I read in one of these posts that someone bottles one beer from every batch in a clear bottle, to keep tabs on it and see when the yeast all settles out. Does anyone else do this? I am thinking it might be worth my while for the first few batches to help with the learning.... I understand that light will skunk my beer in a clear bottle if I leave it out and I am ok with sacrificing one beer from a batch, but I will probably try and keep this one beer in the dark too, just because I really dont want to waste a bottle full.
clear bottles
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Well I have never understood what someone thinks they can "see" during the carb/conditioning process....it's about exciting and educational as watching paint dry. There's almost nothing to see.
To me it's a waste....you get more info by bottling in a plastic pop bottle, at least you can feel if a bottle's carbed. you can't really see carbonation, and especially not bottle conditioning, and you can't feel bottle conditioning either.
But everyone has there own way of doing things.
To me it's a waste....you get more info by bottling in a plastic pop bottle, at least you can feel if a bottle's carbed. you can't really see carbonation, and especially not bottle conditioning, and you can't feel bottle conditioning either.
But everyone has there own way of doing things.
Richabt
Well-Known Member
Never used clear bottles for that purpose. Like Revvy said, not much to really see.
I admit that I do use them (love the newcastle bottles). I do keep them in the dark however, and haven't skunked anything yet.
I admit that I do use them (love the newcastle bottles). I do keep them in the dark however, and haven't skunked anything yet.
pericles
Well-Known Member
I think I'm the person you're referring to, although, if I remember right, I mentioned that this was a personal idiosyncrasy, and didn't suggest it as an addition to any one else's brewing procedure.
Revvy and Riachabt are right: there's not much to see. And I agree that a plastic bottle would probably be better than a clear bottle, because you could feel the pressure increase. I don't often have plastic bottles on hand, though.
I find that a single clear bottle is useful for four reasons:
You can't do anything to improve a beer once it's in the bottles except wait. So observation really isn't necessary at all. If you want to forego a clear bottle (glass or plastic) you definitely should. But if you think there's any value to it, go for it.
As for "skunking" the clear bottle. . . brown bottles aren't completely light proof, so ALL of your bottles should be out of the sunlight while they're conditioning, if at all possible. If you're really concerned about the one clear bottle, throw it inside of the cylindrical packaging of a scotch bottle or something. Or in a towel. Or just tape a piece of paper around it. Light really shouldn't be a complicating issue.
EDIT: Not all "scum" rings at the top of the bottle are signs of infection. The yeast that's carbonating the bottles will often create a mini-krausen during the carbonation and conditioning process. That krausen should fall, and become bottle sediment. Some scum rings are caused by bacteria, however. You get to recognize the difference after a couple of bad batches. (I had an infected tube for trio of wheatbeers.)
Revvy and Riachabt are right: there's not much to see. And I agree that a plastic bottle would probably be better than a clear bottle, because you could feel the pressure increase. I don't often have plastic bottles on hand, though.
I find that a single clear bottle is useful for four reasons:
(1) When the beer is carbonating, I look for scum to develop at the top, as a sign of infection.
(2) If carbonation is proceeding properly then after a few days you can see dissolved CO2 bubbling up when you swirl the bottle.
(3) A clear bottle lets me see just how much sediment is present in the bottle. (Depending on the amount of sedimentation, I might not be comfortable giving bottles as gifts to friends.)
(4) The clear bottle is the last one I fill, and usually has a little too much headroom, a little too much sediment, etc. Keeping it in a bottle that's distinguishable from the other brown bottles helps me remember not to serve it to guests.
(2) If carbonation is proceeding properly then after a few days you can see dissolved CO2 bubbling up when you swirl the bottle.
(3) A clear bottle lets me see just how much sediment is present in the bottle. (Depending on the amount of sedimentation, I might not be comfortable giving bottles as gifts to friends.)
(4) The clear bottle is the last one I fill, and usually has a little too much headroom, a little too much sediment, etc. Keeping it in a bottle that's distinguishable from the other brown bottles helps me remember not to serve it to guests.
