hazy beer

You can get protein precipitated out of the beer but it would have to be really cold. So I don't think this is likely to be the case here. But on the other hand it is strange that this should happen to two, presumably different beers which suggests something in the supply chain is odd, or there's gross incompetence in the cellar.

Which beers were these?

If cloudy beer tastes OK it won't harm you. The brewery tries to remove it all when casking but sometimes the last cask gets more gunk. Some small breweries have trouble with this to begin with. (The 'homebrew taste'.) If the beer comes from a local micro then reporting the cask numbers back to them should help them brew better beer in the future.

Some beers can take a while to drop clear, but if they haven't cleared after a reasonable time this indicates a problem with the beer or cask. If it tastes OK it's unlikely to do you any harm but it's unlikely the beer is tasting as it should.

A slight cask contamination can cause the symptoms, but it's odd that it occurs with two different beers. I wouldn't attach too much credence to the 'cold cellar' explanation though. Landlords don't want the hassle of returning casks if they can avoid it and would rather sell a cask if they think it's basically OK. Even good cask beer landlords will tell you all sorts of cobblers in order to get you to drink the stuff.

Paul

When I was in the trade I used to collect odd methods of getting beer to drop bright, i.e. clear. Below are some of the tips:

Pour a kettle of boiling water over the cask. This heats the finings up and kick-starts the process.

Tip a bottle of tonic water in the cask, seal it up, take it off the stillage, roll it around the cellar if you can, put it back on the stillage. Should drop within 6 hours.

Take a soft-ended mallet and bray it (that's Yorkshire for belt seven bells out of it) for a few minutes. Has the same effect as the first tip, and is particularly recommended for beer that flocculates badly (eg Wards of beloved memory).

Tonic water, tap water, slops, where do you draw the line?

;-)

Well as it won't be drunk but will form part of the dregs, does it matter? :->>>

This is the difficult part to understand. The landlord prises himself with putting on very good beers and I have to agree that he does.

His comment today, was that there might be some dodgy finings about. having brewed my own ale, I seriously doubt this. Master brewers are not stupid people.

I am a firm believer of that, having brewed my own beers for many years. It did taste less that crisp and clean, but was non the less a very good beer.

And two different pubs many miles apart, from the same batch of beer. One cleared, the other didn't.

This one would. he is a stickler about the quality of his beer. He has lots of competition around him and he needs to keep up his beer quality to compete

Dave

is it a new or old micro, or a regional brewery? Masterbrewers are by & large not stupid, but big brewers can employ less than conscientious staff & small brewers may be inexperienced. Most decent brewers wouldn't be happy with a landlord continuing to sell an unintentionally cloudy beer.

not if the finings were the source of mild infection, or the brewplant/ cask-washing, or the yeast.

could be simply that no finings were put into the cask?

the 'cold cellar explanation' is IMO pretty credible if the beer does not taste 'yeast-bitten' (harshly unpleasantly bitter with yeast) & if the haze disappears when the beer warms up a bit (mild protein chill- haze becomes invisible when the beer warms).

odd then that he would be happy selling cloudy (albeit drinkable) beer? MikeMcG

Or maybe he fancies you and has spunked in it???

Remember this.]

I think that it was a fairly old and respected micro from Yorkshire.

The LL has put the same beers on the bar in the past and they have flown off in, usually less than 24 hours. I am just interested in why a rouge barrel will not clear when others from the same batch, delivered to other pubs do. Landlord is also a beer distributor, so that is how he knows the the other barrels have cleared.

Is that when the finings get added? I didn't know that. This could be a reason. Thanks.

This post has been printed and will be taken the the LL'

Many thanks

Dave

No! it is not at all salty. Don't as me why I know :-)

Dave

if it was me (as LL) I'd just send it back - it's perfectly reasonable to do that - no brewery should have a problem if a pub returns a beer that just hasn't cleared, regardless of its taste (unless it's an intentionally cloudy Belgie/German wheatbeer).

could also be a 'rogue cask' - i.e. difficult to clean properly (or one that just didn't get washed properly), but again it's odd that the problem would show in 2 different beers in the same pub, but not anywhere else.

finings are added to the cask at the brewery, often when the cask is filled, or sometimes just before it leaves the brewery. I have heard also about infected finings, but then this would prob also show in the same beers in other pubs.

in all but the bigger / most techie-advanced breweries cask finings are the responsibility of the folks who fill the casks - they must remember to add them by hand (well using a jug, or similar) into every cask. cheers MikeMcG