Resources

If you want to read the article about the correlation (or lack thereof) between total oil content and aroma perceptions, here’s the full reference.

Daniel M. Vollmer and Thomas H. Shellhammer (1), Department of Food Science and Technology, Oregon State University, 100 Wiegand Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331. Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists, 74(4): 242–249, 2016. several times, starting mid-fermentation. Consider additions at day five of primary fermentation, then again five days after that, and five days after that. Whether you add multiple charges of the same variety or mix it up with a selection of juicy hops, the multiple additions will produce more complex flavors that persist longer.

Going back to the beginning, if you absolutely must add a bittering hops, choose a high-alpha-acid variety. You’re already adding plenty of hops plant matter to the beer, and the more you add, the greater the risk of developing a polyphenol haze. Take advantage of the smaller addition you can make with a high-alpha hops to cut down on that risk.

Do Your Part: Recipe Considerations

Don’t let your hops do all the hard work here. You can (and should) build the rest of your recipe to help them out. First, reduce your overall level of bittering. As bitterness reduces, sweetness increases, which means that juicy impression that you want is easier to detect. This can help cover some of the flavor gaps that we might create by “clearing” your beer: haze lovers claim that the proteins in suspension allow hops polyphenols to “mate” with them and stay up off of the bottom of the bottle or glass so you can taste them. Consider 10–20 IBUS instead of 40–60. This might mean that you don’t actually boil any of your hops and instead derive all of your IBUS from your whirlpool additions. Second, choose a yeast that is a good fruity-ester producer and a high flocculator. Two come to mind immediately—one safe; one, not so much. The safe option is Wyeast London Ale III (1318) and its equivalents. It’s a quickfermenting, quick-settling, moderately fruity yeast (especially if you don’t oxygenate at pitching and ride it a little warm). The “unsafe” option is Wyeast Ringwood Ale (1187): it’s almost ridiculously fruity, to the point where a stout I made with it once tasted like I had literally added strawberries and apricots to it. I say go with the Ringwood, but be sure to give it a good long diacetyl rest and start its fermentation a little lower than usual (65°F/18°C). You’ll have fruit for days, which will support your hops and increase the perception of juiciness.

Third, consider your other two ingredients: water and malt. For your brewing water, this is a time to reduce sulfates and increase chloride. We want to de-emphasize bitterness and promote soft, rounded malt flavors, and a sulfate-to-chloride ratio of 1:2 is a good target. Avoid any salts additions, and if you have anything approaching hard water, consider diluting it with distilled water to soften it up. Your malts, likewise, should keep out of the way for the most part: you can certainly still consider the oats or flaked grains that hazier beers use, but don’t go overboard with them! The bulk of your grist should be a nice, lightly flavored, slightly sweet base grain such as Pilsner malt.

Last, think about your fining and packaging. Clarifying agents and filtering are options to reduce haze, but they’re also going to strip out some hops flavor and aroma. My advice is to stick with things that can be added in the boil (Whirlfloc, Irish moss, Super Moss), before most of your hops go in. If you can get to “clear but not bright” in terms of clarity and still produce rocking juicy flavors, you’re doing just fine, and my kettle-fining additions always seem to get me that far (time and gelatin get me to “crystal,” but those aren’t conducive to preserving hops character). And at packaging, break out the kegs and do a rapid force carbonation. Why? Because time is the enemy of fresh, juicy hops flavor, and if you can buy yourself a few days relative to bottle conditioning, then why not take advantage of it?

Oh, and drink it quickly. But that’s true even for the gravy beers.

Prove It

Haze isn’t necessarily a deal breaker for craft-beer drinkers, obviously, and never has been. We gladly accept it in a variety of styles. No one complains about the cloudiness in German hefeweizen because to get that specific flavor and mouthfeel, one needs to use high-protein grains and leave yeast in suspension. The argument of those who run down “haze-craze” beers is that it gives mediocre brewers an excuse to produce sloppy beer. Sure, some hazy beers are remarkable, but others aren’t and exhibit flaws that may well be the result of incompetent brewing. We argue that beers don’t need to be hazy to be juicy.

Fine. So let’s go out and prove it. Don’t worry about looking juicy. Be juicy. Let’s let our palates decide.