Beer not dropping bright

[Spurdie]

Hello All, Been lurking here for a while don't post very often, but have learned a lot. Started probrewing 2 years ago, and am on Batch 186 on a 7 bbl system. No major problems to speak of. Here lately have been having a problem with my ales not dropping bright. Normally after primary fermentation ~ 3 days I bung the fermenter until TG then crash for three days. After 3 days (or sooner if I need to) I harvest yeast to a corny to repitch. This System has served me very well for all this time. Recently It has been taking way longer, as in a week or more, to clear up resulting in very sludgy serving tanks and wasted beer. Any Ideas Guys?

[Roger Greene]

Hey Steve,

How many times do you re-pitch your yeast? After a while they can just loose their ability to floc. Besides that, the only other thing I could think of would be calcium, but coming from Tennessee, I know how hard the water can be, so I don't think that calcium would be an issue.

[Spurdie]

Thanks for the reply Roger, It coincided with a new pitch so I chalked it up to that and got another and seems as if I still have the problem. Yeah, our water tends to the hard side. Other than still having suspended yeast the beer tastes great. It is wreaking havoc with my brew schedule though.

[ParishBrewingCo]

I have personally experienced dramatic differences in clarity, haze, etc with pH adjustments through all brewhouse steps. What are your pH's during mash, final runnings, pre-boil, and post boil? If you're off, you could be getting a poor hot break or cold break and thus suspension of particles that would otherwise precipitate.

Andrew
Parish Brewing Co.

[lhall]

Hey Steve,

Did anything else change? Base malt, water, etc? Check your pHs throughout the process.

[dberg]

Kettle finings?

Overuse can lead to the problem you're having.

[Spurdie]

Hey guys, Thanks for all the replies. I always track ph, and nothing else has changed either. I use whirfloc B in the kettle same amount as always. I am befuddled, to say the least.

[Roger Greene]

If you have pitched fresh yeast from the lab and still have issues, the problem could be in the malt. OK, it might not be a "problem", but there is a protein that has been linked with with flocculation. There is nothing that you can do about this issue, it is most likely due to the barley variety. If this is the case, talk with your malt company and see if there has been a change in the barley being used.

[Natrat]

question...

Is this happening in ALL your fermenters, or just one?

Just trying to isolate the problem...

Nat

[Swordboarder]

Have you changed your oxygenation regiment, or recently cleaned your O2 stone in a way you hadn't before?

[Spurdie]

Seems to be across the board. Nothing has changed in the way I oxygenate or cleaning regimen. At first I thought it was just the new pitch possibly had mutated and was just less flocculant, so I tried a new pitch and not much difference. This really has me confused.

[uabericm]

Seems to be across the board. Nothing has changed in the way I oxygenate or cleaning regimen. At first I thought it was just the new pitch possibly had mutated and was just less flocculant, so I tried a new pitch and not much difference. This really has me confused.

Any luck getting the beer to drop bright?

[Spurdie]

I believe it ended up being a matter of not getting the wort cool quickly enough. Summer city water was just too hot. Once I fixed that, the problem seemed to go away.

[uabericm]

I believe it ended up being a matter of not getting the wort cool quickly enough. Summer city water was just too hot. Once I fixed that, the problem seemed to go away.

How did you handle the problem? 2-stage heat exchanger?