Imagine your friend pours you a cup of fresh beer, but it appears cloudy. What will you feel? If you are a beer enthusiast, it will undoubtedly impact your mood. In beer brewing terms, haze refers to turbidity and is much less appetising. Primarily, the terms cover all the reasons for instability in beer that consists of insoluble material. But it is not the only reason; beer can produce haze for diverse reasons.
What makes beer hazy?
Bacteria is the primary reason that creates cloudiness in beer. Whether it’s biological haze or non-biological haze, there would be bacteria in it. Anyways, biological haze is a consequence of non-adequate sanitation procedures. They cannot be reduced fully but can prevent through expanding adequate sanitation for future brews.
On the contrary, non-biological haze results from substances that the ingredients convert into beer. Yeast strains that are in suspension or protein and tannins also cause condensation. Other grain ingredients like wheat containing a high range of protein make it harder to reduce haziness, often requiring beer finings agents for clarity.
How to fix beer haze?
Generally, there is nothing wrong with a cloudy beer in taste and aroma. Moreover, at this point, while the world is sought-after clear beer, let’s read on some tips to reduce the haziness in beer.
Cooling down the wort quickly
Cooling the wort as soon as it comes out of boiling is an effective way to fix beer haze. If you use a wort chiller, it will chill the wort quickly-binding the protein and tannins together. The binding particles will sink quickly through the wort. In this way, when you put the beer into fermentation, most particles are left behind the kettle- removing all the haziness.
Clarifying and filtration
Beer finings agents are the most effective and scientific way to get a crystal-clear beer. Various fining agents are available in the market, including Irish moss, isinglass, gelatin, and poly gel. You can add a fining agent at the end of the boiling. Adding it during fermentation also is a correct way to remove the cloudiness. If added during boiling, add in the last 15-20 minutes to get a better result. For fermentation, beer finings agents should be added 3-5 days before bottling.
Yeast consideration
Yeast is another thing to consider to get a cloudy beer. There are different types of yeast consisting of heavy stains. For clearer brewing, it is best to select the high flocculating yeast. If the flocculating range is high in yeast, it will settle down rapidly and serve the cleared beer.
Cold conditioning
It is the last but another necessary procedure to follow. If you have the opportunity to freeze the beer at the end of fermentation under cold temperature, it will provide you with the most transparent beer. In this way, the suspended yeast particles will be left behind the bottom as the beer is chilled. It also fixes the chilled haze later after the bottling.
