seven77

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I've noticed a sediment on the bottom of my bottles after a week or two of aging. I'm assuming this is yeast, after doing a little research. Is there any way to avoid this buildup? I'm assuming there must be some way, as commercial beers do not have this layer of yeast (or whatever it is). All my beers taste fine, in fact the last one I brewed tasted excellent! --so I don't think it's anything to worry about, it's just a little annoying to tell my buddies "Oh don't drink from the bottle or it'll taste bad!" then have to tell them to pour very carefully as to not disturb the sediment.

I don't mind pouring into a glass, being the wintertime. When summer rolls around it might be a different story as one of my favorite pastimes is to camp, bbq and drink at the lake for a few days. I envision taking home-brew to the lake, but with all the dirt and sand... needing a glass will become, well, dirty!

uglygoat

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ya ya it's yeast mate.

you can avoid it somewhat by transfering to a secondary fermentor and letting it age a while, then siphon it off the yeast cake in the secondary without disturbing it.

i know what you mean about the bottles in the summertime, nothing like a cold cold bottle of beer... they're fun to throw too, but now i'm trying to save them, so i only throw the ones with the twist tops

seriously though, the sediment at the bottom of some of my bottles don't move unless you really slosh it around, so i reckon you can throw a few back, in a gentle sorta way.

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loopmd

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Unless you add your carbonation with a very expensive carbon bottling system, you do like the rest of us and add that priming sugar right before you bottle. That sediment is more from the "bottle conditioning" then it is by not doing a secondary fermentation. There are some commercial brewers that also add the carbonation in by "bottle conditioning" their brews and they even add on the bottle that "settling will occur". Some connoisseurs of these fine brews will even roll the bottle around on the table before opening to shuffle the sediment around and add character to the beer. I for one am not a fan of this method. As long as you don't shake the bottle up a lot while you are tossing it back, you shouldn't disrupt the sediment too much. Besides, after getting to the bottom of a few bottles you won't care much what's at the bottom.

hth, dp

Janx

Recipes 

Hmm.

a - It's yeast so who cares? Not me. Drink it right out of the bottle. Sierra Nevada has yeast in the bottle. Its good for you...seriously.

b - If you are bottle conditioning - that is naturally carbonating in the bottle - you will ALWAYS have yeast settle to the bottom of the bottle. that is because a short second fermentation occurs inside the bottle to generate the CO2, and that yeast has to end up somewhere.

c - Carbonating in other methods isn't really all that hard or expensive at all. Here's what thos of us who keg do, which is very much like what commercial breweries do:

When the beer is clear in the secondary, and has aged as long as you want, you siphon it into the keg. You seal the keg and chill it. Commercial breweries usually filter their beer before this step, but it isn't necessary.

Once the beer is chilled, it can absorb a lot of CO2. That is, more CO2 dissolves in the liquid if it is cold. So you hook your CO2 tank up to your keg at about 40 PSI and leave it there for a day or so. That carbonates the beer.

When you're ready to pour it, you relive most of the pressure leaving just enough to keep it fizzy and pushing out the tap. A keg is just like one big bottle. So, it probably has some yeast settle to the bottom too. But the cool part is that you pull a half pint or so off and get all the yeast in one go, and the rest of the keg is clear.

Now, if you want to bottle that, you just get a counterpressure bottler. It's just a little gizmo, probably $100 or so and it keeps the beer under pressure while you bottle it. So you pump beer from kegs into bottle under pressure and quickly cap them. It's a two person job and a bit tricky at first, but works great. It's exactly how breweries bottle only on a much smaller scale.

Basically for a couple or few hundred bucks depending what parts you can scrounge up, you can get kegs, tank of CO2, regulator, and, if you like, a counterpressure bottler, anf you're dispensing like the pro's with no yeast worries

Janx

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Oh don't give me none more of that Old Janx Spirit
No, don't you give me none more of that Old Janx Spirit
For my head will fly, my tongue will lie, my eyes will fry and I may die
Won't you pour me one more of that sinful Old Janx Spirit

Rhoobarb

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Yes, I don't worry about it. I love Bell's beers and ales (http://www.bellsbeer.com) and they are all bottle conditioned and have sediment in the bottom. To quote owner Larry Bell himself, "If God had wanted us to filter our beer, he wouldn't have given us livers."

Janx

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LOL! Good line

Bell's is indeed great stuff. Their Porter is one of the best.

__________________
Oh don't give me none more of that Old Janx Spirit
No, don't you give me none more of that Old Janx Spirit
For my head will fly, my tongue will lie, my eyes will fry and I may die
Won't you pour me one more of that sinful Old Janx Spirit

homebrewer_99

Recipes 

The yeast sediment is also vitamin B which is healthy for you.

If you don't want a cloudy beer then just pour slowly (leaving the yeast in the bottle) then swirl the bottle a bit and drink the yeast right from the bottle.

Ryan329

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With my first batch I have noticed sediment but it looks like unfermented sugar stuck to the bottom. Is this yeast build up or sugar? When I pour the beer into a glass none of the sediment pours out of the bottle. When I rinse the bottle so I can reuse it it takes quite a shake to loosen the sediment.

AHammer16

Recipes 

How are you priming your bottlet beer? Pouring granulated sugar directly into the bottle or making a sugar or extract solution and priming the whole batch en masse?

If you are NOT adding sugar directly to the bottle then the sediment is yeast that has settled pretty well or it could be sterile junk that was in the bottle before you bottled.

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Igorstien

Recipes 

I've completed the priming method both ways and have notice the same buildup on the bottom of the bottles with both. So it's not sugar sinking, it's just a by product of the carbonation process.

The most recent batch I completed, I had to bottle prime due to and unfortunate combination of brew "accidentally" contacting the "un-rinsed" chlorinated contents of the carboy.....WHOOPS.....I noticable about a gallon into the transfer. So I would screw up the priming process and have exploding bottles or under-carbonated beer, I decided to prime each bottle.

Igor

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Igor Stien

Fermenting: MT
Secondary #1: MT Secondary #2: MT
Conditioning: Nothing Drinking: Store bought
On Deck: Festa Brew Red Ale....As soon as I get my bucket back from storage.

All bottles are Guinness bottles, Plus Five Kegs!!!