You’re supposed to floculate on the BOTTOM of the FV!
- Thread starter Llamaman
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A bit concerned about this - I thought Fullers was supposed to be highly floculant yet this hadn’t compacted down at all. I’ve never had to leave so much in the FV at bottling and I reckon at least 5 of my bottles have a fair chunk of yeast in them.
Maybe I didn’t leave it long enough, but it had 2 weeks and a day, and has been at 1.012 for 3 days so it looked finished. I’m reluctant to use this yeast again unless I start using finings.
Maybe I didn’t leave it long enough, but it had 2 weeks and a day, and has been at 1.012 for 3 days so it looked finished. I’m reluctant to use this yeast again unless I start using finings.
Ever tried giving the fv a good tapping to sink it then cold crash?
I didn’t think of tapping (*), but I did reduce the temperature to 16C for 3 days. I can’t go any lower as I don’t have a brew fridge.
*. That said, whilst bottling the yeast continued to swirl around so I don’t think it was ever going to settle without assistance. I think if I use Fullers again I’ll have to use finings and accept I can’t reuse the yeast cake.
ACBEV
Old Member
I'm wondering whether you might have under pitched the yeast. I would have expected it to reach FG in less than 12 days! Perhaps it needed a tad longer to drop.
Under pitching is a possibility. This was my first brew using recovered yeast from commercial beer and it took a bit longer to get going than the dried yeast I’m used to (24h rather than <12).
That said, it had reached 1.012 3 days before bottling so should have been finished (Fullers isn’t a high attenuating yeast so I wouldn’t expect it to go much further on an extract brew). It may well have finished even earlier than that - I just don’t bother taking samples until at least 10 days have passed as I always assume it should have 2 weeks in primary.
Maybe I should have left it longer, but tonight was my last chance to bottle for a few days - maybe even a couple of weeks.
Next time I’ll use a bigger starter, give it 3 weeks and have some finings ready just in case.
Cwrw666
Landlord.
I've had a lot of trouble with huge snotty lumps of yeast floating around which was totally refusing to sink even after chilling. Turned out I was using a bit too much protofloc. Reduced the amount and it's stopped happening.
An Ankoù
Landlord.
I understand that while finings is great for cask beer, it can stop the sediment from compacting tightly on the bottom of the bottle producing a phenomenon known as "fluffy bottoms" (glad I got that one in in before April 1st). I have to say that, using gelatine as finings, that was exactly my experience. The beer clears perfectly but the sediment lifts ever so easily and, if there is any detritus from dry hopping, there's little chance of pouring a bright pint. Perhaps other finings work differently. I now don't use any finings at all and the beer always clears eventually- I had one that took four months, but it's lovely now.
I see there's already a short thread on this: search "fluffy".
What Cwrw says makes sense....I have reduced the protofloc to half a tablet in my last two brews and my trub in the fv has dropped dramatically.
I've nearly always used half a tablet as it makes the wort like pea soup if you use a full one also its half the price being a Yorkshire man. I too get the odd clump floating at the top bur as Clint says a tap or breaking the surface tension and usually they drop immediately
Cwrw666
Landlord.
My tub of protofloc says quarter of a teaspoon of the stuff in 23L. I was chucking in much more than that. Last brew I stuck to the instructions and got no yeast floaters at all. Live and learn.
I used Irish Moss rather than Protofloc - would this cause the same issues if too much used?
I wasn’t aware using too much might cause this. I’ll be more careful with my measuring next time (in case this caused it).
Re: filtering syphon - I bottle direct from FV so not an option. I’m not keen on changing to a bottling bucket to accommodate an uncooperative yeast - I’d rather try a different yeast!
I wasn’t aware using too much might cause this. I’ll be more careful with my measuring next time (in case this caused it).
Re: filtering syphon - I bottle direct from FV so not an option. I’m not keen on changing to a bottling bucket to accommodate an uncooperative yeast - I’d rather try a different yeast!
An Ankoù
Landlord.
I think Protofloc is just powdered and compressed Irish moss.
Yes I had an issue with huge floating yeast clumps using to much irish moss I found using just a small pinch works as well as a teaspoon for clarity and avoids this issue.
MyQul
Chairman of the Bored
Just rack from just above the trub, near the bottom of the FV. The floating yeast will be left in the the FV. I once had a pellicle infection and the advice was to rack from below it. So I did just that. The pellicle was left in the FV and the beer turned out fine
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