Why Is My Beer Cloudy?

[Simpdogg]

Hi Guys,

I just discovered home brewing about 6 months ago and have only done 3 brews so far,

first was the munich larger
second was a black rock czech pilsner
third which is on the go now is the little creatures pale ale.

my problem is that my beer is always cloudy from the second half the bottle down, still has good activity and has good head still taste OK too....

I understand there may be settlement at the bottom, have any of you had this problem and if so how did you get your entire bottle of beer to be clear??


Im using brewcraft carbonation drops to prime the bottles and all bottles have been sterilized with the brewcraft cleaners and hot water... if thats any help


Thanks in advance

 

[manticle]

You can get clearer beer in a number of ways.

You can rack (transfer) to another sanitised vessel part way through brewing. This will leave behind most of the yeast cake (which has grown during fermentation) resulting in clearer beer.

You can fine (use finings like gelatine or isinglass) a couple of days before you bottle.

You can crash chill/cold condition (place your fermenter in the fridge for 4 - 7 days before bottling (after fermentation is finished).

You can also use polyclar but I don't know much about it and can't offer advice.

OR

You can do all or any combination of the above.

Also make sure you don't tip or disturb the fermenter while bottling and leave the last litre or two inside. If you do disturb it, let it settle 30 mins before recommencing bottling.

If your beer tastes ok you could also consider not worrying at this stage. Finings are probably the easiest, quickest way though.

 

[Bongchitis]

.....also simp' try pouring the entire long neck in one go into a jug taking care to stop when sediment is making its way up to the mouth of the bottle. Then pour from the jug.

Double pours from a unfiltered longie will always give a degree of haze.

Cheers mate.

 

[flattop]

Yup, you pour the first and then tip the bottle back upright, swilling the remaining beer back over the sediment in the bottle. If you put the half bottle back in the fridge for a day and then poured the 2nd half real carefully it wouldn't be too bad.
If you are like me you drink the 2nd half same day and stop worrying about clarity and concentrate on taste.

Wont kill you, will affect taste only in extreme cases and remember it's the sediment that causes carbonation, it's the yeast and spent sugars laying on the the bottom of the bottle.
Decanting to a jug will fix it by why bother....

 

[cdbrown]

It's all the yeasty goodness floating around in the beer. Chances are when you pick up a bottle which has been left for a while in the fridge there's a heap of sediment on the bottom of the bottle? Well as you drink this starts to get stirred up making it cloudy.

I get nice clear beer by chilling the beer down to 2-3C in the fermenter once it's finished brewing. After about 2 days I'll add some gelatine (2 teaspoons in 200ml boiling water, stirred and cooled a little). Another day or so bring the fermenter out to where you will be pouring into bottles and let it warm up, then start bottling. First few and last few bottles of the batch will be cloudy but the only way to avoid that is to change the process a little and transfer to a secondary vessel at the same time as adding gelatine.

 

[Fourstar]

the best thinkg you can do before bottling is to crash chill then bottle. even better would be to crash chill rack to secondary bulk prime and bottle. It also doesnt hurt the chill the bottles for several days in the fridge before drinking, this will help any active yeast floc out and compact on the bottom of the bottle.

When bottling, i always pour into pints. atleast i get 3/4 of a longneck into the glass crystal clear.

 

[Pumpy]

I suppose you could filter it It gets it in the keg or bottle quicker and impress your mates with sparkling cleear beer in a couple of weeks

 

[Fourstar]

Ha, You love that pic dont you pumpy!

 

[Pumpy]

Ha, You love that pic dont you pumpy!

Yep dont ya love recycling

i am a Member of the 'National Packaging Covenant'

Pumpy

 

[Carboy]

Yep dont ya love recycling

i am a Member of the 'National Packaging Covenant'

Pumpy

Hi Pumpy,

Love your filter system :super: think I'll have to poach your idea , but before I do can I ask a couple of quick questions please.

1) how long does it take to transfer from fermenter to keg?
2) the filter looks pretty big, do you lose any beer in the filter once transfer is completed (e.g. 1 litre),
3) once you've filleted one beer, can you clean and sterilise the filter cone and reuse for the next beer, or do you have use a new filter?, and
4) I note that the filter is at a similar level to the keg, does gravity feed still work okay, of should I try to get the fermenter and filter a tad higher than the keg.

Thank you in advance for your reply

Cheers
Carboy :icon_cheers:

 

[Simpdogg]

I suppose you could filter it It gets it in the keg or bottle quicker and impress your mates with sparkling cleear beer in a couple of weeks

How much does a set up like that set you back? I would like to do kegs one day but want to be able to get the basic right first and understand exactly what it is that im doing.

After reading all the advice i will try the gelatin option, i don't have the facilities to crash chill the fermentor unfortunately.

I'll make sure to leave the last 1-2 liters, I've never wanted to waste it...

Cheers

 

[Bizier]

After reading all the advice i will try the gelatin option, i don't have the facilities to crash chill the fermentor unfortunately.

I'll make sure to leave the last 1-2 liters, I've never wanted to waste it...

It might help if you can put the fermenter in the coldest place in the house.

I chill and fine with gelatine, and siphon to another fermenter with some sugar to bulk prime. I find that I waste next to nothing because the primary yeast cake has really compacted down, and only moves slightly as I tilt to get the last little bit of clean beer out.

I really think that a filter system is silly for someone without a keg setup. You would be far better spending that money on a fermenting fridge & temp control so that you can have consistent ferments and crash chill. Just my 2c.