Carbonation Drops

So I bottled my beer 4 days ago using carbonation drops, it's my first time and at the bottom of the bottles it is all cloudy, is that normal?

Perfectly normal. You are reactivating the yeast by adding sugar (carbonation drops, dextrose, table sugar etc). What your seeing is no different than the yeast cake at the bottom of your fermenter, hopefully minus hop debris etc.

Ah ok so will this clear up over time? Just for aesthetic purposes?

Seedybrewer said:

Ah ok so will this clear up over time? Just for aesthetic purposes?

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Yes. The yeast/sediment is accumulating at the bottom of the bottle due to the yeast gradually dropping out of suspension, leading to your beer clearing. Then, once your beer is fully carbed, putting your brew into the fridge for a few days to a week will help compact/solidify the sediment, to a certain extent, so that when you pour the beer into a glass you should be able to get a crystal clear pour. Just leave the last 1/4" in the bottom of the bottle.

Ok cheers, do you have any tips on how to avoid it in future brews?

You cannot avoid it when bottle conditioning, but clear beer will minimize it.

The way to avoid it is by using a beer gun which transfers clear pressurized beer from a keg into the bottles.

wasp said:

You cannot avoid it when bottle conditioning, but clear beer will minimize it.

The way to avoid it is by using a beer gun which transfers clear pressurized beer from a keg into the bottles.

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http://sedexbrewing.com/


Has anyone used these caps to remove sediment yet? Been tossing around getting a few just to see, but don't really know if I care.........Kinda like the sediment. A reminder that the beer your holding is truly a craft beer!

501irishred said:

http://sedexbrewing.com/


Has anyone used these caps to remove sediment yet? Been tossing around getting a few just to see, but don't really know if I care.........Kinda like the sediment. A reminder that the beer your holding is truly a craft beer!

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Those look pretty spendy and all they do is let the yeast settle into the funky cap.
I think it would be pretty cost prohibitive to have a few batches of beer caped with these, plus they won't fit in the box and you are going to have to store the beer upside down.

definitely some con's, but maybe some pro's too.
1. easier to install than a crown cap
2. able (must) use very easy to obtain screw top bottles
3. the big "funky" cap is only used to capture the sediment, then is removed leaving a cap similar in size and appearance to a PET cap.

Again, not something I'm rushing out to buy 100 of these, but am considering getting enough to do a six pack here and there. For those of us who do not keg, about the only option I've seen to get a sediment free bottle. Just wondering if they really work as advertised. Craig from "craigtube" did a vid on them, but I haven't seen a follow up with full conclusion.......

definitely some con's, but maybe some pro's too.
1. easier to install than a crown cap
2. able (must) use very easy to obtain screw top bottles
3. the big "funky" cap is only used to capture the sediment, then is removed leaving a cap similar in size and appearance to a PET cap.

Again, not something I'm rushing out to buy 100 of these, but am considering getting enough to do a six pack here and there. For those of us who do not keg, about the only option I've seen to get a sediment free bottle. Just wondering if they really work as advertised. Craig from "craigtube" did a vid on them, but I haven't seen a follow up with full conclusion.......

I checked out the Sedex catchers but concluded that a Blichmann Beer Gun was a better deal because I have been kegging for years and have all the necessary C02 equipment. Seems to me that there is much less fuss and cost. I can't imagine the hassle of cleaning and sanitizing those for 48 or 60+ beer bottles per fermentation.

Great idea though!

Maybe I should consider buying some of them for the 2 or 3L I bottle-condition after filling a corny?

Seedybrewer said:

Ok cheers, do you have any tips on how to avoid it in future brews?

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Go buy some bottle conditioned micro brews and you'll see that if you're bottle conditioning, whether it's homebrew or commercial beer, you will have sediment. It's nothing to be afraid of, it's nothing to avoid.

Here's a rough list of commercial beers with sediment in it....You'll find overall that there's probably MORE beer on this planet with sediment in it, than without....

Commercial Beer Yeast Harvest List

Get over your fear, if you haven't had bottle conditioned microbrews, then you are missing out on the world's greatest beers.

Even with month long primaries, or using a secondary, you will have some sediment in the bottles It's in all bottle conditioned beers, homebrew and otherwise.

