Crash cool homebrew to clear yeast.

First of all, don't forget Fermentation Friday next week.

So you have some cloudy homebrew. Let's assume yeast is still in suspension. That is, yer yeast is floatin' around with a CO2 bubble caught in its gullet. (I'm makin' up the gullet part. Oh, and this is not the only cause of cloudy homebrew.) This here yeast problem recently happened to one of my homebrews.

[Time out, this isn't a big problem. If I wait, I'll bet the beer will clear, but, I don't want to wait so I'm looking to control the yeast. What is it with beer and the control we attempt to exert over it? Do you think that's where the wild yeast like brett comes in? Kind of like rebel yeast? Ok, back to how I will affect control over billions of little defenseless creatures.]

The five cornie kegs of Garbage Pail Ale just sat there in my basement while they finished fermenting. Off went the first one into a fifty five degree kegerator for a couple days. I poured some off waiting for the sediment to clear during the first couple pints. Six pints later over the next few days it still poured cloudy. Could it be that my yeast just doesn't like to flocculate? I am used to those English Ale yeasts that fall like rocks in water. What to do?

After a bit of thought something occured to me. Maybe I didn't cool it down enough. I realized that my process inadvertantly changed and affected my homebrew. Could it be this new kegerator fridge? Typically my homebrew would condition in the other "normal" fridge. I never checked it but, I have to assume it's like any other fridge and chills things to below forty degrees. This is the first beer I moved right into the kegerator which is temperature controlled by one of those simple Johnson controllers. I like my beer served around fifty five. Well that's all fine and dandy, but, I may not be cooling it down enough for the yeast to drop. After all it didn't really get much more than ten degrees colder when moved from the basement to the fridge.

In an effort to rectify the situation I will chill it to thirty seven degrees tonight and keep it there for a few days. After a few days I'll report back. If it doesn't work, there are other options. I guess there's always fish innards or stuff made from parts of other animals. I'm not picky. I only want to taste the beer without the yeast bite.

If you are looking for books about home brewing...

Amazon: Home Brewing