Secondary Floaters...??

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Jester

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My brew has been in the secondary for close to a week after spending a week in the primary... but there still is stuff floating all around in there... there is definitely some stuff settling out on the bottom.... The longer I let it sit, the clearer it will get..?? If it keeps settling out at this rate, it will have to be in there for a lot longer than two weeks...!!!! Is this normal..??!?! Thanks in advance....

Jester
 
What kind of beer is it?

I had a high gravity beer that took 3 (maybe 4?) weeks in the secondary. It even had what I would call "tofu like" floaties. It turned out great.

loop
 
I just bottled an amber ale last night that had a bunch of these "floaters" you describe. They wouldn't hurt you if you drank them but they are certainly a distractor from the beer. Kinda like finding a bandaid in your cambells chicken noodle.

My solution was simple enough...I boiled a super fine mesh strainer bag and racked the beer into the bottling bucket through it. When I lifted it out, all of the little globs and floaters were trapped inside.

Only thing to be sure of is to check the gravity of your beer to make sure it's ready for bottling. Mine was down to 1.013 and had been the same for 4 days.
 
dave-m said:
My solution was simple enough...I boiled a super fine mesh strainer bag and racked the beer into the bottling bucket through it. When I lifted it out, all of the little globs and floaters were trapped inside.

I've thought about this: with a little engineering creativity, one should be able to rig up a strainer "ball" of some sort that fits on the end of a siphon hose. That way, you could siphon more quietly into the bottling bucket, with no aeration, which would be my concern with splashing it through a strainer above the liquid level in the bottling bucket.

Anyone experimented with someting like this? You could maybe even fashion it from a small nylon bag and a hose clamp. Dunno--maybe that would be too fine and would pull the yeast out of suspension, too?
 
FYI: I just saw these the other day when I was at the LHBS, but they sell little rubber caps that fit snugly over the INSIDE of the bottling bucket's spigot. The end of it has a fine-mesh screen on it.

Seems like a good idea to me. Just slip it over the inside of the spigot and any chunks or other debris that made it into the bottling bucket would be prevented from getting into the bottles.

I think they were about $1.

-walker
 
Walker said:
FYI: I just saw these the other day when I was at the LHBS, but they sell little rubber caps that fit snugly over the INSIDE of the bottling bucket's spigot. The end of it has a fine-mesh screen on it.

Seems like a good idea to me. Just slip it over the inside of the spigot and any chunks or other debris that made it into the bottling bucket would be prevented from getting into the bottles.

I think they were about $1.

-walker

I may have to look for one of these... I'm also using a keg.. so most of the sediment would be pushed out with the first glass or two, but I am also thinking about bottling a few too... we'll see...
 
I tried cheesecloth at the business end (inside) of my autosiphon and the results were not satisfactory. The cloth became too covered with stuff too quickly and the fluid flow slowed to a trickle. To mitigate this as much as possible, I have vowed to be more careful while siphoning and less observant while sipping.
 
cweston said:
I've thought about this: with a little engineering creativity, one should be able to rig up a strainer "ball" of some sort that fits on the end of a siphon hose. That way, you could siphon more quietly into the bottling bucket, with no aeration, which would be my concern with splashing it through a strainer above the liquid level in the bottling bucket.

Anyone experimented with someting like this? You could maybe even fashion it from a small nylon bag and a hose clamp. Dunno--maybe that would be too fine and would pull the yeast out of suspension, too?

aeration wasn't a concern because the end of the siphon hose is at the bottom of the bucket. The actual straining only takes place when you gently lift the strainer bag out of the bucket. There is no more agitation than a regular siphon.
 
dave-m said:
aeration wasn't a concern because the end of the siphon hose is at the bottom of the bucket. The actual straining only takes place when you gently lift the strainer bag out of the bucket. There is no more agitation than a regular siphon.

Duh. I somehow missed the word "bag" in your original description of a fine-meshed strainer bag. I then went on to complete re-invent the wheel in my response.

How do you attach the bag to the end of the siphon hose?
 
cweston said:
Duh. I somehow missed the word "bag" in your original description of a fine-meshed strainer bag. I then went on to complete re-invent the wheel in my response.

How do you attach the bag to the end of the siphon hose?

a very tiny gnome?
 

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