That is the yeast sediment from carbonating your bottles. It is nearly impossible to avoid, and so what? It is some of the most healthy stuff on the planet. The belgians worship it.

It's just that for the last 150 years or so Americans have been conditioned by the BMC brewers to pretty much know only about fliltered crystal clear light lagers. With little or no flavor.

Until the 80's with the rise of craft breweries and great import availability of beers from around the world, you didn't see many commercial beers with sediment in it.

And if you've only been exposed to BMC's then you're not going to know or understand about bottle conditioned or living beers. Especially also if you've consumed said beers in the bottle.

We get folks like that on here all the time, who think there is something wrong because their beer has sediment in it, or want to filter it out. It's really a culture thing, you don't so much of that in the rest of the beer world. Like the hefeweizen...that is swimming in yeasty beasties...

Read this for more info On bottle yeast. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/anyone-using-filter-bottling-123758/#post1379528


And then watch this video;

Once you learn to pour to the shoulder, it really doesn't matter.



My beers pour crystal clear, AND have a little yeast in the bottles.....I win contests, and the judges inevitibally comment on it's clarity. And half the time I forget to use moss.

Learn to love the yeast!!!!

Sounds good, I've never seen sediment in beers in Australia, I'm a bit of a rookie so was a bit worried

Seedybrewer said:

Sounds good, I've never seen sediment in beers in Australia, I'm a bit of a rookie so was a bit worried

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Never had a Cooper's pale ale, or any of their other commercial brews?!?!?!? Cooper's often mentions on their web site about harvesting yeast from their bottled beers to use for homebrewing.

If I leave my beer in the fermenter for a longer period of time more of the yeast settles out so the layer of sediment in the bottles is pretty small. Leaving the bottles to condition for a longer than normal period will compact this layer so that you can pour out almost all the beer without getting sediment in the glass.

Revvy said:

We get folks like that on here all the time, who think there is something wrong because their beer has sediment in it, or want to filter it out. It's really a culture thing, you don't so much of that in the rest of the beer world. Like the hefeweizen...that is swimming in yeasty beasties...

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I enjoy bottle-conditioned beers. That's all I ever did until all that bottle-washing became too much of a chore and I went the keg route some 12 years ago. Drinking a bottle-aged brew (yeast included) reminds me of my miss-spent youth back in the 60's when I made my first homebrews. I wouldn't want to drink a clear wheatbeer.

The fact remains, however, that many of my friends are unimpressed by cloudy beer. They can't get beyond the appearance of "cloudy homebrew". Those same people always comment positively on the clarity AND TASTE of kegged or beer-gunned crystal-clear offerings.

To each his/her own.

wasp said:

The fact remains, however, that many of my friends are unimpressed by cloudy beer. They can't get beyond the appearance of "cloudy homebrew". Those same people always comment positively on the clarity AND TASTE of kegged or beer-gunned crystal-clear offerings.

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Well, I bottle conditioned for years, and my beers are NOT cloudy. You only have cloudy homebrew if you don't take extra care in brewing the beer to begin with. I have only a very tiny smear of yeast on the bottom of my bottle conditioned beer. I achieve that threw the simple act of letting my beer settle for a minimum of 1 month before bottling, taking care when I rack, chilling the beer for sufficient time to fully compress what little yeast is in the bottom of my bottle, until it forms a tight cake on the bottom of the bottle, AND pouring properly.

Good brewing practice simply prevents cloudy beer.

Revvy, you and I, no doubt, both employ similar good brewing and pouring practice.

It is my friends' practice of poor pouring or drinking from the bottle that's the problem. I should have made that clear in my post.

Maybe I should cultivate different friends who are more "trainable".

If your bottle conditioning and using fizz drops to prime can you still use the sediment catchers.

It is true that Cooper's commercial brews have a little sediment on the bottom. I harvested some yeast from a 6'r of Cooper's sparkling pale ale once. gotta do it again,as their commercial yeast is supposed to be a bit better. Def need a big starter for that lil bit of harvested yeast,though. I wish those cool old school bottle styles they use were pop tops rather than twisites. I'd love to use some for bottling.