Bottle Flocculation

After bottle conditioning, I put my bottles in the fridge and try to wait for them to clear before drinking. With some yeasts, the clearing process takes a long time. Too long. Recently, I pulled a bomber out of the fridge that had been in there a couple days, and I held it up to the light. I could see that the top third of the bottle was clear, but the bottom 2/3 had a cloud of suspended yeast. To get a better look at the cloud, I swirled it around a little. Then, I put the bottle back in the fridge.

That night I dreamed about the terrific beer that awaited if only it would clear. I had visions of a massive yeast cloud swirling, swirling. Then, the yeast were colliding with each other and sticking together and forming larger and heavier clumps that fell from the sky (sky? doesn't make sense, but this was a dream).

The next morning I checked the bottle that I had swirled, and it was completely clear. Huh.

 

Suggestion - try cold crashing before bottling. It will make a huge difference.

 

Thank you. I have tried that, but I guess I haven't tried it with WLP 001 - California Ale, which doesn't clear well for me. I suppose I will have to try it.

I planned to give up on cold crashing because of the difficulty of preventing oxidation due to suck back. How do you handle that issue when you cold crash?

Also, it seems I should be able to cold crash in the bottle just as effectively as in the fermenter. What do you think causes a difference?

Meanwhile, I guess I will swirl the bottles during chilling to help flocculate the yeast.

 

I prefer to bulk cold crash as less sediment gets inside the bottle. I never really worried about suck back. I usually cold crash for 2-3 days maybe longer, depending on when I have time to deal with it.

 

Doesn't an S-bubbler prevent suck back...? I was told it worked both ways...???

 

It prevents liquid from being sucked back, but air will be sucked into the fermenter, and that could lead to oxidation.

 

oops...it's all I've used for the last dozen batches... guess I need to re-think it...

 

Pull one out of the fridge and store it in the pantry for a day and look at it. I've had plenty look cloudy until they're 50F and it's spotless. I put it back into the fridge and it was clear forever. I don't know how it works but I don't care lol!

 

1 - Cold crashing only takes a couple of days and the amount of air sucked in (< 20% O2) isn't that much. Since I bottle condition (adding sugar to the bottling bucket to generate natural carbonation) - the yeast will consume the extra Oxygen that has been introduced.

2 - you can't really cold crash once it's been bottled, because you will have a yeast bed in the bottle that will come out when poured, unless you leave behind enough beer, and are careful not to tip it.

3 - no need to swirl the bottles to help the yeast flocculate. Leave the cold crashing vessel alone, and every thing will settle down.