markp
Landlord.
I hope someone is able to shed some light on my current problem.
Prior to upgrading my system I was making excellent beer using a plastic boiler, cool box tun and an immersion cooler. The beer tasted good (with the exception of a couple of batches) and I didn't have any clarity issues.
I've since upgraded to Nordic pots and now use a plate chiller and I am having problems with final beer clarity.
When I run my wort from the boiler, I take a 250ml sample to test the OG....the protein break falls to the bottom and the wort is sparkling clear. I have a 40 mesh filter fitted to the top of a muddydisco false bottom.
Wort is then fermented, crash cooled to 2 degrees and then syphoned to a secondary and left another 7-10 days, again at 2 degrees.
I then trasfer to a corny for force carbonation and dispense.
I use protofloc at a 1/4 tablet per 20-25 litres of beer....I used to use whirlfloc, but couldn't get any from the supplier I used when needing to buy. I don't notice others having issues using protofloc.
I've tried the following (in the secondary) to try and get clear beer before racking to the corny - gelatine, polyclar and Magicol finings. Yet still I get this haze.
Yeasts I generally use - SO4, US05, WLP005/002, Nottingham.
It is not a serving temperature issue and please, no comments about pewter/stone tankards :) There is obviously an issue somewhere that I'd like to put right.
Fearing some sort of infection, I've cleaned and better cleaned everything on the cold side and have even bought 2 brand new fermenting bins for my brew this weekend.
I use Oxy and hot water to wash everything and then thoroughly rinse; I then use Perbac (peracetic acid) 3ml in 250ml of water to sanitise.
One thing that has crossed my mind is the hop rates I've been using recently......lots and lots of hops, especially late hops. I drink quite a lot of Punk IPA.....this is rarely totally clear, can lots of hops give a haze?
Final point.....my hazy beer does taste good; but even so I'd like to sort the problem.
Can anyone see anything obviously wrong?
If anyone could throw any thoughts in, I'd be most grateful. I'm going to brew a low gravity session beer this week at about 30 IBU to see if a lower hop rate helps.
Thanks in advance for any comments and apologies for the long post
Edit to add - my liquor is treated with AMS to reduce the alkalinity to <20ppm. I usually need to add around 0.6ml/l.
I use theHBF water treatment calculator; depending on the style brewed this usually tells me to add gypsum to the mash and boil and also a small amount of epsom salts and table salt to the boil.
Prior to upgrading my system I was making excellent beer using a plastic boiler, cool box tun and an immersion cooler. The beer tasted good (with the exception of a couple of batches) and I didn't have any clarity issues.
I've since upgraded to Nordic pots and now use a plate chiller and I am having problems with final beer clarity.
When I run my wort from the boiler, I take a 250ml sample to test the OG....the protein break falls to the bottom and the wort is sparkling clear. I have a 40 mesh filter fitted to the top of a muddydisco false bottom.
Wort is then fermented, crash cooled to 2 degrees and then syphoned to a secondary and left another 7-10 days, again at 2 degrees.
I then trasfer to a corny for force carbonation and dispense.
I use protofloc at a 1/4 tablet per 20-25 litres of beer....I used to use whirlfloc, but couldn't get any from the supplier I used when needing to buy. I don't notice others having issues using protofloc.
I've tried the following (in the secondary) to try and get clear beer before racking to the corny - gelatine, polyclar and Magicol finings. Yet still I get this haze.
Yeasts I generally use - SO4, US05, WLP005/002, Nottingham.
It is not a serving temperature issue and please, no comments about pewter/stone tankards :) There is obviously an issue somewhere that I'd like to put right.
Fearing some sort of infection, I've cleaned and better cleaned everything on the cold side and have even bought 2 brand new fermenting bins for my brew this weekend.
I use Oxy and hot water to wash everything and then thoroughly rinse; I then use Perbac (peracetic acid) 3ml in 250ml of water to sanitise.
One thing that has crossed my mind is the hop rates I've been using recently......lots and lots of hops, especially late hops. I drink quite a lot of Punk IPA.....this is rarely totally clear, can lots of hops give a haze?
Final point.....my hazy beer does taste good; but even so I'd like to sort the problem.
Can anyone see anything obviously wrong?
If anyone could throw any thoughts in, I'd be most grateful. I'm going to brew a low gravity session beer this week at about 30 IBU to see if a lower hop rate helps.
Thanks in advance for any comments and apologies for the long post
Edit to add - my liquor is treated with AMS to reduce the alkalinity to <20ppm. I usually need to add around 0.6ml/l.
I use theHBF water treatment calculator; depending on the style brewed this usually tells me to add gypsum to the mash and boil and also a small amount of epsom salts and table salt to the boil.
