Beer looked a bit strange after cold crash

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I have my batch of Kama citra done in the primary, finished st 1.008 a bit under the beersmith prediction. Beer looked good visually, then I decided to cold crash and a day later hit it with gelatin and continued the cold crash. I set my temp controller to 36 and it seemed to hold.

Today I moved the brew bucket out and got ready to transfer to the keg and when I popped the brew bucket lid off the top of the beer was a murky tan color. I have never noticed that before. I waited a while and then slowly drained from the bottom valve into my co2 purged keg. The beer looked and smelled normal all the way to near the end when some of the tan murky came through the clear tubing. I was pretty much done by then anyway and left a little head room for my dry hops and gas.

Any ideas what could have been the cause of the top murkyness? Maybe it got too cold…but I don’t think so.

I did use the omega tropical IPA yeast ( 75-85 deg ) which was a first for me. Maybe it’s a bit more sensitive to being jarred around when moving the vessel.

I could have jarred it around when lifting out of the chest freezer, well I am sure I did a little anyway.

Hopefully the beer is still good.

Another question I have is that I am not quite ready to tap this keg. Can I let it sit a while before dry hopping and carbonating? It is an IPA and I have heard that IPA should be consumed soon. I may be confusing that with NEIPA recommendations.

Thanks for any insights on this!

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I would suspect some of the residual krausen ring that always seems to stick to the top of the fermenter was allowed back into your brew…
Dry hopping your brew now is a very good choice… At room temp, say even for up to 5 days… I wouldn’t go any longer… Bagging it I presume? A couple of things to note… My IPA had a better flavor/aroma dry hopped at room temp as compared to dry hopped cold… One of the home brewers over here claims the cold dry hopped brew had quite a bit more grassy flavor to it… And leaving the bag in, with a weight so it sinks to the bottom, sure seemed to make my brew clear up very quickly. Sneezles61

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Thanks Sneezles ! Never thought of the krausen ring falling in, it makes perfect sense.

I can dry hop now and I do use a weighted bag. Will it matter much if I dry hop now but I may not be ready to put the beer on tap for a few more weeks? How would you keep it " on deck" , cold ( 40 deg f), or basement temp (60 deg f), this is after a 5 day dry hop of course.

I guess by the time I dry hop and then do my typical slow ( at serving pressure) carbonation I won’t be too far from needing to tap it.

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Yeah, if you can dry hop now… then after day five put it in the fridge… IF you have the ability, hook up CO2, set it and forget it… Don’t be skimpy with the hops… ENJOY! Sneezles61