What if your sparge water isn't hot enough?

[Caffinehog]

I don't always use hot enough sparge water to take the mash temperature to 167F. Could this be why my beer is almost invariably cloudy?

[Fast_Eddy]

Not hot enough sparge will cause poorer extract and will also allow alpha amylase to continue to produce some infermentable sugars.

Cloudy(non-infected) beer can be a result of non-flocc'ing yeast, not allowing enough time to drop bright, poor hot/cold break, etc. Do you use kettle finings? If not they will make a dramatic difference with regard to clarity.

[Caffinehog]

It's tasty almost a month later, so I doubt it's infected. I used irish moss in the kettle, and London ale yeast (WLP013.) Medium flocculation. Kegged and force-carbonated. It's a tasty bitter, but it looks almost like a hefe. I'm an all-grainer who batch sparges. My simcoe pale ale looks about the same (WLP007 with that one.) A recent double IPA looks much clearer, like my old extract brews. It uses WLP008, supposedly the lowest flocculating of all three. I'm a bit puzzled.

I cooled all three in a bathtub of water. I have a wort chiller ready for my next batch.

[Fast_Eddy]

I'd suggest

1) Try using whirl-floc tablets in the kettle. They're like concentrated caragheenan.

2) Maintain a good vigorous boil - it's essential to help coagulate haze causing proteins.

3) Try cold conditioning for 3-4 days. Knock the temp in your kegerator down to 40 F or so. This will cause haze forming proteins to come out of solution and if left alone they'll start to precipitate. Also causes ale yeasts to floc.

[Caffinehog]

My local brew store suggested that I had used malt that would have done best with a protien rest. That, combined with a few extra tannins from batch sparging and less precipitation as trub due to slower cooling, would lead to cloudy beers. I believe this because of the variability in cloudiness of my beers.

I'm really thinking about going with a protien rest, then a single decoction to sacrification temperatures. What do you think?

[bierboy]

Have you tried trub seperation? I've been having a heck of a time with chill haze lately. I am hoping that trub seperation solves that problem.

[MARK123]

My chill haze seems to disappear after 2 weeks in the fridge. I don't use any clearing agents. Any ideas why?

[brewmonkey]

Originally posted by MARK123
My chill haze seems to disappear after 2 weeks in the fridge. I don't use any clearing agents. Any ideas why?

It's not a chill haze then.