Filtering out bottle sediment

My first batch of homebrew came out pretty decent, but I was nervous it was infected at first because of all the gooey looking cloudiness in it after about 2 weeks bottle conditioning at around 65 deg. I chilled it, and the sediment all settled, so I am convinced it's yeast and/or proteins. Tastes pretty good (although I think I know what extract "twang" is now), smells good, and I've drunk about 6 and I'm not dead, so I think it's okay.

My question: is there any good way to filter out all the bottle sediment? I don't mind some sediment, but I'm losing anywhere from 1/2 to 1 inch of beer in a 12 oz. bottle to sediment and I'd like to filter it somehow to get all that tasty goodness in me without having to chew on it. I tried pouring through a fat skimmer, but that was too coarse. A paper towel was to fine (what a mess too...). A friend suggested cheesecloth, but I haven't picked any up yet to try it. Anyone ever try that? Any suggestions are appreciated.

BB, welcome to HBT!

Most of us aren't concerned with filtering out the yeast.

It helps if you chill your bottles 24 hours before drinking. Try not to jostle them too much when opening/serving. When you get down to the last third, just pour slower and keep an eye on the sediment.

The yeast in bottom won't hurt you. However, the resulting flatulence may damage your house plants.

cheers!

Please don't pour your fermented beer through anything!

The answer to your problem is time. How soon did you bottle your beer? If you are getting an inch of sediment, you bottled really soon. My bottles have a light dusting of yeast and that's it. I've bought commercial beers with more sediment than I get in my bottles. I leave my beers in the primary for 4 to 6 weeks and they come out crystal clear.

The other answer is Irish moss or Whirlfloc. Put it in the last 15 minutes of the boil and it will help all the junk fall out of suspension in the primary.

Thanks arturo - I have been following your suggestions, but I still lose more beer than I'd like to the sediment. After all, more beer is always better, right? As for the flatulence, I am no stranger to that, and find it a constant source of amusement still at 35. My wife is less amused, for some reason...

Hey Nurmey - I used Irish Moss at the 15 minute mark during the boil. When I bottled (1 week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary, 3 weeks in bottle), it was very clear. Also, I wasn't clear, but I meant I am losing an inch of beer to the sediment - I didn't mean I have an inch of sediment. It's probably more like 1/4 inch of sediment, but it's very light and disturbs easily when pouring. Is there any reason not to pour that last bit through a filtering medium? I wouldn't pour the entire beer through anything, just that last inch or so.

BeerBalls said:

Hey Nurmey - I used Irish Moss at the 15 minute mark during the boil. When I bottled (1 week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary, 3 weeks in bottle), it was very clear. Also, I wasn't clear, but I meant I am losing an inch of beer to the sediment - I didn't mean I have an inch of sediment. It's probably more like 1/4 inch of sediment, but it's very light and disturbs easily when pouring. Is there any reason not to pour that last bit through a filtering medium? I wouldn't pour the entire beer through anything, just that last inch or so.

Click to expand...

It probably won't work all that well.

I'd suggest chilling the beer for several days before pouring, and then pouring it all in one pour. If you use a flocculant yeast, it will compact into a tightly compacted little yeast cake, and won't disturb as easily. The longer chilling really helps with this. Then, pour down the side of the glass, and do it in one motion, slowly tilting the beer (but not raising it) as you fill the glass.

With practice, you'll be able to pour a homebrew without disturbing any sediment, and only losing about a teaspoon of beer in the bottom.

Oh gotcha. I'm very tired and apparently not reading very well.

Chilling the bottles for a few days will indeed help that sediment compacted on the bottom. Other than that, pouring carefully should get you a little more beer, however, as long as you bottle condition you are going to lose a bit a beer to the yeast.

With regards to pouring technique, I find that if I pour against a well-lit white background (like the top of my stove), then I can see inside the bottle well enough to see when the yeast sediment starts making its way towards the mouth of the bottle. Then I stop pouring.

Probably overboard like usual, but hey, that's me.

