Why is my beer hazy, or even muddy looking?

So, you've probably read my post on sediment in beer, but if not, that's okay.

Every once in a while, the sediment or haze gets extreme, or, if you've had the beer before, unusual even for the particular beer you're drinking.

This is usually the case in draft beers which are unfiltered or undergo secondary fermentation in the keg, and there's a few reasons this happens.

First of all, it is perfectly natural, and perfectly normal, and not a sign of a flaw in the beer, and definitely not that the beer is unsafe to drink.

As the post above discusses, sediment or haze is usually caused by the dead yeast cells remaining in an unfiltered or bottle/keg conditioned beer.  This is why unfiltered beers, such as hefeweizens, wit beirs, and various Belgian beers are usually hazy and opaque.

On the other hand, sometimes the haze goes beyond opacity to actually make the beer darker, or almost muddy in appearance.  While in hefeweizens, these beers usually pour within the normal color range for the style, and unless you are familiar with the particular beer you're drinking, you might not even notice, it can be particularly alarming in Belgian wit beers, golden ales, tripels, etc.

The reason this happens is fairly simple.  Dead yeast cells are heavier than water and the other things that make up the majority of your beer.  If a keg of beer sits stationary for a while, the yeast will start to make its way toward the bottom of the keg and become concentrated there, causing a darker, more murky appearance.

The way kegs work is that the beer being pulled from the tap is actually coming through the stem of the barrel from the bottom of the keg.  This means that, depending on how long a beer has been sitting in a color, and how it was stored, the beer can be darker at either the beginning or the end of a keg.

If a keg has just been tapped, and is pouring with a muddy color, it is likely a sign that the beer has been in the bar's cooler for a while, and has been stored upright.  Luckily for us, most unfiltered beer styles are not harmed, and may actually get better, from aging.  On the other hand, if the keg gets darker toward the end, it is usually a sign that the beer has been on tap for a while, or was stored upside down before being tapped.  In fact, many brewers recommend that their unfiltered beers either be stored upside down, or are agitated just before serving.  The reason is that this way, the yeast is concentrated at the top of the keg.  If the keg is on tap for a reasonable amount of time (a few weeks), the yeast will slowly settle, and the beer shouldn't pour "muddy" at all.  On the other hand, if the beer is particularly popular, and moves quickly, the yeast concentrated at the top of the keg won't have time to settle/spread throughout the keg, and when the end of the keg is reached, the beer which was formerly at the top of the keg will have a high concentration of sediment, and will pour with a murky/muddy appearance.

As mentioned in my sediment post, I have heard (from very unscientific sources, of course), that the dead yeast cells are actually very nutritious.  In most draft beers, they may affect the mouth feel of the beer, but honestly, if you were to blind taste the "bottom of the barrel" against a glass from the middle of the keg, you wouldn't know the difference.

So don't let the dirty/muddy appearance of that beer scare you.  Enjoy it!

What's With the Sediment in My Beer?

This is a follow up post to my post on sediment in wine,  A lot of the same questions apply to beer, and some of the answers are very different.  What is the sediment in my beer?  Is it good?  Is it bad?  Should I drink it?

First, what is the sediment?  Like wine, there are a couple of answers to this.  The most common answer is that it is the yeast remaining in the beer.  This happens for two reasons.  One is because a beer was bottled unfiltered.  The other is that a beer went through bottle conditioning.  There are some situations in which a sediment or haze could be a sign of bad handling of the beer some time between brewing and consumption.  Mostly, though, this is a deliberate choice by the brewer, whether traditional or untraditional to the particular style of beer.  Unfiltered beers have dead yeast cells (lees) deliberately left in the beer in order to contribute to the flavor, color, and body of the beer.

Bottle conditioned beers undergo a secondary fermentation, usually with the intention of adding carbonation naturally, in their bottle.  The dead (or, in some fresh, bottle conditioned beer, even living) yeast obviously remains in the bottle.

In terms of if the sediment is good or bad, with the exception of beers which are not intentionally hazy, the haze and sediment is usually a good thing.

Should you drink it?

Well, that's really quite a subjective question.  The lees add flavor, body, and texture to a beer.  They are also, apparently, quite nutritious, offering protein and lots of vitamins.  That being said, I'm a big texture person, so too much can leave a chalky or gritty mouth feel.  This is why, at a great beer bar, the server will ask you, before serving you a beer which throws sediment, if you like the sediment.

My personal preference varies on the size of the bottle the beer comes in.  That sounds strange, right?

Well, if a beer comes in individual serving bottles, and has been poured properly, and is agitated ever so slightly before service, the sediment is spread out throughout the beer and quite manageable.  If, however, the beer is served in a large format bottle (like a 750ml bottle), and has been sitting upright, ALL of the sediment is likely to be present in the last glass served.  That's a bit much for my personal taste.  Similarly, draft weiss beers and belgians often throw a lot of sediment, even enough to turn them from pale gold to hazy gray in color, toward the bottom of the keg, particularly if they are served upright.  Those last few glasses are a bit too much sediment for me.

At the end of the day, if you are drinking a Belgian beer, a wheat beer, or even some British styles, chances are the sediment in your beer is harmless at worst, and tasty at best.  It's really your choice whether to indulge or stick to just the liquid!

What's with the sediment in my wine?

A lot of people probably have questions about the sediment at the bottom of a bottle of wine.  What is it exactly?  Is it good?  Is it bad?  Should I drink it?

Well, these questions are all complicated.  In short, sediment in wine comes from many sources.

Sediment can consist of debris from the winemaking process, lees (dead yeast cells), and tartrate crystals, or, usually, some combination of the above.

Wine is naturally a hazy substance.  The yeast which has created the alcohol is suspended in the wine, as are tiny particles of grape skin, pips, seeds, etc.  Many wines are filtered or fined to remove sediment, although, unfiltered and unfined wines are becoming more popular for several reasons (biodynmic and vegan winemaking, health concerns, and a healthy respect for more natural wines among them).  Moreover, the process of filtering out or, especially, fining out "undesireable" sediment can also remove things which positively affect the way the wine develops with age.  This is why white wines, and red wines meant to be drunk young, are more often filtered or fined.

Moreover, as wine ages, tartrates crystalize in the wine, particularly if the wine is stored in or transported in, cool temperatures.  These are perfectly harmless, but not temperature stable, substances found in all wines.  As the wines chill, they crystalize and fall to the bottom of the wine.  Barrel aging wine allows many tartrates to crystallize before the wine is bottled, but wines which are bottled young have more tartrates to crystalize.  Many winemakers "cold stabilize" their wines, chilling them and removing tartrate crystals before bottling the wine.  Like filtering and fining, the problem is that you can also filter out many things that contribute to desireable changes during bottle aging.  So, again, this is much more common in wines meant to be consumed in their early years.

As far as if sediment is good or bad, the answer is really neither, but leans toward good, particularly n older wines.  Sediment is perfectly harmless, and the compounds in the sediment, particularly grape remnants and lees, can contribute great flavors to wine as they age.  As far as if you should drink sediment, the general feeling seems to be no.  This is the main reason to decant wine (as opposed to aerating it, which also involves putting it in a decanter).  By carefully pouring the wine into the decanter, and by again, carefully pouring from the decanter to the glass, you can avoid most, if not all, of the sediment.  If a little sneaks into the glass, though, it's not the end of the world.  I think for the most part, the aversion to sediment is more of a personal taste, and based primarily on texture, especially since sediment settles at the bottom of the bottle and glass, so the last sip of the last glass poured would have quite an interesting texture to it.