Clarity

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Biofine

Reddit: The short answer, save yourself the time and focus on extended crash times and a minimum of weekly yeast dumps to improve clarity. Also 30-60mL/bbl of Biofine won’t negatively impact head retention, I have over 200 batches worth of tracked data to prove this. Added 3 days before racking to the brite should get you glass every time if you’re dumping regularly during maturation and giving your beer adequate time in crashing.

Escarpment

Mitigating haze comes down to understanding what type of haze you have in the beer, and the ionic charge of the haze-forming particles (whether yeast, protein, polyphenols, or starch).

First, we suggest doing some simple tests to determine what type of haze you have.

Determining What Type Of Beer Haze You Have

1. Find out if it is yeast causing the haze. If you have a microscope, check the beer to see if there is a high concentration of yeast in suspension. To further confirm the haze is from yeast cells in suspension, test adding some positively charged finings (such as isinglass or gelatin, properly dissolved) to a glass of beer and letting it sit covered overnight.
2. ​​Find out if it is protein haze. Add a few small drops of caustic (NaOH) to a glass of beer (make sure to label it "do not drink" and dump promptly after the test, and take all relevant safety precautions when handing caustic). If it clears after 10-15 minutes, you are dealing with protein haze.
3. ​​Find out if it is starch haze. Add a few drops of iodine to a beer sample (similar to the iodine starch test for mash conversion). If it turns blue/black, you have starch haze.
4. ​​Find out if it is chill haze. Bring a sample of beer up to room temperature. If it clears (and there wasn't a lot of yeast in suspension), you have chill haze.

Beer Haze Removal Strategies

Now that you have identified the type of haze, you have the information needed to start addressing the issue and clearing your beer. One of the most important factors in beer clarification is the ionic charge of the haze particles in question.

The role of ionic charge

Ionic charge plays a big role in successful beer clarification. As a general principle, you need to use positively charged finings (such as gelatin, isinglass, etc) to sediment negatively charged particles (such as yeast). On the other hand, use negatively charged finings (such as Whirlfloc, carrageenan, etc) to sediment positively charged particles (such as proteins and polyphenols).

Other finings that are silica-based or PVPP-based will have variable impacts on different types of haze. Consult your finings supplier for usage instructions and additional guidance.

type of haze	root cause	solution
Yeast	Poor flocculation or growth. Often due to insufficient magnesium or zinc or poor wort oxygenation. Sometimes due to selecting a poorly flocculent yeast.	· -Ensure wort has adequate magnesium and zinc. · Ensure yeast nutrition is provided · Some post-fermentation finings can be effective.
Protein	Insufficient kettle fining/sedimentation/whirlpool leading to excessive protein in the beer.	· Use kettle finings such as Whirlfloc/carrageenan. · Avoid mash pH too high or low (target 5.3-5.5). · Post-fermentation finings can be effective.
Starch	Incomplete starch conversion in the mash.	· Ensure complete starch conversion in the mash with the iodine test. · Avoid mash temperature and pH too high or low.
Chill Haze (subset of protein haze)	Insufficient kettle fining/sedimentation/whirlpool leading to excessive protein and polyphenols in the beer.	· Post-fermentation finings can be effective at reducing chill haze. · Avoid mash pH too high or low (target 5.3-5.5).

fining agent	charge	category
Gelatin, Isinglass	positive	Proteinaceous
Bentonite, Tannins, Silica (eg Biofine, Protosol)	negative	Non-Proteinaceous
PVPP, carbon	neutral	Non-Proteinaceous

Haze troubleshooting questions (for beers that shouldn't be hazy)

• ​Q1: Have you recently changed malt supplier, malt type, or malt lot? What is the specific brand of base malt you are using?
• Malt variability as a result of agriculture and processing can lead to differences in haze formation.
• ​Q2: What is your water profile and which specific water salts are added to the water and when?
• Insufficient zinc and magnesium can cause yeast growth and flocculation problems.
• ​Q3: What is your mash pH and wort pH?
• We recommend a mash pH of 5.3-5.5 in order to promote optimal enzyme activity. Reducing wort pH to 5.0-5.3 prior to the whirlpool will aid in cold break sedimentation and reduce the amount of protein and polyphenol in solution.
• ​Q4: How long did the beer take to finish fermenting (reach FG)?
• A slow fermentation indicates upstream yeast health issues which might lead to poor flocculation.
• ​Q5: Are you adding any yeast nutrients? If so, which nutrients, dosing rate, and when do you add them?
• Yeast health has a lot of impact on haze. Insufficient nutrition can cause poor flocculation or growth. However, even Hazy IPAs benefit from nutrients!

Troubleshooting yeast haze (yeast is not flocculating)

Potential root causes of yeast haze:

• Insufficient Magnesium and/or Zinc causing poor yeast growth and flocculation. If the yeast does not have enough magnesium, growth will be restricted which can reduce the number of cells able to "collide" and form floccs that settle out in the beer. If the yeast does not have enough zinc, growth can be restricted and flocculation behaviour can change. This can also be caused by excessive calcium. Solution is to increase magnesium and zinc in the wot.
• Insufficient positively charged particles in the fermentation (e.g. cold break). A small amount of trub in the wort can help bind to yeast and help form yeast floccs since yeasts are negatively charged particles. If trub is aggressively removed, sometimes this results in poor residual yeast flocculation. Solution is to reintroduce a small amount of trub to see if this helps.
• Contamination impacting yeast flocculation. We have seen some cases where contamination by wort spoilers or lactic acid bacteria can cause issues with yeast flocculation post-ferment, even if sensory issues do not arise in the finished beer. In this case, it is important to check the wort for wort spoilers and check finished beer for residual contamination. Root causes include buildup in plate heat exchangers and cracks/defects harbouring contamination inside brewery transfer hoses (especially if they are more than 2 years old). On fermentation vessels, sample valves and valve seats are a common potential source of contamination. Solution is a microbiological QC audit.
• Mutation/phenotypic drift. Yeast mutation typically takes multiple generations to occur, but this is also a possible root cause of yeast haze issues if the yeast has been repitched for many generations (>10). The solution here is to return to a new yeast stock.

Stable Haze

​​ How to achieve that stable milky haze with NEIPAs? (reddit)

• Achieving a mash pH closer to 5.1 has helped me 
• 30% malted wheat. Drop pH to 5 or slightly lower.
• We’ve found a higher mash pH (5.4-5.5) then dropping the pH to 5.1 area at preboil really helped. 
• Why drop the wort pH?
  • I could be wrong, and if I am someone will jump In and correct me I’m sure, but the target pH is at the isoelectric point of oats and wheat and makes them less likely to bind to other protein and precipitate.
  • Altering pH can affect how the amino acids in the protein behave. This can cause proteins to fold or unfold, and do all sorts of strange things. Lowering pH increases the amount of H+ ions available in solution, causing changes to how the protein behaves. My assumption is that at higher a pH, proteins in these beers are more likely to coagulate - becoming heavier and dropping down.
• What finally made the biggest difference for us was switching to a low temperature whirlpool, we now add no hops during the boil and chill to 165 before adding Whirlpool hops. That alone made all the difference for us, your mileage may vary. Try everybody's suggestions, eventually you'll figure out what works for you.

Protein Haze: How Understanding pH Will Help You Brew Intentionally Unclear Beer

Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly how this relationship works and why pH levels impact the interaction. Ongoing experiments are at least helping predict the outcomes. Although they disagree on the precise number, scientists have found that beer protein haze forms most efficiently at a pH between 4 and 5.5, with maximum haze formation occurring in an inverse relationship between pH and ABV.

Authors of a 2003 Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists paper measured maximum haze formation in wort at a pH between 5 and 5.5. A beer with 6% ABV registered the most turbidity between 4.5-5 pH, and at 12% ABV, they found the most haze potential at 4.5.

More recently at a presentation in 2013, Cornell University food science professor emeritus Karl Siebert (one of the authors of the ASBC paper) further clarified to Master Brewers Association of the Americas members that haze formation reaches its peak just above a pH of 4 and significantly weakens as one moves further up or down the scale.