Lots if sediment

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feelinhopy

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So, this is my third attempt at a homebrew. First two were ok and for my latest I want to try and clone a personal favorite of mine. Mad Elf by Troegs. So I did and it is perfect, except I have a highly unusual amount of sediment in my bottles. My question is did I simply suck up a bunch in every bottle or is there some other possible explanation? I did a primary for about two weeks and racked to a secondary to add honey and 6 pounds of cherries. The cherries were puree. Any ideas? Also hello to all my local Philly home-brewers.
 
2 weeks primary tipically isn't long enough to get down to a stable FG & allow 3-7 days to clean up & settle out more. Sounds like you had a lot of yeast still in suspension when you racked it. That would explain all the trub that transfered over,then kick started by the honey & fruit additions. They contain simple sugars that would cause re-fermentation in secondary.
 
The best way to go if you secondary on fruit it to rack it again and cold crash it. Then rack it to your bottling bucket. As long as your are sanitary and careful you will not risk any infection or oxidation.
 
Chilling the wort down to 40F to cause the yeast in suspension to settle out. Good for low flocculation yeasts.
 
The sediment is likely caused by the cherry puree. As long as its the flavor profile you were looking for there's no need to care.

2 weeks primary tipically isn't long enough to get down to a stable FG & allow 3-7 days to clean up & settle out more.

Typically a beer hits FG anywhere from 5 - 10 days. 2 weeks is more than enough time to reach FG, a beer should not take two more than 2 weeks unless its a slow moving yeast like a saison or wild yeast. And that is regardless of the OG. There is something wrong if a typical beer takes that long to hit FG.
 
The sediment is likely caused by the cherry puree. As long as its the flavor profile you were looking for there's no need to care.



Typically a beer hits FG anywhere from 5 - 10 days. 2 weeks is more than enough time to reach FG, a beer should not take two more than 2 weeks unless its a slow moving yeast like a saison or wild yeast. And that is regardless of the OG. There is something wrong if a typical beer takes that long to hit FG.

Nothing wrong with it at all. You only get rapid turn arounds like that if you use light colored malts that have less unfermetables or a low gravity session style in my experience. Also if one can't afford precise temp control with no stir plates & all that. Many brewers don't have such things. Beer turns out good,just needs more time depending on a particular wort & ferment. So if a great big starter is always used,then yeah,you could get it fermented out quickly. The only one I had finish that fast was the cooper's OS lager that came with my fermenter kit. Just a box of brewing sugar (dex & maltodex),& the cooper's can. some 1.046OG I believe. Light colored,low unfermentables (that raise OG & FG),that finished & cleared in 12 days.
Seems to me you & a couple others get into this with me now & again. I make good ales through patience,time,& a good process that works for me. Many folks on here get ferments that take 2 or 3 weeks on average. Nothing "wrong" with that.
 
If it works for you fine, but its not typical for a beer to take that long to hit FG. Just throwing another opinion to the OP.

Proper pitching rates and aeration of the wort is very beneficial for a strong healthy fermentation. It might help shorten your long fermentations.
 
I'm not the only one that gets those ferment times. But those times also include the 3-7 days I give them to clean up & settle out more. Probably should've reafermed that point. Gettin tired & a lil cross eyed at this point...but I do indeed aerate well. But it seems the op didn't.
 
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