12 Oct Hey, Where Did My Haze Go: Can I Get It Back?

Hey, Where Did My Haze Go: Can I Get It Back

Has this ever happened to you:

You head out to your favorite local brewery to get some of that haze to take home. It’s so hazy at the brewery when they pour it out of the tap. Hazier than anything you’ve ever seen! Even hazier than the inside of your car in the parking lot in high school (I said YOUR car and I mean it).

You get home, crack open that can, put the suds in the glass, and… Where the hell did the haze go?!

(A live look at writer, Nick, when the haze has disappeared)

It’s bound to have happened to all of us at some point, no matter how badass the beer/brewery is. It’s disappointing cause you’re ready to show it off to your whole social media world, but it disappeared!

According to buzz in online beer groups, it seems that this phenomenon happens more often than not to Copperhead Brewery, but it isn’t exclusive to them. Personally, we saw some of the haziness leave Kangaroo Killer, Feeding Frenzy, and now, we’ve been seeing people say the same about their latest offering, Citraddicted. All three of those beers are delicious and all have come out supremely hazy upon their inception so this is in no way a dig at the awesome people of Copperhead or the beers they make. We happened to have a few cans of Citradiccted left in the fridge so we figured we could find out ourselves.

Now what if we told you there might be a way to get that haze back? Like some kind of magician, you can make that haze REAPPEAR! That was a topic of discussion abound on the Internet in various beer circles.

The simple trick, according to the beer nerds, is to just store your cans upside down, but that solution eventually evolved to storing it sideways, giving it a little roll, shaking it around, and/or doing the hokey pokey. We take no credit for those and I’m not going to go scour through Facebook to recall who did. They know who they are. Cheers to those guys for setting me to this bit of fun.

The whole thing sounds like a big joke, right? And for all we know, IT IS! But it’s a lot more fun for us to find out. Hell, we just got done watching the USA blow their opportunity to qualify for the World Cup next summer, so why not open up 3 cans of Citraddicted that we stored in various ways for the same amount of time? At the very least, we can’t look any stupider in America for following USMNT and we get 3 beers to drink quickly. Let’s get to work and have some fun!

Any good science experiment has independent and dependent variables. Those variables for us: We stored one can of Citraddicted on its side, one upside down, and one the regular way. They all came from the same four pack and they all got put into Teku glasses. They all had the same lighting so hey, it’s science!

First, over on the right side and in the sexy FU Harvey Teku (get yours here), we poured the can that was stored on its side. It might have done a little rolling every time the fridge was opened and closed, but that’s inconsequential. In the end: No haze to be found!

(The picture quality won’t do justice, but hey, not all of us are professionals around here)

Second, on the left side, we popped open the can that was stored upside down. When we opened it up, some yeast sediment spouted out and there was a little more pressure than normal. This pour had a little more of a hazy quality with yeast floaters present. Hmmm… Maybe the Internet really was on to something!

(Yeast sediment on the side of the can opening)

Last, in the middle, is the regularly stored can. No haze in that pour UNTIL we decided to see what happens when we swirled the little bit left in the can before we poured the rest into the glass. The Citraddicted Teku is smaller than the other two so we couldn’t put the whole can in there. So we drank a little, swished the can, then poured. VOILAAAAAAA the haze pretty much returned, but we got tons of yeast poop at the bottom of the glass.

(That yeast poop sittin heavy at the bottom of the glass)

Conclusion

It sure does seem like you may just want to swirl your can or bottle a little to disturb the yeast and/or particulate that has invariably settled down to the bottom of the can. No need to spin your can like Wheel of Fortune or dip your balls in it (please get that reference). All in all, it was a fair bit of fun doing this little “experiment.” And just to be clear, let us reiterate: this loss of haze is not exclusive to Copperhead. It happens to many other beers, but Citradiccted happened to be what we had on hand.

So what do you think? Do you think we’re just pulling your leg (with our crappy pictures that rival Bigfoot snapshots in this day and age) like we thought the beer drinkers of the Internet might? Give it a try for yourself and let us know the results!

Beers to you, Houston! 🍻