Glossary
Chill haze
Temporary cloudiness that forms when beer is chilled and clears again as it warms, caused by protein and polyphenol complexes coming out of solution.
The full record
Chill haze has its own catalogue entry with the detail this page summarises — causes, thresholds, related styles and evidence.
Chill haze — A temperature-dependent haze from protein and polyphenol binding — cosmetic only, and by definition it clears as the beer warms.
Harmless and purely cosmetic, and distinguishable from permanent haze precisely because it disappears on warming. Cold conditioning, finings, filtration and stabilising agents all reduce it.
It is also worth distinguishing from the deliberate, stable haze of a New England IPA, which comes from protein-polyphenol interaction with hop material and suspended yeast and does not clear.
Related
- Tannin — One half of the complex.
- Cold crash — The step used to precipitate it before packaging.
- Chill haze — The fault record for the temporary form.
- Permanent haze — The fault record for haze that does not clear.
More vocabulary
Astringency · Body · Ester · Head retention · Hop burn · Lacing · Mouthfeel · Phenol
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.