You can't do anything to improve a beer once it's in the bottles except wait. So observation really isn't necessary at all. If you want to forego a clear bottle (glass or plastic) you definitely should. But if you think there's any value to it, go for it.
As for "skunking" the clear bottle. . . brown bottles aren't completely light proof, so ALL of your bottles should be out of the sunlight while they're conditioning, if at all possible. If you're really concerned about the one clear bottle, throw it inside of the cylindrical packaging of a scotch bottle or something. Or in a towel. Or just tape a piece of paper around it. Light really shouldn't be a complicating issue.
EDIT: Not all "scum" rings at the top of the bottle are signs of infection. The yeast that's carbonating the bottles will often create a mini-krausen during the carbonation and conditioning process. That krausen should fall, and become bottle sediment. Some scum rings are caused by bacteria, however. You get to recognize the difference after a couple of bad batches. (I had an infected tube for trio of wheatbeers.)
I've never done this as I don't really enjoy that skunky flavor. As for checking to see if the yeast has settled, I can see if fine in the brown bottles. Here's what I do. Cover the bottles with a towel for about two week and don't touch them for any reason. Then, take out one bottle and check to see if it is still cloudy. Cloudy means the yeast hasn't settled. I take a sharpy and mark the top. Check again in about another week with a different bottle. Once it's clear, wait for about 1 or 2 more weeks, pop a couple in the fridge for 2 days, pop a top and enjoy. It you don't enjoy as much as you like, wait another week and try again.
alcibiades
Well-Known Member
But seeing something like a "scum" on top is NOT necessarily a sign of infection,that is just conjecture which ends up getting repeated over and over until it becomes another "brewer's myths" that get perpetuated.
The same fermentation process that happens in your fermenter is happening in your bottles, just on a tiny scale. Top fermenting yeast is eating sugar, so it's never been surprising, to me anyway that sometimes the right combo of yeast and sugar is actually going to produce a krausen that we are going to see.
Also people forget that many books talk about how primming with DME DOES often produce noticeable bottle krauzens.
I finally got to see one myself this summer. I had a couple of those tiny San Pellagrino Lemonatta bottles'
I bottled some of my saison in two of them, and i has stuck those in a cupboard above my fridge. The next morning when getting milk out of the fridge for coffee, I opened up that cupboard and low and behold they both have tiny krausens on the surface.
That night when I got home from work and went to check on them, they had already fallen and left that little layer of sediment on the bottom.
In fact I just drank the pelligrino bottles this week, and they were not infected at all, in fact they tasted awesome...
I've always believed that they form and fall quite quickly, perhaps even a matter of minutes, but like I said, few actually pay too much attention to their bottles during the three weeks minimum they take to carb up.
So I hope if you see a "scum" line you aren't automatically reading "infection" because that is hardly the only case.
Edit I just saw your edit, glad you clarified that.
dunnright00
Well-Known Member
I always bottle at least one in a clear bottle.
I just like to see the colors!
I just like to see the colors!
pericles
Well-Known Member
I noted this in an earlier edit to my original post. Revvy's right of course, (I think I can be quoted typing that in like, thirty different places altogether on this site. . .) Krausen can create a scum ring as well as bacteria.
I like to look at the scum ring as a warning sign - I'd never throw the batch away just because a single test bottle MIGHT have been infected! Instead, if I spot a scum ring, I replace my tubing (the LHBS gives it away for free) and I do a particularly careful job sanitizing my vessels prior to the next batch - which usually is made BEFORE I can test any of the bottles of "suspect" beer.
Again: if you don't want to use a clear bottle, there's no call to. It doesn't produce better beer. It's just what I've gotten used to.
Vorsicht709
Well-Known Member
Pericles you hit the nail on the head with that one. Those are the exact reasons I always bottle one beer in a clear bottle. I kinda figured I was the only one who did haha.
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