Irish Moss Possibly Restricting Natural Carbing?

Whats the general consensus... Could use of irish moss have any effect on how well my beer naturally carbonates... Does irish moss drop yeast out or just proteins?

I have a Bohemian Pilsner carbing right now and it is clear as can be!!! But it seems there is quite a lot of "stuff" sitting at the bottom of each bottle... Could this be a bunch of little yeasties... to damn lazy to eat and fart....

whats the word???

Just proteins.

Thats pretty much what I was thinking... I guess its just another patience thing since im carbing a lager at 55degF.

Bottle conditioned beer is always going to have sediment in it. Some of it is absolutely yeast, some is probably protein.

It has nothing to do with using irish moss though. It's just the way bottle conditioned beer is.

Irish Moss drops out so completely, that it is considered a process material under the Reinheitsgebot and not part of the final product. It won't be around for bottling if you let the beer clear first.

Irish moss is a kettle coagulant. Its pretty much just seaweed, and coagulates proteins in the boil. If it dropped out yeast, you would have a problem fermenting!

Also, since its a kettle coagulant, its useless to add it after fermentation to clear beer. I'm unsure how finings like gelatin, which do drop out yeast would affect bottle conditioning.

Edcculus said:

Irish moss is a kettle coagulant. Its pretty much just seaweed, and coagulates proteins in the boil. If it dropped out yeast, you would have a problem fermenting!

Also, since its a kettle coagulant, its useless to add it after fermentation to clear beer. I'm unsure how finings like gelatin, which do drop out yeast would affect bottle conditioning.

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Yes and no. It is a kettle coagulant in that it needs heat to go into solution but it does it's work as it chills. It's a helical cell.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Yes and no. It is a kettle coagulant in that it needs heat to go into solution but it does it's work as it chills. It's a helical cell.

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Ah, hence rapid chilling to get a good cold break? Still, it would have no effect on yeast flocculation.

Edcculus said:

Ah, hence rapid chilling to get a good cold break? Still, it would have no effect on yeast flocculation.

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True. The electron charges are the same so IM and yeast actually repel one another. Which is why it works so well on proteins because the charges are opposed and attract one another. Then the chilling constricts the coil and traps the protein. The combined mass then falls victims to the physics of gravity.

yeqmaster said:

Thats pretty much what I was thinking... I guess its just another patience thing since im carbing a lager at 55degF.

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Why are you bottle carbing at 55 degrees? That's the reason it's taking forever, once you've finished lagering and have bottled you treat them like any other beer to carb them, and that's 3 weeks at 70 degrees, minimum.

Get them out of the cold and they will carb up just fine.

Reverend Lager has spoken!

Go in peace my son.

Revvy said:

once you've finished lagering and have bottled you treat them like any other beer

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Hmmm... I thought I remember reading otherwise... you don't think this could create off flavors? By bringing the temp up to 70 deg you are essentially fermenting corn sugar with lager yeast at a high temp. This seems like a recipe for ester production to me.

yeqmaster said:

Hmmm... I thought I remember reading otherwise... you don't think this could create off flavors? By bringing the temp up to 70 deg you are essentially fermenting corn sugar with lager yeast at a high temp. This seems like a recipe for ester production to me.

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Yeast byproducts are the result of yeast sex. By time you get to the bottle they should be smoking a cigar.

yeqmaster said:

Hmmm... I thought I remember reading otherwise... you don't think this could create off flavors? By bringing the temp up to 70 deg you are essentially fermenting corn sugar with lager yeast at a high temp. This seems like a recipe for ester production to me.

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No at this stage there is so little yeast/fermention actually going on (micro grams of sugar being fermented in the bottle to produce enough co2 to carb) that it doesn't produce any off flavors. And if it did, then bottle conditioning will clean that up as well.

I've carbed several lagers that way and never had any problem, in fact one of them netted me an award, and was described as being incredibly clean tasting.

You can attempt to do it your way if you want, but you'll be waiting months for it to carb.....

GilaMinumBeer said:

Yeast byproducts are the result of yeast sex. By time you get to the bottle they should be smoking a cigar.

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FTW!!!!!!

GilaMinumBeer said:

Yeast byproducts are the result of yeast sex. By time you get to the bottle they should be smoking a cigar.

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First quote I've ever thought was clever enough to get into a sig.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Yeast byproducts are the result of yeast sex. By time you get to the bottle they should be smoking a cigar.

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First off all... this is awesome.

Revvy said:

No at this stage there is so little yeast/fermention actually going on (micro grams of sugar being fermented in the bottle to produce enough co2 to carb) that it doesn't produce any off flavors. And if it did, then bottle conditioning will clean that up as well.

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Second,

Sounds good! This is, once again, some great information passed on from the best forums in the world! Thanks for the tip... Just pulled them out of the fridge. (Even though, its not all too much warmer out here).