot to mention....I was just thinking laterally about the temperature issues, I haven't actually used this yeast, and am not familiar with American style lagers.....but the smiley face from Burper appears to be a good indication

 

[Bribie G]

I've found that Nottingham ale yeast is excellent for making my 'fake pilseners' ** and works brilliantly in the low 20s. I have a batch that has been bottled for three weeks now. It has never been below 20 except for three days Polyclar, never been lagered. I tried an early bottle the other day and it's shaping up nicely.

With Nottingham you will have no problems with the yeast dropping right out and clinging to the bottom of the bottles until its knuckles are white

** got the idea of fake pilsener from a thread here some time ago. Using a partial mash of a lager malt, Carapils, a Canadian Kit, extral LMDE and heaps of noble hops like Saaz and Tettnang etc.

 

[King Brown]

Thanks for all your posts, I think I'll follow butter's advice and see how it goes.

I was very aware that 22 was not ideal for lagers, the packet said it worked best between 9 and 15 but would work as high as 24, but I was expecting the temperature to cause some kind of problem, I just wanted to see how it would turn out

I may look into that 2112 yeast, I was considering trying an extract Oktoberfest recipe next to use up the leftover hop pellets, my LHBS has a good range of W-yeast

After that I'll probably stick to ales until winter time, or until I get the space for fermenting fridge!

*edit* forgot to mention to earie, this is the first reading since pitching the yeast, the pre-fermentation reading had quite a lot more hop particles, so that seems to be clearing up a little. I will do another reading before adding the finings.