This is not a marketing blog. That’s because we don’t have anything to sell (did you hear that, Mr Duty Man??). And it means that this blog is not all about “we made this lovely beer” and “we made that lovely beer”. Sometimes things go wrong. Happy to admit it – that’s how you learn.
The previous blog post is a case in point – we’re currently drinking pretty much flat lager.
So here goes with another. What the hell happened to our ability to make clear beer??
This problem has afflicted the last couple of brews: East Kent Goldings Single Hop and Liberty Lightning.
The funny thing is that the beer seems fairly clear when it is racked out of the fermenter. Then it sits in the keg to mature for 4-6 weeks (a period of time soon to be designated a “Burrows”). When served we end up with the haziest beer you’ve ever seen (see the photo below). It’s a bit embarrassing giving it to friends to be honest.
I can only think of a couple of possible reasons:
- Dry hopping. Maybe adding dry hops after fermentation has somehow affected the clarity.
- Yeast activity during conditioning. Maybe the yeast’s secondary fermentation is so vigorous (especially given the warmer days of “summer”) that it’s kicking up a load of yeast into suspension and not settling out.
Certainly the vigorous secondary fermentation of the Liberty Lightning points towards the latter possibility. But I’m really not sure. Here’s hoping the Citra American Pale doesn't suffer the same fate.
Two thoughts from a total layman and interested observer:
ReplyDelete1. Yes, summer temperatures were my first thought especially given the recent changes which have *finally* brought us some warm days at the end of a consistently cold period. I'm guessing you won't want to air condition the entire garage, but could you (or DO you?) chill the keg?
2. Now that you've made quite a few brews and presumably reused the keg once or twice, could it be some kind of residue - protein build up or a side-effect of your cleaning process - that's causing it?
Pardon my ignorance and butting in. E&OE :0)
Thanks John.
ReplyDelete1. I have only one chiller (aka fridge) and it's got the lager in it. Ideally I'd have the ale in the fridge using the temperature regulator to hold it at about 10C. But I'd need about four fridges in an ideal world!
2. I hope I've managed to get the keg properly clean! But I think if it were due to badly cleaned equipment it'd show up in the aroma and taste (i.e. it would be infected), not just clarity.
Do you use irish moss or protofloc in recipes? A friend of mine who is a knowledgable and thrifty all grain brewer advised me to use gelatine that you can buy in any supermarket to use in your secondary fermentation vessel. I don't always do it but if theres a lot of grains and hops in a brew I use the gelatine dissolved in some boiled water left to cool and then put into your secondary fermenter.
ReplyDeleteThanks Iain. I ALWAYS use irish moss. Except for the one time when I forgot it, and it did make quite a difference to clarity. In fact there was an article on Basic Brewing Radio just this month (http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=radio 12th March episode) where they did an irish moss experiment and came to the same conclusion. So it may be seaweed, but it really works for me.
DeleteAs for gelatine, I use it, but as part of Kwik Clear which is a two part fining: Kieselsol followed by gelatine. Rather than use this in secondary (I don't bother with secondaries), I just put it into the keg when kegging, like an English brewer would use isinglass. Seems to work great for me, although some of my S-04 brews are so clear anyway I don't bother.