Eliminating Chill Haze

[Shaun Goeckner]

Ok. I have not posted in a long time, working hard and all. BUT, I have got to share this:

Chill haze has hounded me for a long time. I have tried Gelatin, Isinglas, Divergan, and of course always use Irish Moss.

I recently met a shop owner in Orlando (Hearts Homebrew), and he casually shrugs and sez " Temp stabizie it."

"Arfff"?!? Sez I confusedly.

"After your secondary, remove a pint to a sterile bottle, and place the whole carboy in the 'fridge. after 36-48 hours it gets chill haze, remove it to room temp for another 24-36 hours and those proteins settle out leaving protein free clear beer behind!
I use the liter I saved to "re-pitch" before botteling, and it's not needed if you keg of course....

It works. I have 2 batches of almost commercial clarity beer in my fridge right now, and a new Brew Supply store to visit!

[brewmonkey]

I am glad that this process is working for you but if you are having repeated problem with chill haze then you need to look at your process to figure out why you have it. Obviously you are brewing all grain (if you are not then you need to change your extract! :eek:) which means your problem could start anywhere from the mash tun all the way to the kettle.

However a common area to look for the cause of chill haze is the chiller. Once you shut the kettle off you want to hit that cold break as quickly as possible, the faster the better. Not only does this help avoid chill haze it also prevents the pre-cursor to DMS from forming.

Chill haze can be filtered out with a tighter filter but of course most homebrewers do not have this ability. You could drop some PVPP in and clear it out. However if you do be cautious as it should be filtered back out even though some folks do use it without subsequent filtration.

To filter you would need close to .5 microns (.45 IIRC) and then have the beer as cold as it can be but not be slush and then filter it.

[wortchillergoal]

Avoid chill haze, drink it warm.

[BadDogNoBiskit]

I hear that! Warm Beer and Cold Pizza.

[Shaun Goeckner]

I miss you guys!

Divergan is PVCC or whatever, and works OK, but we got tired of having to buy filters for it.

You know, come to think of it we shelved our copper chiller a year ago and started dropping the whole kettle into an ice bath. I thnk now I'm gonna save up for a super counterflow chiller, I just got a thermostat for my chest freezer for temp control. That seems to have eliminated the funny flavor we had been experiencing due to lack of constant temp while primary.

See you guys around the coffe pot!

[HogieWan]

I was plagued with chill haze until I got a counterflow chiller - solved my chill haze problem and my beer is much tastier.