Observation(s):
Recently, without any process changes, beautiful post fermentations to under go cold crashing have gone from almost clear beer (slightly hazy) to highly turbid beer (almost muddy looking) to the point of making filtration impossible.
Details:
Fermentis US-05 yeast (have experienced no prior flocculating problems (do not repitch)). No excessive dissovled B-glucans or gels to be found chemically, 70micron pads (97 pads in the plate and frame), 30degree F, 4.8% abv. beer, Some ice crystals found floating throughtout the beer but not in a visual "slushy" form (beer still looks visually liquid), we typically us a flow rate of 6.0 - 7.0 BBL per hour, pH of the beer is within normal post fermentation range, all prior wort production was visually clear and free of particulate matter reaching the kettle, hot break was good and cold break was good, used hot side finings. Have tested non-crashed beers through the filter and they filter as expected for cold crashed beers. Is it possible that the beer is partially freezing and the ice crystals are blinding the filter? There is virtually no build-up particulate matter on the pads and only colour has been deposited on them.
Possibility:
It appears that ice is the culprit but looking for more input from more minds.
Looking for additional thoughts
Recently, without any process changes, beautiful post fermentations to under go cold crashing have gone from almost clear beer (slightly hazy) to highly turbid beer (almost muddy looking) to the point of making filtration impossible.
Details:
Fermentis US-05 yeast (have experienced no prior flocculating problems (do not repitch)). No excessive dissovled B-glucans or gels to be found chemically, 70micron pads (97 pads in the plate and frame), 30degree F, 4.8% abv. beer, Some ice crystals found floating throughtout the beer but not in a visual "slushy" form (beer still looks visually liquid), we typically us a flow rate of 6.0 - 7.0 BBL per hour, pH of the beer is within normal post fermentation range, all prior wort production was visually clear and free of particulate matter reaching the kettle, hot break was good and cold break was good, used hot side finings. Have tested non-crashed beers through the filter and they filter as expected for cold crashed beers. Is it possible that the beer is partially freezing and the ice crystals are blinding the filter? There is virtually no build-up particulate matter on the pads and only colour has been deposited on them.
Possibility:
It appears that ice is the culprit but looking for more input from more minds.
Looking for additional thoughts
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