Lager clarity issues!

[wardy86]

Hi

Could do with some guidance as I'm a little confused. Bottled 40 pints of my wilko golden lager. It spent a few days near the radiator in the spare room to prime then stored in two boxes on a shelf in same room.

I sampled a beer after 2 weeks in the bottle and it had already started clearing very nicely with decent body and good head retention. As I was happy this was ready for drinking I put one box (approx 20 bottles) in the fridge to leave for another week. I checked the beer today after a couple of days in the fridge and the beer has gone really cloudy. I poured one of these into a glass and one from the spare room that hasn't been in the fridge and it has gone cloudy with less carbonation and head retention. This has baffled me, if anyone knows why this may have happened, please let me know.

I have a photo to compare the beers but don't know how to post it on here using my iPhone

 

[calumscott]

All perfectly normal.

What you have there are two effects of refrigeration:

1) Chill haze. There are molecules in your beer that change shape, stick together, just do weird stuff when you chill it. Sometimes it goes away again when you warm it up sometimes it doesn't but it will eventually settle out, it could take months. I had a lovely clear double APA until it went to the cellar, looked like it did just after I primed it! It's settled out completely now after a couple of months.

2) Solubility of CO2. It is more soluble at lower temperatures so more stays in your beer rather than coming out when you pour to give you the head. Lagers, because they are served cold, need to be really fizzy so they still feel fizzy when chilled.

I would say give them another 2 weeks before you chill them, 2 weeks often isn't enough for bottle carbonation. Then if you want them clear, you're going to have to keep them chilled for a long time until the haze settles out.

This is one of the reasons why lagers get lagered. They should sit at near zero temperatures for a month or so to make sure that all those little particles that cause chill haze are all settled out.

:thumb:

 

[wardy86]

Thank you so much for 'clearing' that up for me. Pardon the pun he he!