sediment in bottles

[abi]

Just putting my ipa out in the garage to condition , been in the warm for 2 weeks. it has sediment in the bottom of the bottle, i shook them up, and it dispersed, should i have done that? will it come back or will the cold conditioning make it clear?

 

[calumscott]

You want your sediment to stick as best it can to the bottom of the bottle. Keeps it out of your pint come pouring time.

A month or so in a cooler place will get you crystal clear IPA that will stay crystal if you por carefully. Enjoy! :drink:

 

[graysalchemy]

Sediment is the yeast coming out of suspension after priming. However if you bottled when it was still cloudy then you will have more yeast the ususal. It is best to have your beer crystal clear before bottling.

Secondly the type of yeast will influence how well it compacts. Nottingham and so4 are good floculators and compact well. Compaction increases also with time. In general you need to leave beer a good month or so after bottling and it will continue to improve for months after.

 

[abi]

Sediment is the yeast coming out of suspension after priming. However if you bottled when it was still cloudy then you will have more yeast the ususal. It is best to have your beer crystal clear before bottling.

Secondly the type of yeast will influence how well it compacts. Nottingham and so4 are good floculators and compact well. Compaction increases also with time. In general you need to leave beer a good month or so after bottling and it will continue to improve for months after.

Whats the best way to make sure its crystal clear before bottling?

 

[artyb]

i personally leave it in the fv for 3 weeks, :thumb:

 

[graysalchemy]

As above, leave it somewhere cool or on a cold floor helps a lot. You canals use any number of finnings but i find gelatine good. Take a strip of gelitine (found in the baking dept of supermarket) and put it in a ltttle water boiled and cooled to 85c. This will be sterile but not turn the gelatine to jelly. Put this in the beer and stir gently, then leave it for a few days and it will clear. :thumb: :thumb:

 

[lovelldr]

As above, leave it somewhere cool or on a cold floor helps a lot. You canals use any number of finnings but i find gelatine good. Take a strip of gelitine (found in the baking dept of supermarket) and put it in a ltttle water boiled and cooled to 85c. This will be sterile but not turn the gelatine to jelly. Put this in the beer and stir gently, then leave it for a few days and it will clear. :thumb: :thumb:

Intersting this. Was gonna bottle mine on Monday. Just checking again tomorrow that the FG is stable... If so, will try adding some gelatine. Was going to cold crash tomorrow, but putting some frozen water bottles in to the water bath and turning off the heater. Then, changing the frozen bottles over the few days until bottling. Would doing both cold crash & gelatine be ok? Will there be enough time in between stirring in the gelatine (and disturbing any yeast cake at bottom) and bottling within 3 days? Will doing this leave enough yeasties available for bottle priming?

Cheers

 

[graysalchemy]

How long have you left it after fermentation has appeared to stop?

You are best leaving it for 3 -4 days at fermentation temp after you get a stable FV so that the yeast can metabolise diacetyls which give popcorn flavour :sick:

Then clear and bottle.

 

[lovelldr]

How long have you left it after fermentation has appeared to stop?

You are best leaving it for 3 -4 days at fermentation temp after you get a stable FV so that the yeast can metabolise diacetyls which give popcorn flavour :sick:

Then clear and bottle.

That's one weird thing... Yesterday, I took a sample, as I wanted to taste how it was (first time I dry hopped, so was wanting to see how the hops were tasting). Took a SG, and it came out at 1.000. A bit confused, just assumed temp was still a little high from boiling the hydrometer to sterilise... So, took another reading again today, along with temp, and it came out at 1.000 again. Temp was 22.2.

Should it really ferment out that far? I'm sure on the pack, it said it should have an fg of 1.006 (Brewmakers Scottish Heavy).

Tasted it, and it tasted really nice. No bad tastes that I could taste... Took a reading on Sunday, and it was 1.010. The OG was 1.045 (temp adjusted). Temp adjusted, the reading today is 1.002. That'd give me a 5.6% abv roughly. Higher than I expected, but just confused about the reading being so low. Could there be a problem? I will probably check again on Saturday, and then add the gelatine, as will have been 3 days then, and shall I crash cool, or not? Any other suggestions?

Thanks again

 

[BeerEagle]

Just my experience, but I've never used gelatine or any other fining aids when bottling. Never had a cloudy bottle of beer (Kit or AG).

And I really wouldn't boil a hydrometer. There's a risk of damaging it. Do you have access to another one to double check?

Or check it by taking a reading in water at 20degrees (or whatever it's calibrated to) just to make sure it's OK.

 

[lovelldr]

Just my experience, but I've never used gelatine or any other fining aids when bottling. Never had a cloudy bottle of beer (Kit or AG).

And I really wouldn't boil a hydrometer. There's a risk of damaging it. Do you have access to another one to double check?

Or check it by taking a reading in water at 20degrees (or whatever it's calibrated to) just to make sure it's OK.

Ok, thanks for that. I'd boiled it, as didn't have any vwp at the time, so was waiting to fetch some... Thought that would be ok in the interim. Tbh, I've never really been sure about my hydrometer, as the paper doesn't align up properly, and had never read 1 in water... Just checked tonight at 16'c, and it read 0.9975 (kind of on between the two). So, I guess it might be the hydrometer.

Going tomorrow to pick up another kit to make next week, so might pick up another hydrometer at the same time...

 

[lovelldr]

Just as a follow on ... Got a new hydrometer today, and tried testing. First off, tested in water at 21'c (hydrometer said calibrated at 20'c), and it read 1.000 in there. Then, tried it in the beer ... came out at 1.005 at 17.5'c. So, I'd guess all is well :) Only thing I wonder ... what was the OG from the old hydrometer?! :p

Oh well ... drinking the lager from my first brew at the mo, so just gonna leave it till tomorrow :p On a side note ... the lager is tasting really nice. Better than commercial stuff defo :) Only problem is, I only put half the sugar in, so a little flat lol