Cold Crashing / Fining a Belgian Blonde: Will I Lose the Traditional Haze?

[guy_cliff]

For my next brew I'm planning on trying out a Belgian blonde, with a split batch at the end of fermentation, with one receiving some dry hops.

I'm keen for the beer to retain the slight haze that is typical of the trappist blondes (noteably Westvleteren 6, La Trappe Blonde), but I'm aware that if I cold crash the beer I'll be helping to clarify it... similarly if I add any fining agents.

One thing that I don't know is how much that haze appearance is down to the malt choice. My grist is 100% Dingemans pale Belgian malt (with candi syrup added at the end of the boil); will this malt naturally leave a haze?

Since I'm working with slow flocculating Belgian yeasts I'm keen to keep the cold crash period, but also want the appearance to be correct.

Eager to hear some thoughts/suggestions!

 

[millsbrew]

What results are you looking for by cold crashing? The only reason to cold crash is for clarity. It seems you want haze but want to cold crash.

 

[jekeane]

Belgian Blond "Appearance: Light to deep gold color. Generally very clear. Large, dense, and creamy white to off-white head. Good head retention with Belgian lace"

Not sure if you by traditional you mean something other than bjcp style guidelines.

As @millsbrew said above the only point to gelatin is to clear the beer.

 

[guy_cliff]

Thanks for the responses,

So from experience(!) the two beers I mentioned before La Trappe Blonde, and Westvleteren Blonde are both slightly hazy rather than startlingly bright.

At the same time though, I'm not to keen on having a massive amount of yeast in suspension, so this would be the purpose of cold crashing.

I guess the real question becomes whether there's something going into the beers above (a particular malt?) that makes them slightly hazy to look at, whilst also clean of yeast.

 

[millsbrew]

Haze is usually from yeast in suspension. However you can add a little wheat or a good amount of rye. They have higher protein levels, which would lead to a haze.

 

[IrocChris]

Are you kegging or bottling?

 

[guy_cliff]

Thanks millsbrew,

I'm pretty sure that these recipes use traditional Belgian methods, and are straight up pale malt.

The plan is to bottle IrocChris.

I guess an alternative question then is: if the haze is caused by yeast in suspension, how do these breweries stop really large quantities of yeast from settling out at the bottom of the bottle? I'd have thought if the beer is sufficiently hazy, then this would in turn mean that you'd finish up with a sizeable pool of dead yeast too... Even if the yeast is not very flocculant, over the period bottling - drinking, surely some would drop out!

That makes me think though... In the case of Westvleteren blonde, I'm basing my experience on drinking it at the Cafe In de Vrede, opposite the abbey: so perhaps the haze is because the bottles are fresh, and haven't had a chance to settle out... Maybe I need to crack one of the bottles I brought back.