Comparison of hazes in freshly bottled and aged beers by multiple angle turbidimetry

Abstract

The hazes of freshly bottled and aged pale lager beers determined with the 12° and 90° dual angle laboratory hazemeters and 10° to 90° range photogoniometer were compared and evaluated. The instruments were standardised in EBC formazin units. In freshly bottled beer, the forward (12°–25°) haze values were smaller approximately by a factor of three than the nephelometric (90°) values which yielded 0.33 EBC units. In aged beer, the forward haze was greater than the nephelometric one. Whereas the aged beer showed the greatest and the fresh beer the lowest intensity of scattered light, the formazin suspension intensity was in between. Due to the standardisation of the beer scattered intensities by relation to that of formazin, the standardised nephelometric haze in non-aged beer was greater than the forward haze, and vice versa in aged beer. The greater forward than the nephelometric haze in aged beer was caused by the growth of haze particles above the mean size of formazin particles which was larger than 2 μm as confirmed by the particle size distribution measurement.