-Steve

BeerBalls said:

Hey Nurmey - I used Irish Moss at the 15 minute mark during the boil. When I bottled (1 week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary, 3 weeks in bottle), it was very clear. Also, I wasn't clear, but I meant I am losing an inch of beer to the sediment - I didn't mean I have an inch of sediment. It's probably more like 1/4 inch of sediment, but it's very light and disturbs easily when pouring. Is there any reason not to pour that last bit through a filtering medium? I wouldn't pour the entire beer through anything, just that last inch or so.

Click to expand...

Hi Beerballs,
Let's get down to the source of your problem. "1 week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary......." is not necessarily a long enough time. If you had allowed 2 weeks in the primary and 1 week in the secondary, you would have done much better.

Let's start with "1 week in primary". Do you know why you only allowed 1 week? If you can't answer that, we're making progress. When brewing most ales, you should leave the beer in the primary until it is has essentially finished fermenting and the yeast has had time to absorb some of the nasty byproducts of brewing. Two weeks or longer in the primary for an ale is not excessive, and lagers generally need much longer times.

Transferring to a secondary is optional, but helps tremendously in helping to clear the beer. The secondary is more of a clarifying and conditioning step and can also take some time. This step is most effective at lower temps-close to freezing is real nice. This will help the suspended yeast and protein sediments to fall out.

When you are ready to bottle, the beer should already be clearing up pretty good. Your bottled beer should only have a little yeast sediment from the bottle conditioning.

The bottom line is: Don't rush your beer.

BTW, flatulence is no laughing matter.....................bwaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahaahahahahahah!!!

Minky said:

Hi Beerballs,
Let's get down to the source of your problem. "1 week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary......." is not necessarily a long enough time. If you had allowed 2 weeks in the primary and 1 week in the secondary, you would have done much better.

Let's start with "1 week in primary". Do you know why you only allowed 1 week? If you can't answer that, we're making progress. When brewing most ales, you should leave the beer in the primary until it is has essentially finished fermenting and the yeast has had time to absorb some of the nasty byproducts of brewing. Two weeks or longer in the primary for an ale is not excessive, and lagers generally need much longer times.

Click to expand...

His timeline is fine. Most ales are completely done fermenting in a week, but you really should be using your hydrometer to make sure.. I'm not sure why you think he'll get less sediment in the bottles with 2 weeks in the primary and 1 in the secondary.

double_e5 said:

His timeline is fine. Most ales are completely done fermenting in a week, but you really should be using your hydrometer to make sure.. I'm not sure why you think he'll get less sediment in the bottles with 2 weeks in the primary and 1 in the secondary.

Click to expand...

Well OK,
How about 3 weeks in the primary and no secondary, and I would consider that an absolute minimum. The point is, you need time for the yeast to absorb diacetyl and other fermentation byproducts and for the yeast and other sediments to settle. The yeast sediment from bottle conditioning does NOT build up to a 1/4 inch!!

His timeline is obviously NOT fine according to what he is describing.

Nurmey had it absolutely right on this one, beerballs!!

I probably do 7-10 days in primary, 14-20 in secondary. Hasn't caused any problems with excessive sediment. However, I've come to believe in secondary fermentations for the clearest beer (for what I can do with my supplies).

When all else fails, I'll pour beers for my buddies and leave the half inch in the bottom of yeast for myself - it's good for you!

I know a guy in a local brewing club that does 4 fermentations...that may be overkill, but he gets very clear, sediment free beer.

Thanks for all the help - when I got my starter equipment kit from my LHBS, they were out of hydrometers, which I picked up from them several weeks later, so I went by the 1-2-3 rule of thumb, which I read here and in Palmer's book. If there's one golden rule I've learned so far though, it's "wait, and then wait some more." I'll leave my next batch in the primary a minimum 2 weeks and until I get consistent gravity readings, and then rack to secondary for a week or two. Unfortunately, I forgot to use Irish Moss in my second batch, so it won't be a good side-by-side comparison to the first.

BeerBalls said:

Thanks for all the help - when I got my starter equipment kit from my LHBS, they were out of hydrometers, which I picked up from them several weeks later, so I went by the 1-2-3 rule of thumb, which I read here and in Palmer's book. If there's one golden rule I've learned so far though, it's "wait, and then wait some more." I'll leave my next batch in the primary a minimum 2 weeks and until I get consistent gravity readings, and then rack to secondary for a week or two. Unfortunately, I forgot to use Irish Moss in my second batch, so it won't be a good side-by-side comparison to the first.

