Cloudy in secondary...

brewedup

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I've been brewing for a few years now and recently ran into something that has me scratching my head.

I brewed a pale ale over two weeks ago and had the beer in a primary for two weeks. It was clear and looking really awesome. When I transferred it to a secondary to do a dry hop (in a hop bag) the beer became very cloudy and still has not showed any signs of clearing in 4 days - I even went so far as to crash it in my keezer to see if this would help. Nothing.

The hops were in a sealed bag in the freezer so I don't think it's a hop issue.

I left a sizable yeast/trub cake in the bottom w/a small amount of beer on top to avoid sucking any of that into the secondary.

The carboy I used was a 5 gallon Big Mouth Bubbler and the batch was 2.5 galls but I did lay down a heavy layer of CO2 on top prior to adding the fermentation lock and lid.

The only thing I've heard after doing some research is that Starsan left in the carboy (not foam, but liquid) will cause cloudy beer. Although I can't be 100% sure I find it had to believe there was any amount of Starsan in the bottom as I upended the Big Mouth and let it drain.

I'm sure the beer will taste awesome but I'd like to find out what happened and how to avoid it.

Anyone out there have any ideas?
 
what are the details on your recipe you used??
 
Here is the recipe:

BBIAB

Malt
1.75 Pilsner
1.75 Golden Promise
.5 White Wheat
.5 Caramel 20

Mashed at 155 deg for 60 minutes

Hops
.25 Amarillo - FWH
.25 Centennial - 20
.25 Amarillo - 20
.25 Simcoe - 20

1/2 tab Whirlfloc - 10

.25 Amarillo - 5
.25 Crystal - 5

Dry Hop

.25 Amarillo
.25 Centennial
.25 Simcoe
.25 Crystal

WYeast 1332 w/a yeast starter

OG was 1.045
FG was 1.010
2.75 final volume
 
One argument against dry hopping is the cloudiness it creates. I've noticed that dry-hopped beer almost always goes cloudy, no matter how clear it was when I started. Now, if I dry hop (becoming less and less due to the fleeting aroma, some vegetal off-flavors and the cloudiness issue), I plan on fining with gelatin. This strips some of the hop oils out of the beer but clarifies it. So if you want dry-hop aroma, you might have to deal with cloudiness as part of the process.
 
i can agree with dry hopping causing some cloudiness. i just split a batch of blonde in the secondary, and dry hopped one. Turned out a little cloudy, despite a full 7 days at 36ºF. But i honestly don't care all that much about the cloudiness of my beer because i like the extra aroma.
 

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