Carbonation techniques

Okay, here is a question for the bottlers....

I sell a small amount of my homebrew to my friends, one of the biggest complaints is "I hate having to pour my beer into a glass with the crud at the bottom of the beer blah blah blah"

I was doing some searching online and I was wondering if there are actually any home brewers out there that add carbon dioxide to their beer?

It would be pretty sweet if they made carbon dioxide pills or something that dissolve into a beer without any trub in the beer. I know that kegging is the way to go but if it's safe and somewhat cheap I wouldn't mind looking into it.

Thanks

 

Can you legally sell homebrew in Canadia? If so, neat!

I don't know about pills, but I saw online a guy hooked up some little rig that mixed baking soda and vinegar to produce CO2 and then piped it into bottles... essentially, a single-bottle keg. He published an e-book with the instructions, but it was like $15 to download it and, well, I'm cheap and figured if I really wanted to investigate it, I could work out the mechanics myself.

Seems pretty much you just need a way of keeping the chemicals separate until the system is closed, and a hose with a clamp so you can regulate the flow. You'd probably have to do it with the bottles already chilled, too, to get proper CO2 absorption.

They also sell some fancy bottle that separates the yeast and you don't have to decant, forget what they're called, not sure they're worth stocking.

I'd probably just tell my friends to suck it up and deal with it - plenty of commercial beers have yeast sediment, too, and nobody ever complains about Chimay.

 

Is it legal to sell home brew in canada? Tell them that it is good for them.

 

Edit: I do not think it is legal to sell homebrew in Canada, so... don't do that, but back to the question....

I don't think there is an affordable way without a kegging setup to do what you want. I love being able to fill bottles from my kegs with no sediment. The bottles that allow the yeast to settle down require you to leave part of the expensive cap on the bottle (It was like $200 for a batch's worth of bottles).

Carb drops are just sugar that is premeasured, you still get sediment.

 

If they made these in beer flavor ,you'd be all set.
Of course I remember paying a nickle for them when I was a kid.

Fizzy Fizzies Candy Drink Tablets Instant Soda Pop 15ct - eBay (item 180333830983 end time Apr-03-09 00:52:03 PDT)

 

You could always edumacte them on learning to love the yeast, and pour to the shoulder...


Well I might as well post my obligatary rant on this subject...CTRL-V

This comes up a lot from new brewers, especially since we in the states have grown up with fizzy yellow DEAD BEER as opposed beer cultures where living beers (such as homebrew) are consumed...

Here's a rant I wrote on this subject, don't take it personal I'm not ranting at you....It just contains some info you might be able to use in your edumacation of you, your friends and family about "living beers."

Some homebrewers on here who make labels for the beers they give away usually have a note on it about living yeasts and pouring properly. IIRC, someone on here has a logo with a graphic on one of the side panels showing how to pour. If you are giving your beers away you might want to consider doing the same.

I wish I could recall who did it for the label.


Anyway here's the "rant." (like I said it was to someone else.)

See there are actually more commercial bottle conditioned WITH YEAST SEDIMENT in stores, in bottleshops, and in most of our fridges than there are dead and filtered beers...

I enter contests...and placed decently last summer....in fact the biggest comments I got this summer was on the CLARITY of my beer..one of my beers was describes as being jewell like...and ruby like...I believe it comes from the fact that I leave it in primary for a month..use finings to clear it, and give it a nice period of bottle conditioning, make sure I cool the wort quicky and chill long enough to eliminate haze..... In other words brew properly....

If you work on you beer process, AND pour properly yeast sediment is not really an issue...it's a tiny bit of beer left behind in the bottle where there is a glass of uber clear beer. There's no yeast in this beerglass of mine, what little there is is still in the bottle.



Even if you do decide to go the expensive route of some sort of filter setup, you are going to do what the BMC manufacturers end up doing, sacrificing flavor for the sake of comsetic clarity...you can't really filter the yeast out in such a way that lets all the complex flavors of your beers come through...so of those
proteins and other things that give you beer a freshness get filtered out too.

Hope this helps you be a better beer advocate!!!

We even had the telling your friends disccusion before...

Who said you have to be an "uptight wanker" to educate?



I present to you;

I have very, very very little sediment in the bottom of mine, using the methods I mentioned above.


Remember Yeast is your friend!

 

Thanks for that post Revvy! I am tagging this page just so I can refer people to it. I loved the dialogue at the end, lol.

I left all of my first batches in primary for about a month, per your instructions. I just tried my first test bottle last night (after 2 weeks + 3 days in the fridge) and was very impressed with how clear it came out -- but after a few sips I went ahead and dumped the last 1/2 inch in. I was very happy with it!

 

If you use a primary fermenter(bucket), a secondary fermenter(carboy) and then mix 3/4 cup corn sugar /5gallons with your brew back into the primary fermenter and then bottle out of that, these extra steps leave you with a filtration that leaves a small amount of corn sugar residue and no yeast yet there is enough yeast to carbonate. When I started brewing I kept on leaving a bit in the bottle cause folks said to, and then I realized there was nothing in there. Only after I finish my beverage and I look at the bottom of the bottle do I see a faint white residue. I have had no complaints from anyone who has drank my beer from the bottle. However I don't bottle anymore cause I hate cleaning 65 bottles when I could clean one keg and a growler when necessary.

 

Hmmm so you can bottle from your keg and you have no sediment, Awesome. I just got into kegging so this is great news.

 

I really like the cloudy, yeasty beers. However, I would like to force carbonate with my kegs. Is there a way getting the best of both worlds?

 

Here's a thought...

When I used to bottle-carb and lagered my lagers for 6 weeks and didn't add any yeast to the bottling bucket, the beer still carbed up fine and there was hardly any yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottles. In other words, there was just enough yeast still in suspension to ferment the sugars for carbonation.

So what I'm saying is, if you use a "secondary" (really a clearing or "bright" vessel) and crash chill it (in the case of ales) before bottling AND be careful not to pick up sediment when racking to the bottling bucket, you can greatly reduce the amount of sediment in the bottles, while still keeping enough yeast for carbonation.

 

what do you mean by finings to clear it? how long is a nice period of bottle conditioning? what do you mean chill long enough to eliminate haze?