gglucky13

Recipes 

I've just started brewing a while ago but I've been keeping fish for a while now. Which brings me to my idea, when making a 5 gal batch put a gal or so of washed sanitized sand into the bottom of a 6 gal carboy during the second fermentation to bring the liquid level up and also give the yeast some little pockets to settle into at the bottom, in the sand, hopefully resulting in even less sediment in the final product. Anyone heard of anything like that done before or any reason it's a horrible idea?

RegionalChaos

Recipes 

Not sure that it would be needed, but I would want sterilized, not sanitized. If I was really going to do something like this I would boil the sand!

I'd suggest you play around with fining agents if you feel you need clearer beer.

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How I brew: Stir plate starters, Extract, Full boil in a Keggle, 10 gallon batches.
Brewing upgrades in progress: temp controlled ferment, stir plate re-work, building mash tun, milling station

Planned House Ales: an Amber, an IPA, a dark IPA, a Mango Ale, a blueberry oatmeal stout, a dry Irish stout, a honey wheat, Apfelwien

What kind of R-Value does your ferm chamber need? - http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/what-kind-r-value-ferm-chamber-190459/

GilaMinumBeer

Recipes 

Mmmmmmm. Fish Poo Pale Ale.

Sand in the Bottle Lager.

Somethin' Fishy Schwarzbier.

Don't do it Kellerbrau.

RoaringBrewer

Recipes 

Errr... bad idea. You will undoubtedly siphon up sand when you go to bottle/keg. You would have to stay so far away from the sand when racking to bottles/kegs, you wouldn't be able to get near the beer you could out of the carboy, etc.

Lastly, I still think you would get some sand no matter how careful. So instead of yeast sediment, you'd get sand sediment in your brews. I know some less-seasoned beer drinkers are hesitant about the yeast sediment, I can only imagine if you told them the bottle had grains of sand in it!!

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Roaring Bull Brewing Co.
Est. 2006
http://www.cafepress.com/roaringbull

Currently Consuming (HB): Apfelwein on Tap Troegs Hopback on Tap; Craft Bottles
Fermenting/Conditioning: Up Next: Hop Trio American Wheat, Lake Walk Pale Ale
In Planning Stage: Farmhouse Saison and Something Oaked.

Dr_Deathweed

Recipes 

I would think adding sand would INCREASE the sediment in your fermenter. I guess I don't understand what you are trying to do. +1 on looking up "fining agents" (irish moss, whilfloc tablets, insinglass, gelitin, etc.) or "cold crashing" if you are looking for clearer beers.

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"Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence." - Napoleon Bonaparte
“An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.” - Ernest Hemingway

Fermentation Cabinet●Adding Faucets to a Tower●DIY Hopback●Portable Kegerator

RoaringBrewer

Recipes 

Or patience and being careful when racking normally does the trick!

I've fined some beers with gelatin and had great results, but not much clearer than any beer I brewed and didn't start drinking until 6-8-10 weeks later.

__________________
Roaring Bull Brewing Co.
Est. 2006
http://www.cafepress.com/roaringbull

Currently Consuming (HB): Apfelwein on Tap Troegs Hopback on Tap; Craft Bottles
Fermenting/Conditioning: Up Next: Hop Trio American Wheat, Lake Walk Pale Ale
In Planning Stage: Farmhouse Saison and Something Oaked.

Dr_Deathweed

Recipes 

Agree 100% Just throwing out ideas

__________________
"Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence." - Napoleon Bonaparte
“An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.” - Ernest Hemingway

Fermentation Cabinet●Adding Faucets to a Tower●DIY Hopback●Portable Kegerator

malkore

Recipes 

You're creating a solution that has no problem.

get the right equipment (a 5gal secondary), or just be gentle. extra headspace doesn't guarantee any oxidation issues.

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Malkore
Primary: English Mild
On tap: Pale Ale, Lancelot's Wheat, English Brown Ale, Steam Beer, HoovNuts IPA
Bottled: MOAM, Braggot, Raspberry Melomel, Merlot, Apfelwein, Pyment, Sweet mead, Cabernet
Gal in 2009: 27, Gal in 2010: 34, Gal in 2011: 13, Gal in 2012: 10

EvilTOJ

Recipes 

I think if you used the coarse pebble sand it would be alright, but again, you really don't need to. I'm talkin the 1/8" and bigger grains.

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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

karbinator

Recipes 

Let us know how it goes.........