RESEARCH IN PROGRESS
Are you attending CBC in May? Don’t miss our talk on Haze.
SEMINAR
Speakers: Laura Burns, Richard Preiss
How do you achieve that consistent, beautiful haze in your hazy IPA? In the early days of New England IPA (NEIPA) recipe design, a common misconception was that you needed non-flocculent yeast to stay in suspension for a hazy beer. This is simply not the case. Brewers already appreciate from anecdotal experience that certain yeast strains are better suited for hazy beer styles, and in fact are a major contributor to stable colloidal haze. We will provide our best recommendations for the most haze-positive yeast strains and our current research into what makes these yeast strains so unique. Another key component to this yeast-dependent colloidal haze is dry hopping. We’ll cover best dry hopping practices for the development of haze, including dry hop addition timing, dry hop dose, and hop variety-specific effects. While a lot of focus on achieving stable haze has been in the grist, it is fascinating to better understand how yeast strain and dry hopping play into the haze equation.
Learning Objectives
STABLE HAZE
Magically milky, opaque haze is usually associated with fresh, flavorful, juicy hop character in hazy IPA. This haze is thought to come from interactions between malt proteins and hop polyphenols when hops are added to the fermentor during fermentation. It’s non-biological (not yeast in suspension) and is substantially more hazy than chill haze.
While we’ve researched several different aspects of haze, there’s still a lot more that is not yet fully understood about it. A common misconception is that yeast contributes to haze only when it is suspended in beer. However, we have strong evidence that certain yeast strains, independent of flocculation, play an important role in the development of dry hop-dependent colloidal haze.
HAZE POSITIVE YEAST
Certain strains have become the go-to choices for making hazy IPAs. They leave a perfect amount of residual sweetness, their ester profiles pair perfectly with hops, and we have solid evidence that these strains are helping to promote haze.
Looking for tips? We’re continually learning more about how yeast contributes to haze, and want to share some with you.
FAQ: How did my hazy IPA randomly drop clear? Maybe it was your dry hopping schedule. In haze experiments, we found that dry hopping addition timing influences the level of haze. Early dry hopping before or during high krausen can reduce the level of haze in the finished product, whereas dry hopping in mid-late fermentation works best for promoting haze.
Use a haze positive yeast strain. We call strains that lead to dramatic increases in haze with mid-to-late fermentation dry hopping ‘haze positive.’ Pair one of these haze positive strains and a mid-to-late dry hop to generate stable haze.
Consider dry hop timing. There are many benefits to mid-to-late fermentation dry hopping: