Bottle Cakes

So i've been bottling and bottling and bottling and well, you know...bottling some more. I keep getting a sizable amount of yeast on the bottom of my bottles. Now i know I'm a home brewer and I can just "deal with it" but is there any known solution to cut down on the amount of yeast at the bottom of the bottle. I am bottle conditioning so maybe force carb? But I do like the idea of bottle conditioning a tad more, seems more natural and more efficient. Your thoughts ladies and gents? :fro:

Cold crash your fermentor before bottling to help drop some of the yeast out of suspension. Or better yet, for some styles, do a short amount of lagering and you will have very little yeast in your bottles. The other things is to just be careful not to pick up too much trub/yeast when transferring from fermentor to bottling bucket.

You could wait longer before you bottle. Some yeasts take longer to drop out and like slarkin said cooling helps.

You could also clear your beer with finings like gelatin, then it will take a bit longer to carb.

I used to bottle straight from the fermenter. When i finally got a bottling bucket I noticed a reduction in yeast/sediment in the bottles. I also recommend moving the fermenter as the first thing you do on bottling day so it has a chance to settle (if you need to move it).

Let your brew sit longer before bottling. Cold crash for a couple of days. After they are carbed up, put them in the fridge for at least a week. The yeast will drop out and compact in the bottom of the bottle. The longer in the fridge the tighter the yeast cake gets.

Leave longer in the fermenter to let the yeast drop out. Most of my beers are crystal clear going into the bottle.

Calder said:

Leave longer in the fermenter to let the yeast drop out. Most of my beers are crystal clear going into the bottle.

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All of my beers are crystal clear, it's annoying though how I have to dump out a good 2-inches of beer from the bottle because it's so turbid with yeast. That stuff makes you fart like a mofo!

plinythebadass said:

All of my beers are crystal clear, it's annoying though how I have to dump out a good 2-inches of beer from the bottle because it's so turbid with yeast. That stuff makes you fart like a mofo!

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Depending on the style (i love belgians) the lees are added to most of my brews...
Plus i love farting...just saying

I bottle Belgians with basically no visible yeast in the bottle. Three weeks in the Carboy, put it in place for bottling the night before. Rack to bottling bucket avoiding disturbing the yeast cake. Never any problems with yeast in bottles.

plinythebadass said:

All of my beers are crystal clear, it's annoying though how I have to dump out a good 2-inches of beer from the bottle because it's so turbid with yeast. That stuff makes you fart like a mofo!

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If you have 2 inches of yeast in your bottles, then something isn't right. That's ~20% of the bottle volume as yeast/trub.

Do you mean 2 inches of the fermentor?? I just made an Avery Maharaja clone with 1/2lb of dry hops and I think there was close to 4 inches of crap left in the fermentor. You can adjust for the volume loss when planning your recipies based on the style to make sure you get the right bottling/kegging volume.

plinythebadass said:

All of my beers are crystal clear, it's annoying though how I have to dump out a good 2-inches of beer from the bottle because it's so turbid with yeast. That stuff makes you fart like a mofo!

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Is the beer clear when you are putting the beer into the bottle. If not, let the beer clear longer in the fermenter before bottling. If it is clear when you bottle, I don't know what to tell you.

strumke said:

If you have 2 inches of yeast in your bottles, then something isn't right. That's ~20% of the bottle volume as yeast/trub.

Do you mean 2 inches of the fermentor?? I just made an Avery Maharaja clone with 1/2lb of dry hops and I think there was close to 4 inches of crap left in the fermentor. You can adjust for the volume loss when planning your recipies based on the style to make sure you get the right bottling/kegging volume.

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No no no no sorry my bad here on the phrasing. I have two inches of beer that is infested with yeast of the bottom of my 22 bombers I use. Not a 2 inch thick cake, good lord talk about farting...I am posting so belated on this because I have made some new discoveries of my own...

I recently did two cheap batches of brew, a Blue Moon clone for the ladies and a lawnmower beer sorta thing for the boys. I didn't use smack packs like I use for EVERYTHING else I make. I simply used some S04 SafeAle dry packets and what did I notice? My technique hasn't changed a bit, and there was no massive cake on the bottom of my bottles after conditioning. There was a slight opacity at the bottom from SOME yeast falling out of suspension but not the massive amounts I was mentioning before. Poured out the whole bottle, every time...weird yes?