The Meaning of Clear Beer

There is another element to clarity too, and that is transport. Many microbreweries will use yeast strains that do not flocculate well (i.e. they stay in suspension for a long time). Left at rest, they will settle in the bottle or keg, but jostling will disturb them.

Larger breweries have filtration facilities, centrifuges and other expensive equipment, that allows them to remove these yeasts, while still retaining their benefit. Smaller breweries or newer breweries will be
hand bottling and bottle conditioning.

So beer fans can tolerate clarity issues due to transport or jostling, as a way of supporting a talented, new or local producer. Hence ‘London Murky’.

This is a really good post and a really good discussion. While it is interesting to note what was said about cloudy beer in 1891, one must remember that adulteration of beer in the years preceding that was hardly unknown and in all likelihood had some influence on clear beer as being viewed as something that was unlikely to have been tampered with by the brewer, the middleman, or indeed the publican.

Nor is it good enough to dismiss the effect of item b) yeast in beer which is responsible for many things including a sharp yeast bite, which most drinkers find unpleasant. Yeast is a very unpleasant taste as anyone who has “enjoyed” a shot of it in the De Koninck brewery tap or dipped his finger into the yeast head on fermenting beer, will readily confirm.

As Ed says, the idea that beer just looks better should not be overlooked either and nor should the effect of cloudiness in the balance of beer, though of course it could be argued with some justification, that delicateness is not something the London Murky crew aims for.

I am much persuaded by the simple common sense of what DaveS, Richard, Gary and Phil say (not least of all I admit because they support my own view) though I do wonder why so many new London brewers use non flocculating yeasts, though I suspect three things. The first is that it makes them bang on trend, the second that it disguising their lack of brewing skills in some cases and the third, related to the first is that they sell largely to an audience that expects that sharp, yeasty flavour overlaid with a mass of big C hops. There is nothing wrong with this though, except where it strays into the area of “normal” cask beer, where it clashes with the perceived norm and causes confusion.

In the case of German brewpubs, I think you (B&B) know as well as I do that the reason they promote it as healthy is to disguise how poor it is. German brew pubs don’t produce much other than worse versions of what the larger commercial breweries produce. The reasons are largely that of equipment and storage cost.

You (B&B again) are right in your final observation, when turning this quote on its head and together with your anecdote, you reverse things.:

“That using clarity as a proxy for quality leads to a lack of discernment among customers.

That ‘the clear stuff’ is not as good as the occasionally hazy.”

In this case, I rather doubt if your SPBW man was saying other than the pin bright keg isn’t as good as the naturally conditioned cask.

I agree with Phil when he says “Conversely, these days I avoid cloudy beer because there’s too high a chance of the cloud being the result of yeast which shouldn’t be there (see Richard’s comment). In other words, ‘cloud’ is a proxy for worries about inadequate quality control, and a scene which (arguably) puts up with too much of it.”

py of course makes his usual somewhat peevy point about how us oldies just don’t “get” what is going on. I rather think though, it is exactly because we do get it, that he is wrong. As another observation, it is a largely London based trend and the ones drinking it are likely to be the beards. Discernment like beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but we shouldn’t forget this is a minor aberration which is largely confined to London produced beer. Given how bad beer has been there in the past, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, nor given the re-emergence of London brewing should we be taken aback that they want to be different. London Murky may well become a London style and be admired as such.

Maybe that’s fine, but various polls have concluded that beery bods would like to be advised about whether a beer is meant to be served cloudy and while a bit of haze is fine, keep murk to kegs and bottles please. That’s where it might be expected and justified in terms of audience.

Don’t muddy our cask waters.

In my case, I don’t want I simply don’t think the idea of turbidity suits ordinary “supping cask beer”. Hefeweizen is a different case altogetherr.

Quite true but SCB is a discrete form of beer even if with is own charms. It need not judge or be judged according to standards appropriate to each class. Right now, I am quite interested in Hudson’s Bay brewing 1670-1780 ish and just realized I am seeing ale brewing as well as hopped beer up there in the Arctic. I am sure none of it was clear but it would have been quite welcome to those poor bastards on civilization’s frozen edge.

My last word on this is directed at py. (Is he the same as the vexatious py0?) How many times do you have to be told that a haze from hops isn’t a problem?

It is murk from yeast that is.. And very finally for this blog post, London Murky was coined by blogger Barm and referred to London beer in the style pioneered by Kernal.

And finally finally, one person’s fresh and hoppy is another’s green and unfinished.

Me & Tandy don’t always see eye to eye, but I’m with him on this – hop haze is fine & I suspect never more than that – *haze* (not cloud or murk or soup).
Protein haze can be pretty cloudy (esp in wheat beers) but in my experience it doesn’t taste bad.

I disagree with the idea that a hoppy beer by necessity is cloudy/murky/soupy – as examples above show, even unfined hoppy beers can be relatively clear, if brewed & handled wisely.

In recent decades hazy beer in German brewpubs & some places in the states is a point of difference, seen to be more *real*, unprocessed, natural, etc, I’m fine with a bit of that. I just don’t like yeast-bite, esp. when it’s sold to me as beng cool & correct.