Carbonation without (excessive) sediment

Hello guys,

I'm looking to return to brewing again and I just had a question which I was wondering if one of you experienced brewers could answer. It seems like one of those age old questions but is there anyway to carbonate beer without accumulating a substantial amount of sediment in the bottom of the bottles. I've seen some ideas dotted around on the internet but no conclusive answers.

Normally I drink socially with others and this requires transporting my beer to others places of residence, therefore I am worried about disturbing the sediment in the bottom of the bottles during transport.

Thanks in advanced for your wise advice :thumb:

Craigtube had some caps that somehow trap the sediment so you can even drink out of the bottle if my memory serves me well. Will be on his channel. Think its about a year old.

After primary fermentation, put your brew into a secondary for 2 or 3 weeks to totally clear before bottling. That way the only sediment you get in your bottles is the yeast that grows on your sugar you've used for priming, rather than suspended yeast and proteins you have immediately after primary fermentation.

Cwrw666 said:

After primary fermentation, put your brew into a secondary for 2 or 3 weeks to totally clear before bottling.

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Agreed. I always do this & there is very little sediment in the bottles. The obvious downside is that it takes a long time for my bottles to carbonate - however the beer definitely tates better for the wait :)

Whenever I've done this (and I've done it a number of times), the bottles haven't carbed up enough no matter how long I leave them in the warm.

There seems to be a sweet spot between most of the yeast dropping out and all of it dropping out leaving insufficient to carb up. I reckon a week in the cool is a max.

Thanks for the replies, I looked into sediment catchers but I believe the company has since disappeared sadly. I'll give it longer before I bottle and hope that removes the majority of the sediment. :thumb:

darrellm said:

Whenever I've done this (and I've done it a number of times), the bottles haven't carbed up enough no matter how long I leave them in the warm.

There seems to be a sweet spot between most of the yeast dropping out and all of it dropping out leaving insufficient to carb up. I reckon a week in the cool is a max.

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Interesting, as a long delay before bottling is standard practice for me. I wonder if temperature is the key, or maybe the yeast type??
I've recently moved house & haven't unearthed all my brewing stuff yet, however notes of a hoppy English pale ale I made in early February show that it was in FV1 for 8 days, racked into FV2 & left for 14 days (a sort of "double dropping"), then racked into a plastic carboy to "cask" mature. It was left there for another 10 days, then batch-primed and bottled. So 32 days between pitching and bottling. I don't know how long it took to carb up, but it was certainly all gone before I moved in May! :)

So why did this work when yours didn't?
I guess that the beer would have been kept at about 16-21C for all this period (I don't have a brew fridge & only try to keep the temperature very tightly controlled during the main fermentation).
I brew only British-style beers (apart from the hop level :)), with a genuine English top-fermenting yeast (from slopes), and I never chill the beer, before or after bottling. Putting bottles of beer in the fridge is a horrible thought to me :lol:
I don't like fizzy beer - all the commercial bottles I've tried are overcarbonated to my tastes. Having said that, my beers do have a very definite sparkle with good head production. I'm quite sure that the relatively low level of carbonation (compared to commercial fizz) is due to my low level of priming, not yeast inactivity.
After a month, when I normally bottle, my beer is usually pretty clear, but not crystal. The batch-priming is done in the cask, so a little yeast may be brought up from the bottom, although I don't stir vigorously. The beer does drop completely bright (normally!!) in the bottle, with an extremely thin layer of sediment on the bottom. Apart from Protafloc in the boil, I never use finings.

So, there you go, this seems to work reliably for me. Funny old business, brewing! :

I've only done it a couple of times but I've found that using finings makes a big difference.

nigelnorris said:

I've only done it a couple of times but I've found that using finings makes a big difference.

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What's the carbonation like following finings? I hadn't thought of using them in beer until you mentioned it.

LewisA said:

What's the carbonation like following finings? I hadn't thought of using them in beer until you mentioned it.

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I didn't notice any difference.

What sort of finings are you talking about here, Kettle finings (protofloc), auxillary finings (seewedd based) or isinglass?

The reason for using the first two is to deposit most of the protein suspended in beer.They are electrically charged and give a charge to the proteins to help them settle but do nothing for the yeast.

Once you have added auxillary finings you can add isinglass which will deposit some of the yeast and leave some for carbonation so if any this is what you should use. Gelatine based products will do the same if you are vegetarian.

I used bentonite. Didn't notice any negative effects but to be fair it was in one-off recipe brews so no way to tell what would have come about without using it. Very clear and relatively little bottle sediment though, no doubt about that.

nigelnorris said:

I used bentonite. Didn't notice any negative effects but to be fair it was in one-off recipe brews so no way to tell what would have come about without using it. Very clear and relatively little bottle sediment though, no doubt about that.

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Bentonite is usually used in wine clearing. It is made from clay and contains negatively charged particles to take out positive charged proteins. often added in wine with the yeast so it is unlikely to have any impact on settling the yest itself just the other cloudy,hazy particles that form part of the trub in beer.

You could keg your beer and once it's carbonated use a bottling gun to bottle your beer (bottling gun cheaper on aliexpress)
I know this kinda defeats the object if you intend to drink the beer at home but if like me you like to hand out some of the beer to friends I have found using a bottling gun is a great way to do this with sediment free bottled beer, it's a good way to take beer to BBQ's ect