brewgineers
Well-Known Member
May be a dumb question but why is it when I buy commercial beer i see almost no yeast in the bottom of the bottle at all yet when i brew it i almost always see at least some yeast?
yeast in bottle question
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Depends on what "commercial" beers you are buying. If you are talking about American Macroswill, they are filtered and paturized "dead beers." And many micros are filtered as well, though many of those contain a thin sediment layer as well.
But there are Plenty of Craft/Microbrews that are bottle conditioned like our beers are, and they contain sediment. It is a natural part of the bottle conditioning process.
Read this and even watch the video. If you haven't had many living, bottle conditioned beers that have sediment, you're missing out on some of the best beers on the planet. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/anyone-using-filter-bottling-123758/#post1379528
There's plenty of ways to limit the amount of sediment in your bottle, I mention some in the above link. I have very little sediment in my beers after I bottle, and I don't do a heck of a lot.
For instance, if you opt for a long primary you will eliminate the need to filter.
This is my yeastcake for my Sri Lankin Stout that sat in primary for 5 weeks. Notice how tight the yeast cake is? None of that got racked over to my bottling bucket. And the beer is extremely clear.
That little bit of beer to the right is all of the 5 gallons that DIDN'T get vaccumed off the surface of the tight trub. When I put 5 gallons in my fermenter, I tend to get 5 gallons into bottles. The cake itself is like cement, it's about an inch thick and very, very dense, you can't just tilt your bucket and have it fall out. I had to use water pressure to get it to come out.
Ths is the last little bit of the same beer in the bottling bucket, this is the only sediment that made it though and that was done on purpose, when I rack I always make sure to rub the autosiphon across the bottom of the primary to make sure there's plenty of yeast in suspension to carb the beer, but my bottles are all crystal clear and have little sediment in them.
Half the time I forget to use moss, and you can't tell the difference in clarity.
Another thing is to leave your beer in the fridge for at least a week. The longer you chill the beer in the fridge, the tighter the yeast cake. I had a beer in the back of my fridge for 3 months, that I could completely upend and no yeast came out. Longer in the cold the tighter the yeast cake becomes. Even just chilling for a week (besides getting rid of chill haze) will go to great lengths to allow you to leave the yeast behind, but with only a minimum amount of beer.
Tthe only filtering I've ever done has been through my kidneys.
But there are Plenty of Craft/Microbrews that are bottle conditioned like our beers are, and they contain sediment. It is a natural part of the bottle conditioning process.
Read this and even watch the video. If you haven't had many living, bottle conditioned beers that have sediment, you're missing out on some of the best beers on the planet. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/anyone-using-filter-bottling-123758/#post1379528
There's plenty of ways to limit the amount of sediment in your bottle, I mention some in the above link. I have very little sediment in my beers after I bottle, and I don't do a heck of a lot.
For instance, if you opt for a long primary you will eliminate the need to filter.
This is my yeastcake for my Sri Lankin Stout that sat in primary for 5 weeks. Notice how tight the yeast cake is? None of that got racked over to my bottling bucket. And the beer is extremely clear.
That little bit of beer to the right is all of the 5 gallons that DIDN'T get vaccumed off the surface of the tight trub. When I put 5 gallons in my fermenter, I tend to get 5 gallons into bottles. The cake itself is like cement, it's about an inch thick and very, very dense, you can't just tilt your bucket and have it fall out. I had to use water pressure to get it to come out.
Ths is the last little bit of the same beer in the bottling bucket, this is the only sediment that made it though and that was done on purpose, when I rack I always make sure to rub the autosiphon across the bottom of the primary to make sure there's plenty of yeast in suspension to carb the beer, but my bottles are all crystal clear and have little sediment in them.
Half the time I forget to use moss, and you can't tell the difference in clarity.
Another thing is to leave your beer in the fridge for at least a week. The longer you chill the beer in the fridge, the tighter the yeast cake. I had a beer in the back of my fridge for 3 months, that I could completely upend and no yeast came out. Longer in the cold the tighter the yeast cake becomes. Even just chilling for a week (besides getting rid of chill haze) will go to great lengths to allow you to leave the yeast behind, but with only a minimum amount of beer.
Tthe only filtering I've ever done has been through my kidneys.
WrongCoastBrewery
Well-Known Member
A good choice of unpasteurized and bottle conditioned beer is anything from Bell's out of Kalamazoo, MI. They are good stuff in my book and if I am ever out of a homebrew, they are my goto.
brewgineers
Well-Known Member
awesome thanks for the quick replies
rerobb
Well-Known Member
+1 on Bells, plus i hear they have a pretty awesome homebrew shop! I'm gonna try to go there over x-mas, I've got family in kalamazoo.
In the link I posted above is a cool (though somewhat outdate) list of bottle conditioned beers and some info on what strain it is, and if it is the primary or a different bottling strain.
Yeasts from Bottle Conditioned Beers
Yeasts from Bottle Conditioned Beers
1Mainebrew
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If you're ever in Maine check out Allagash- it's the best in the state IMHO
