Foggy and greyish beer?

[MisterBungle]

I was wondering if anyone could diagnose what's going on with this beer. This is an all grain Heady Topper type beer. The first time I made it, it came out a lot like HT, not very dark, a little cloudy due to all of the hop oils and low flocculating yeast... but pretty much on.

The original was about 2.5 gallons, but with all the hops I ended up getting closer to 1.5 gallons, so on my subsequent tries I pushed the limits of my system. Since then, the beer has been really dark, much darker than it should be given the grain bill-and greyish and cloudy... not like a hefe type cloudy, a really ugly type cloudy. Pics are attached. recipe is as follows.

12 lbs Pearl Malt
8 oz dextrose
Conan yeast (harvested one time, bought from yeast bay the other)
1 oz nugget 60 mins
3 oz assorted hops 5 mins
3 oz assorted hops flameout
3 oz dry hop

I got about 3.3 gallons. last time it was this cloudy the beer tasted fine, just looked ugly. This time its been carbing about a month and still tastes green (got much better than my usual 60% efficiency, so this batch is about 9.5% abv)

Anyone have an idea what's going on here?

 

[tacks]

Did you use finings? Did you leave it in the fridge a couple days before opening?

 

[MagicMatt]

We need more info to better help:

What was your OG and FG (estimated & measured)?
How long in primary?
How long in secondary (if applicable)?
Do you cold crash?
Do you use finings?
Dry hop with pellets or cones?
Dry hop in a bag or directly in primary/secondary/keg?
Do you bottle or keg?
How long in the bottles/keg, and at what temp?

To me, it just looks like a beer that hasn't clarified completely - a bit of particulate in suspension as well as chill haze.

And forgive me but 10 oz of hops seems like an awful lot for 3 gallons of beer!

 

[MisterBungle]

No finings.
OG 1.088 (estimated about 75)
fg 1.018

Primary for 4 weeks, dryhopped directly in primary no secondary. All hops were put in bags. Bottled.

The thing is, this is the second time I've had this problem. It never settled out even after 6 months in fridge (this one is only 1 month in bottles). Could be chill haze, but the only grain in it is really light. It just seems way too dark to be just haze and sediment. I don't remember it being this dark when I was bottling.

 

[Clonefan94]

Just a thought, but how fresh were your hops?

I did brew a pale ale one time where the hops I used were a little past their prime. The beer wasn't terrible, but never looked like any beer I'd ever brewed before. And the taste was never really that good.

 

[MisterBungle]

I don't think it was the hops. I used a ton, but they were all in vacuum sealed bags.

I didn't vorlauf after the mash (done in a cylindrical cooler with a SS braid)

I remember after the 1st successful batch, there was a little black mold in my cooler... I cleaned it, but maybe not enough? Can mold grow in alcohol?

That's the real mystery... it seems to be darkening AFTER it is bottled. Significantly darkening.

 

[tacks]

I don't think it was the hops. I used a ton, but they were all in vacuum sealed bags.

I didn't vorlauf after the mash (done in a cylindrical cooler with a SS braid)

I remember after the 1st successful batch, there was a little black mold in my cooler... I cleaned it, but maybe not enough? Can mold grow in alcohol?

That's the real mystery... it seems to be darkening AFTER it is bottled. Significantly darkening.

As long as you boiled after you mashed, you should have no problem with the mold. That being said, you may want to hit it with some star san in a spray bottle, it never hurts. Even though you didn't Vorlauf, that shouldn't be an issue unless you poured everything from your kettle into the fermenter. I don't do this, primarily because I use pellet hops without bags, but that's not the cause for you. If this is a really solid beer, one that you plan on brewing as a regular rotation, I would experiment with it next time, make sure you Vorlauf and see if you still have the same problem. Or, don't Vorlauf and use both irish moss and whirlfloc. I wish I could give you a definitive answer, but this is as far as my brewing experience will allow. Only other thing I can think of is where is it being stored while carbonating?

 

[flars]

I had the same look with a red ale. Taste was a little off also, so I surmised it was lightly oxidized. Drank it quickly to keep it from getting worse, if it was going to.

 

[shortyz]

what does the beer look like in the bottle after its sat in the fridge for a few days?