Thought it went smoothly...apparently not

[StJamesG8]

Hey guys,
I just did my first all grain batch. I Got a nice igloo cooler with a stainless false bottom. My temps seemed ok for the mash. I though everything went pretty well, my OG was pretty close, my boil had a small delay when I ran out of propane, but I got a new tank within about 15 min. and got things rolling again shortly after that. Fermentation went great, after about 2 weeks, I dropped an ounce of cascade pellets right into the fermenter (which is where I'm guessing I may ahve run into problems) After another week (maybe 10 days) I racked into a corny, everything still seemed ok. I put the keg in my keezer, 38 degrees, under 11 lbs of pressure. If I'm reading the charts right, after 5 days I should have beer carbonated with about 2.4 units of CO2. What I got, was flat murky looking liquid. For what it's worth, it tastes pretty close to what I was expecting. (It's an IPA)
Sooooo, is there maybe some hop nastiness in suspension in the beer that's giving this dark cloudiness? Can I filter it somehow? Why would it still be flat? Should I try the more agressive "Forced Carbonation" method (shaking it under high pressure) Any suggestions?

I appreciate any help. Thanks!
Matt

 

[Shooter]

Have you pulled more than a pint or two? If not, it could just be sediment in the first few pours that will not be there in later pours. As for the carbonation, I don't force carb, but assuming the CO2 isn't leaking out somewhere, I would give it more time. It has to carb eventually.

 

[Yooper]

At 11 psi and 38 degrees, it may take two weeks to carb up fully. By that time, the beer should clear quite a bit too and the first pour will suck out any sediment that fell to the bottom near the diptube.

if you shake it up, you'll resuspend all the stuff that's trying to settle out. If you feel that you must carb it up faster, you could turn the pressure up. When I'm in a big hurry, I set the regulator to 30 psi for 24-36 hours and then purge it and reset it at 11 psi. That should carb it up in 2-3 days.

 

[StJamesG8]

Alright, alright. Thanks for the tips. I'll just stay patient. Your lack of concern is calming me down a bit!! I'm not in a real rush to get it carbed, just to get it RIGHT! I had the mini-mash thing down to a science, but as soon as I changed to the full mash, I start to worry about every little detail. I suppose I should take Papazian's advice right? RDWHAHB

 

[Yooper]

Alright, alright. Thanks for the tips. I'll just stay patient. Your lack of concern is calming me down a bit!! I'm not in a real rush to get it carbed, just to get it RIGHT! I had the mini-mash thing down to a science, but as soon as I changed to the full mash, I start to worry about every little detail. I suppose I should take Papazian's advice right? RDWHAHB

Right! If you don't have any homebrew ready, you can sub craft beer and RDWHACB.

One thing I've found is that once it settles, and you pull about 1/2 pint, almost all of the brown sludge comes out then. Dump it, and the rest of the beer is fine with the most beautiful beer of all being the last pint. I sometimes have to move kegs around so I'll restir up the trub a bit and go through that again, but not nearly as bad. When the keg is gone, open it up and take a look to see how the sludge compacted in there. There will be a thick yeast sediment on the bottom, but a "clean" space around the diptube. Once you see that, you can sort of realize how little sediment you really had, if that makes sense. Since the diptube goes all the way to the bottom (I don't cut mine), you get all the beer out with just about 1/4 cup of yeast sludge at the end.

That's one of the reasons I don't shake to quick carb. While it's carbing up, the cold crash causes some of the yeast and other stuff in the beer to precipitate out so the beer is clearing while it's carbing up. If you set it at 11 psi and just wait it out, you won't have any risk of overcarbed beer and the beer will be clear and ready to drink in 10 days or so, improving up until about day 14 in carbonation level.

 

[Bru]

Ive been battling lately to get ultra clear beer - if its still not clear heat (don't boil) some water with 20g gelatine and pour it into the keg. That should clear it up.
Next step is a hop bag/strainer in the kettle.

 

[StJamesG8]

This is the first time I've dry hopped and kegged, so I guess there just hasn't been enough time for it to all settle out. That makes sense to me. What about actually filtering? Can some sort of water filter be used to clear the batch on the way to the keg? I know that a lot of breweries do this on the way to the bright tank...... (That's usually some sort of silica based filter, though, from what I've seen)

 

[Shooter]

I sometimes have to move kegs around so I'll restir up the trub a bit and go through that again, but not nearly as bad.

It's surprising just how little it can take to resuspend the sediment. I lifted a keg about an inch last night to see how heavy it was so I would know how close I was getting to the end of the keg. I set it back down and poured a slighlty cloudy pint of what had been a crystal clear beer before I did that.

 

[Bru]

All the techniques work - including filtering but its not nescesary:
http://morebeer.com/search?search=filter

Im no expert but Ive found various techniques work - irish moss, good cold break, whirlpooling before racking to the fermenter, cold crashing between primary and secondary, cold crashing secondary and adding gelatine a few days before bottling, keeping the syphon off the cake when racking etc.

Hop sediment is a big cause of haze. Ive recently made a hop bag (paint strainer type for the kettle) to avoid sediment - Im sure its going to help.
For dry hopping you can also put the hops in a bag or a herb ball.

I had a kegged pilsener that didn't clear even after three sessions of gelatine but thats because I emptied the entire contents of the kettle into the fermenter. Obvious in hindsite.

Listen to this podcast on haze. Its more for a commercial brewer but interesting nevertheless. Various aspects are mentioned including type of grain and a vigorous boil.
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/572

heres one on filtering :
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/516

This is the first time I've dry hopped and kegged, so I guess there just hasn't been enough time for it to all settle out. That makes sense to me. What about actually filtering? Can some sort of water filter be used to clear the batch on the way to the keg? I know that a lot of breweries do this on the way to the bright tank...... (That's usually some sort of silica based filter, though, from what I've seen)

 

[Pubwilson]

I too was on my first AG about 5 batches ago, and recently did a Firehouse Ale that required some dry hopping. I ended up tossing my cascades in a hop bag and then end result was a well hopped beer with minimal sediment. Maybe you can try that next time, but ensure that you sanitize the bag first so as not to ruin your nearly completed beer.
I even read somewhere here that someone weighted their bag down with a SS spoon tied to the bag. All my hops seemed well dispersed, but I might try that next time also.