Minimising Sediment In Bottle Conditioned Beers

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Jazz

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Just started drinking my second brew (EDME Yorkshire Bitter).

It's really nice but I find I have to pour the bottle in one movement (into a jug if sharing) and stop as soon as the sediment starts to appear in the neck of the bottle. So I get left with an inch of muddy beer in the bottle. It still gets drunk but I'd rather it was clear.

I notice in most commercial beers there is little or no sediment in the bottle. Can you achieve this with a homebrew kit ? Surely if you prime the bottles there will be some sediment ?

Would finnings help ?

Thanks
 
double dropping can help, this involves transferring from the fv after 48 hours to a new clean fv. Also being very careful when bottling making sure the beer is cold as the yeast will drop to the bottom :thumb:
 
most commercial beers are filtered and forced carbonated with gas....they are dead.

Home brew is alive and kicking ! Its bottled conditioned, the yeast works on the little bit of priming sugar added and produces its own gas and a bit of sediment.

Bottle in 500ml bottles so each person can have his/her bottle without sharing, then the beer can be poured in one go. If you have left it long enough in one or two fermenters before bottling then the minute amount of sediment from the priming sugar will not be a problem.
anyways it makes your hair curly....
 
It also depends on yeast some yeasts compact better than others notably notty is excellent US05 not as good and the least said about my cider yeast the better.

If it has been in the FV for two long then I always allow a bit of yeast to get mixed in. Just bottling the elderberry stout today which has been in an FV for 3+ weeks so I allowed a little of the dregs to get mixed in, so as to make sure there was enough yeast in especially as the yeast will not be in the best of nick with the high gravity beer.

:thumb: :thumb:
 
As Grays says Nottingham yeast gives a really compact layer, if you don't bottle untill you have a clear beer the layer will be less than 1mm or so and when you pour will stay in the bottle and will then wash out with a bit of cold water. :D
S
 
People have pretty much covered it Jazz, you're right that priming=sediment, as discussed this is no bad thing. Commercial beers that say 'bottle conditioned' will have some sediment, the rest have been filtered and gassed up from a CO2 bottle. It is possible to do this to homebrew if you're using cornelius kegs but otherwise not, many think the bottle conditioned is superior anyway.

If you have a look at some bottle conditioned beers next time you're in the supermarket you will notice that the layer is only very thin, probably a lot thinner than you're getting in your bottles. You can reduce your layer to a minimum by:

1. Giving plenty of time to clear in the FV, or transferring into a second FV and allowing settling there

2. You can encourage this settling by using finings if you want, a period in the cold helps too, at this time of year a few days outside or in an unheated shed/garage will stop yeast activity and encourage clearing

3. Use the right yeast. The term your looking for is 'high flocculation', as mentioned Nottingham would be a good choice to replace your kit yeast. It should give better flavour than most kit yeasts but also tends to drop well and form a nice solid layer because it is a high flocculation yeast. This should mean it clears better in the FV so less yeast goes into the bottle and also the layer in the bottle won't disturb as easily so you'll be able to pour more. Another popular dried yeast is US-05, which is good for keeping hop flavours in your beer but a bit rubbish at settling and forming a good layer - I know I'd like to find a yeast that keeps the flavours like US-05 but settles like Nottingham.

4. Give it time in the bottle. Not only will your beer improve with time but the sediment will get a bit more compact and less easily disturbed. I recently drank a bottle of a year old ESB that had been made with yeast grown from a bottle of Fullers Bengal Lancer. The combination of a high flocculation yeast and a long time in the bottle meant that I was able to pour the whole bottle and the yeast layer just stayed stuck to the bottom.

At the end of the day a bit of yeast in your beer will do you no harm, people buy brewers yeast from health food shops and use it as a dietary supplement, apparently "it offers 9 vitamins, 14 minerals, and 16 tissue-building amino acids ". When trying to persuade sceptics that homebrew is good beer though it is handy to be able to serve up a clear one.
:cheers:
 
Some great replies...

My first brew was a stout so I didn't notice the sediment that much. With the bitter I bottled it when it was quite cloudy, but it cleared within a day or so. Is it better to leave it in the fermenter for longer before bottling ?

Also I read in other posts that instead of priming you can add a small quantity of partially fermented beer from another batch, so that it continues to ferment in the bottle. But without producing too much sediment. Is this a good idea ?

I've also noticed that in commercial bottle conditioned ales the sediment is different ; more chunky and gritty than the thin layer of yeast from home brewing. Is this what happens when you add finnings ? I'm guessing it makes the sediment denser, so it stays at the bottom of the bottle ?

Thanks

Jazz
 
Wendy1971 said:
double dropping can help, this involves transferring from the fv after 48 hours to a new clean fv. Also being very careful when bottling making sure the beer is cold as the yeast will drop to the bottom :thumb:

Does this really help? I had a muntons kit that recommended this and I thought it sounded very strange to disturb the brew after 2 days, that's when it is usually most active?
 

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