Click to expand...

You still may get a nice, clear beer. When I was doing extracts, I forgot the Irish moss at least half the time, but still had clear beer each time.

The clearer the beer is at bottling, the less sediment there will be in the bottle because more "stuff" fell out in the fermenter. There are other ways to acheive this- putting the fermenter in the fridge for a couple of days, making sure you chill the wort very quickly after the boil (getting a good "cold break"), as well as using the Irish moss. All of my beers are crystal clear now, but of course clarity doesn't affect taste at all. Still, you can use those techniques to minimize the amount of sediment in your bottles.

I've heard of people adding gelatin to the secondary and allowing a few days for it to settle out all of the junk. The downside is that when you bottle it will take a lot longer to carb up due to a much lower yeast count.

I've never tried this as my yeast sediment is always tight and compacted (and stuck to the bottom of the bottle) so I really only have to leave a few ml of beer behind when pouring into a glass!

Minky said:

Well OK,
How about 3 weeks in the primary and no secondary, and I would consider that an absolute minimum. The point is, you need time for the yeast to absorb diacetyl and other fermentation byproducts and for the yeast and other sediments to settle. The yeast sediment from bottle conditioning does NOT build up to a 1/4 inch!!

His timeline is obviously NOT fine according to what he is describing.

Nurmey had it absolutely right on this one, beerballs!!

Click to expand...

I'm not trying to argue with you here, but can you explain what the difference between a 1 week primary/2 week secondary, a 2 week primary/1 week secondary, and a 3 week primary is going to do for sediment? They all add up to 3 weeks.

double_e5 said:

I'm not trying to argue with you here, but can you explain what the difference between a 1 week primary/2 week secondary, a 2 week primary/1 week secondary, and a 3 week primary is going to do for sediment? They all add up to 3 weeks.

Click to expand...

Yeah,
I really didn't explain myself very well. I was in too much of a hurry.

The main reason I would prefer the longer time in the primary has more to do with giving the suspended yeast more time to mop up fermentation byproducts and less to do with sedimentation, although I think the longer time in the primary would mean less sediment being transferred to the bottling bucket.

I think the best scenario, if you absolutely had to have the beer in bottles in 3 weeks, would be 2 weeks in the primary and 1 week at close to freezing in a secondary. There are other things that could be done to speed up sedimentation like using a clarifying agent (isinglas, gelatin, etc.), but just a little extra time does wonders.

I just don't understand rushing to get the beer in bottles and having to deal with a big slug of sediment in the bottle.

About the only beer I bottle anymore is hefeweizen and, like Nurmey says, I only end up with a very light dusting of yeast at the bottom of the bottle.

Yeah, I think the rushing to get it into bottles was probably a typical noob mistake made out of impatience. With nothing in the pipeline since it was my first attempt, I was anxious to get it bottled, carbed and ready to drink. Now that I have that batch bottled >3 weeks, second batch in the secondary 1.5 weeks, and another ready to brew this weekend, I will be able to leave the beer alone a little better.

It does get easier once you've built a pipeline. When I'm in a hurry I'll primary for 10 days and secondary for another 10, but normally I'll give it 2 weeks in each. Generally there is only a dusting of sediment in my bottles, so little I don't even have to pour carefully.

BeerBalls said:

Yeah, I think the rushing to get it into bottles was probably a typical noob mistake made out of impatience. With nothing in the pipeline since it was my first attempt, I was anxious to get it bottled, carbed and ready to drink. Now that I have that batch bottled >3 weeks, second batch in the secondary 1.5 weeks, and another ready to brew this weekend, I will be able to leave the beer alone a little better.

Click to expand...

I've been brewing for about 10 years now and still have to fight the urge to rush a batch. Allowing a little extra time will reward you with not only a better looking beer, but it will taste better, too.

Minky said:

I've been brewing for about 10 years now and still have to fight the urge to rush a batch. Allowing a little extra time will reward you with not only a better looking beer, but it will taste better, too.

Click to expand...

yeah and when you think your pipeline is full.... double it cause it won't be for long

Another option is to use sediment catchers instead of bottle caps

http://sedexbrewing.com//