An interesting question about fermentation...

[edognight]

I thought I would bring this up:

I did an abrasive ale clone, its a local beer, up here in American Siberia, and I messed it up horribly.

But the result is still good (as far as taste as it went in to the secondary). One of the things I messed up was the volume, I do three gallon batches, and I had a teeny bit over four gallons going in the secondary.

As a rule, I don't not sweat the small stuff, and brewing should be fun, unlike organic chemistry lab, which is not fun because you are paralyzed with record keeping, stress and poor grades.

To make a long story short, the overflow went into a one gallon jug with and airlock. Here's the interesting part. The three gallon better bottle beer is extremely cloudy beer. Hazy, yeasty and very dark. You cannot see light through it, and it looks almost as cloudy as chocolate milk. (not really a problem, because it will clear up eventually)

The one gallon of overflow (same wort, same primary fermentation) is sparkly clear. Light foam on the top and perfectly clear. I started with one gallon batches, and I would read about various brewers on here and other forums, and cloudy beer problems. Since I made one gal. batches, i thought all beer was clear as a bell in the secondary.

SO what we have here is an experiment isolating the variable of secondary fermentation vessel size and it's result on clarity.

Anyone have any idea why the one gallon is clear and the three gallon is cloudy? It's not a rhetorical question, I really don't know.

 

[corax]

No idea, but some possibilities:

1) More gunk from the primary went into the 3 gallon container in the first place.

2) The smaller container is more susceptible to temperature swings, and a temperature swing caused the yeast to drop out of suspension.

3) Optical illusion: you're looking through less liquid in the smaller container, so it transmits more light.

 

[DrWill]

I thought I would bring this up:

I did an abrasive ale clone, its a local beer, up here in American Siberia, and I messed it up horribly.

But the result is still good (as far as taste as it went in to the secondary). One of the things I messed up was the volume, I do three gallon batches, and I had a teeny bit over four gallons going in the secondary.

As a rule, I don't not sweat the small stuff, and brewing should be fun, unlike organic chemistry lab, which is not fun because you are paralyzed with record keeping, stress and poor grades.

To make a long story short, the overflow went into a one gallon jug with and airlock. Here's the interesting part. The three gallon better bottle beer is extremely cloudy beer. Hazy, yeasty and very dark. You cannot see light through it, and it looks almost as cloudy as chocolate milk. (not really a problem, because it will clear up eventually)

The one gallon of overflow (same wort, same primary fermentation) is sparkly clear. Light foam on the top and perfectly clear. I started with one gallon batches, and I would read about various brewers on here and other forums, and cloudy beer problems. Since I made one gal. batches, i thought all beer was clear as a bell in the secondary.

SO what we have here is an experiment isolating the variable of secondary fermentation vessel size and it's result on clarity.

Anyone have any idea why the one gallon is clear and the three gallon is cloudy? It's not a rhetorical question, I really don't know.

Just to clarify, (pun intended) you waited until fermentation was complete before racking to secondary, right?

 

[edognight]

I prob did not wait until fermentation was absolutely complete, but it is more of a comparison issue, so I am not sure of the relevance. I think the best hypothesis is the first pour, least gunk theory, but I am pretty sure the first pour was into the three gallon fermenter, so the last pour would have been into the one gallon which is crystal clear. If I had any tech knowledge, I would post a pic.

 

[DrWill]

I prob did not wait until fermentation was absolutely complete, but it is more of a comparison issue, so I am not sure of the relevance. I think the best hypothesis is the first pour, least gunk theory, but I am pretty sure the first pour was into the three gallon fermenter, so the last pour would have been into the one gallon which is crystal clear. If I had any tech knowledge, I would post a pic.

If you've still got an active fermentation going, fermenter geometry is going to make more of a difference, and your solids may have not all dropped out of solution yet. If you think it's irrelevant, you must already have a good sense of what the issue was.

 

[TimelessCynic]

Optical illusion: you're looking through less liquid in the smaller container, so it transmits more light.

I'm thinking it is exactly this. Beer in my fermentor always looks darker and more cloudy than when i take a sample and put it in my hydrometer cylinder.