If your all grain beer is cloudy and won’t drop clear;
Most beers, given enough time will drop clear but factors that affect the time it takes are numerous. The most common report of haze with homebrewed beers is 'chill haze'. This is where the beer is clear before it goes in the fridge – and you probably don’t want warm beer, or hazy beer, so what can you do about this and other hazes?
- Ensure you have a long vigorous rolling boil
- Use kettle finings like protofloc, irish moss or deltafloc
- Cool your wort and cool it quick!
- Double check starch conversion is complete during the mash
- Make sure you pitch enough healthy yeast to have a strong fermentation
If you’re still having an unwanted haze, you could consider finings after fermentation. There are plenty to choose from like gelatin, isinglass or polyclar.
More advanced brewers may want to check their water composition. Having a good level of calcium in your water is essential to having a hot and cold break during your boil, which in turn are essential to avoiding a haze. Aim for around 100ppm if possible but anything of 50ppm should do the job.
Of course, you might want to brew hazy beers like New England IPAs or Weissbiers, but you should get that haze from your recipe, rather than cutting corners on your brewing process.
The points above are all good brewing practices anyway so should be considered in order to make a great beer every time.