NOOB question

Bottled my first batch yesterday and am noticing a layer of yeast forming on the bottom of the bottles already on the second day. Is this a problem? Should I be worried?

Absolutely not!!!! That's perfectly fine!!! .....Return to DEFCON 1. Or National Security blue.....or whatever the low one (which we will never see) is.

Perfectly normal!!!!

ok I was about ready to start crying. Not really, but it's hard to know if something is wrong if you have never done it before. Hopefully when I get done reading Charlie Papazian's book I will be a little more self confident. I should have just relaxed, not worried, and had a homebrew. The hard part is when you don't have any homebrew to have yet.

cyfan964 said:

ok I was about ready to start crying. Not really, but it's hard to know if something is wrong if you have never done it before. Hopefully when I get done reading Charlie Papazian's book I will be a little more self confident. I should have just relaxed, not worried, and had a homebrew. The hard part is when you don't have any homebrew to have yet.

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Absolutely. You will brew for years and still have "ohsh/////t!!!" moments. The more you see, the more you read and the more you screw up the more at ease you will be able to put yourself.

With your current beer, you are watching the beer and the yeast continue to 'clear up' as it ages out and carbonates in the bottle. Most bottle-conditioned homebrew, extract brews in particular, have noticeable sediment on the bottom of the bottle from both general clearing and from yeast leftovers. Methods to reduce this range from longer times in clearing tank ("secondary" fermentation) to fancy filtration systems. What was your fermentation procedure? Was the beer given time to clear up after it's initial fermentation? The more info you could share, the more insight the community will be able to chime in on!!!

Keep it up, soon enough there will be plenty of homebrew to relax with.

We did 5 days primary fermentation and 10 days secondary according to the recipe we got with our kit from beer-wine.com. After 10 days our SG was only down to a 1.018 from a OG of 1.042 so I was told that I should maybe try swirling the yeast up to get a bit more fermentation. After I did this I let it clear in secondary for another 5 days, so it was in secondary fermentation for a total of 15days. After the 15 days the SG was still at 1.018, so I guess the plan didn't work. I was then told bottling at 1.018 wasn't a problem. I now find out that 5 days was probably a little too quick on primary, but I didn't know that at the time, I was just following the instructions from the recipe. Hopefully things turn out ok. I guess I'll just leave a little beer in the bottom of the bottle so I don't mix all the spent yeast up. I shouldn't worry too much about bottle bombs should I?? I have them conditioning under my sink at about 68-70 degrees.

Let me know if you guys can see the pictures!!!! I think they should be links to see them larger as well.

cyfan964 said:

We did 5 days primary fermentation and 10 days secondary according to the recipe we got with our kit from beer-wine.com. After 10 days our SG was only down to a 1.018 from a OG of 1.042 so I was told that I should maybe try swirling the yeast up to get a bit more fermentation. After I did this I let it clear in secondary for another 5 days, so it was in secondary fermentation for a total of 15days. After the 15 days the SG was still at 1.018, so I guess the plan didn't work. I was then told bottling at 1.018 wasn't a problem. I now find out that 5 days was probably a little too quick on primary, but I didn't know that at the time, I was just following the instructions from the recipe. Hopefully things turn out ok. I guess I'll just leave a little beer in the bottom of the bottle so I don't mix all the spent yeast up. I shouldn't worry too much about bottle bombs should I?? I have them conditioning under my sink at about 68-70 degrees.

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Multiple points. I used kits from beer-wine.com (they are my local store, 25 minute drive) for a few years, and I do not any more. If you are ordering off the 'net, there are definitely better places available. My beefs with beer-wine are that they are wine people.....so their beer advice/instructions generally bl0w. Their kits are so/so, and they offer nothing in the way of partial mash or all grain kits. That's pretty weak. I'd say you are better off with www.austinhomebrew.com , www.northernbrewer.com , or www.breworganic.com .

Regarding your brew, yea, in the end it probably would have been preferred to go 7-10 days in primary. Don't feel tied to any specific instructions, rather observe the beer and fermentation rates. Is the beer stil bubbling? If the krausen (junk on top) fallen, or is it still 'active'? Are there small, while/grey tick marks on the inside walls of the fermentation vessel? A combination of these observations will tell you when to rack. I had an IPA going for about 12 days in primary recently. It just seemed like it needed more time than usual.

this brings up to WHY a beer might take longer to ferment out than anticipated, which is what you are experiencing with your 1018. Termparature and aeration/oxygenation are the main factors with extract batches. Make sure the beer is it the yeast's optimal range (listed on product) and make sure that, before you pitch the yeast, you shake the living crap out of the beer (that is, if you don't have an aeration or oxygenation kit!) to induce lots of oxygen into the wort. This will assure that the yeasties have a nice, oxygen-rich work to help them munch up all your sugars.

I also tend to keep beers in clearing for extended periods of time. this is one of the many benefits to brewing a lot and having a large brewing capacity.....I'm in no rush to finish a beer. Typically, I like letting a beer clear for 3-4 weeks before I bottle or keg it. Doing this, in combination with the above stuff will give you less sediment in the bottles.

I would not worry about bombs. As long as you primed with the correct/reccomended amount of sugar/DME, you should be fine. Even cloudy beer are great, so I'm sure your batch would be fine. Once it's had time in the bottle to carb up (3+ weeks), I'd move it to a cooler place to continue to bottle age. In my opinion, they will peak once they've been in the bottles 5 weeks....if you can wait that long!!!!! If you need to clear out the bottles to brew more, f it and drink up!!!!

Photos look great!!!! Making me thirsty......

Thanks for all the superb info. It is great to be able to get information from people that have "been there" and "done that." What a great forum! Here is what my first batch, an amber ale looked like in the bottle. Also I guess I have one quick question. I have heard discrepancies on how much yeast should be added. I saw someone was doing a half batch a while back and multiple people told them to pitch all the yeast rather than cutting it in half. How much yeast should be used and what is too much?

Within reason, there is not really such a thing as 'to much'. More is better, because it will assure a fast start and a generally thorough fermentation. I don't know much about dried yeast, but a vile or White Labs or pouch of Wyeast pitched directly into cooled wort is fine for most ales. The exceptions are "big" beers and lagers. For these, making a yeast starter a few days in advance will multiply the volume of yeast you are pitching with and allow big (high gravity, lots of sugars to ferment out, high ABV) beers to have enough yeast to get moving and allow lagers (colder fermentation temps, more yeast is better to battle fermenation lag due to lower temps...plus lager yeast is just plain old sloooow) to get going quickly.

That being said, making starters for ales is also a fine practice to do, but with most commercial yeasts it is not a necessary step. Search this forum, or www.howtobrew.com , for info on yeast starters.

cyfan964 said:

Thanks for all the superb info. It is great to be able to get information from people that have "been there" and "done that." What a great forum! Here is what my first batch, an amber ale looked like in the bottle. Also I guess I have one quick question. I have heard discrepancies on how much yeast should be added. I saw someone was doing a half batch a while back and multiple people told them to pitch all the yeast rather than cutting it in half. How much yeast should be used and what is too much?

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Quick advice from one novice to another: I noticed in your pics that your bottles are green and (gasp) clear. Try and stick to lipped (non-twist off) brown bottles. That way beer-destroying light and air has a harder time getting in. Cheers!