Residue in Bottles after Second Fermentation

Hi there - first time brewing and first post here - so please forgive my ignorance. My wife bought me a basic homebrew kit for Fathers' day (what a women!) and I've had fun so far.

However, there seems to be a little grey/beige residue at the bottom of my bottles after the second fermentation - beer is clear otherwise (until you disturb the residue and then it clouds up a bit)

So what have I done wrong? Is it dangerous to drink the stuff (I've had a couple of pints and seems to be fine - weak taste but nothing too major).

Here's the method I used:

1)Steralised all equipment thoroughly
2) Combined Malt extract, water, yeast, sugar in fermentation bucket - left for 7 days
3) Hydrometer readings fine so bottled - did not disturb residue at the bottom of the bucket when syphoned into bottles
4) Added a teaspoon of sugar into each of the bottles
5) Left bottles inside for 3 days, then moved to garage for last 2 weeks - it's been a little cold recently - but not freezing by any means

And here I am - do the bottles need to be brought back inside to finish off the fermentation? Has something dangerous happened and I should chuck the lot out?

Any advice much appreciated - if you need info please email and I'll do my best to answer them

All the best!

Ekant

Nothing to worry about that is totally normal! That is just the yeast settling out after they consumed your priming sugar and carbonated your beer. Unless you decide to filter and then force carbonate your beer you will always have that sediment.

Not sure what temp your garage is but you may want to keep the bottles inside for at least 2 weeks before you move them to a cooler spot. That will ensure full carbonation before the yeast drop out (the colder temps will make that happen faster).

If you leave 5mm or so in the bottle when you pour you can leave it behind. It certainly won't harm you though! Congrats on the first batch and welcome to HBT!

Cheers Brad - mind at ease now - was also worried coz my workmates are keen to sample the first batch - didn't want to kill them all (some are fine, but there are a couple I like)

Cheers mate

E

ekant said:

My wife bought me a basic homebrew kit for Fathers' day (what a women!)
Ekant

Click to expand...

How many wives to you have?

The residue in the bottom of the bottles is just yeast. You didn't do anything wrong, it's natural.

If you get a kit that uses sugar to ferment, it will probably taste weak. The best kits use only malt (except for the priming sugar), but they cost a bit more.

Good luck,

-a.

Cheers -a - only have 1 wife, all I can handle. Will keep the malt only kits in mind for round 2, thought I'd start with something cheap to see if it was worthwhile - totally is!

E

You can still keep things fairly inexpensive and still use those kits. Instead of supplementing the kit (Coopers or Muntons can I assume?) with dextrose (corn sugar) you can buy dry malt extract instead. It costs more than dextrose but the quality improvement your beer will receive is more than worth the slightly higher costs.

Dextrose is just fine for priming your bottles though (it's what I use too).

If you like the kit that used sugar for the fermentation, you will LOVE a kit that keeps the ingredients to real malt extract. there's more mouthfeel and body to the beer.

the next step after that is a little bag of specialty grain(s).

but for now, bask in the goodness that is brewing your own!