Bottling first beer. Do I transfer yeast cake along with beer to bottling bucket?

[blackonblack]

For my first ever brew, I bought an all grain kit from midwest. I built/purchased all the equipment to get me started right in to all grain. After 6 days I transferred the beer from primary to secondary fermentation in to a glass carboy. I left most of the trub I could behind and tossed it during this racking. I am just about ready to bottle my first beer but I noticed a thick yeast cake/trub on the bottom of the glass carboy. I assume this is living or dead yeast. I plan on naturally carbonating my beer with the supplied sugar. My question is should I transfer this yeast sludge in to the bottle bucket and re-suspend it? It's an ale so the yeast is bottom fermenting and I know I need some yeast still in the beer to carbonate it but is there enough still in suspension? I plan on taking the yeast cake and washing it to retain the yeast for my next batch hopefully saving me 6 bucks

My guess is that I would not take this yeast sludge but I just wanted to be sure. I'd hate to have my final product not carbonated and sweet ! Then again the instructions do mention there will be a small amount if sludge on the bottom of each bottle.

 

[lorvan]

No, you want to rack the beer off that trub. Try not to disturb the layer too much...

It's a little late now, but 6 days is a very short primary... Did you take gravity readings? What were they?


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[lorvan]

I should also add... There is enough yeast still in the beer for carbonating.


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[DarthCitra]

dont touch the sludge!! your beer will carbonate just fine as long as you use the correct amount of priming sugar! 6 days is pretty short for primary, IMO you dont need a secondary at all unless you're adding some sort of fruit, cocoa nibs or wood chips. dont waste the time or space with the secondary.

 

[jdauria]

NO! There will be enough yeast still suspended in the beer to eat the sugar when you bottle. If you transfer all the yeast sludge, then it will settle in each bottle and you will have inch or more of sludge at bottom of bottles and then in your glass when poured. As opposed to a very small sediment on the bottle if you do it the right way.

If you ferment or lager a beer for a long time, then sometimes you will need to add fresh yeast to the bottling bucket to help the beer carbonate, but not in this case.

Also just an FYI, ales are not bottom fermenting, they are top fermenting. That is why you get a layer of krausen on top when it is fermenting, a layer of yeast, foam and hop matter....then at some point that will drop and settle on the bottom. Meanwhile lagers are bottom fermenting in that in many causes you get very little foam if any at the top of the beer.

 

[jdauria]

NO! There will be enough yeast still suspended in the beer to eat the sugar when you bottle. If you transfer all the yeast sludge, then it will settle in each bottle and you will have inch or more of sludge at bottom of bottles and then in your glass when poured. As opposed to a very small sediment on the bottle if you do it the right way.

If you ferment or lager a beer for a long time, then sometimes you will need to add fresh yeast to the bottling bucket to help the beer carbonate, but not in this case.

Also just an FYI, ales are not bottom fermenting, they are top fermenting. That is why you get a layer of krausen on top when it is fermenting, a layer of yeast, foam and hop matter....then at some point that will drop and settle on the bottom. Meanwhile lagers are bottom fermenting in that in many causes you get very little foam if any at the top of the beer.

 

[solbes]

Plenty enough in suspension to bottle prime your beer (carbonate). The yeast fell out of suspenion in your carboy just as it was supposed to, although I might suggest you wait longer than 6 days in your next batch. It gives the yeast time to clean up all of the fermentation byproducts.

Generally you want fairly clear beer before packaging to bottles or kegs. You can do that either by racking to secondary after a couple of weeks, by cold crashing after 2.5-3.5 weeks (bringing the beer to 32-40F for 3+days), or you can let it sit in primary for 3-4 weeks and a lot of yeast will fall out on its own.

 

[thegreatmaibockaddict]

I do not agree with Darth above. Getting beer off of dead yeast is a good thing, and the ability to re-use that yeast is also a big plus if you are prepared to do so, seeing that a tube now costs $8.50 at the shop.
That said, unless the beer has been sitting for a long time in secondary and is inactive, then there is nothing to worry about. Take a flash light and make certain the yeast is no longer swirling in the carboy and/or has settled out to the bottom.

 

[peterj]

Getting beer off of dead yeast is a good thing

Agreed, good thing there's never much of that in a homebrew primary!

 

[Pelican521]

LOL. I remember my first brew I did and was in the same situation and thought "hmmm, maybe some of that stuff would add some extra flavor".

Stay away from the yeast cake!

 

[blackonblack]

Thanks for the great info!

My original gravity was around 1.043 the gravity after 6 days was 1.016 when I transferred it in to the glass carboy secondary.

I'm sure the 6 day transfer was early but I'm so new to the hobby I just tried to follow the recipe to a T which I did fairly well. My OG was slightly higher than the recipes estimated value. I did a "fly sparge". I also did not check ph values but will my next brew!

I like the concept of the secondary fermentation but of course I have no experience to compare. There was a lot of trub in the primary I just thought it could skew favors. The beer in the secondary is very clean looking with just the yeast cake on the bottom.

Thank you so much for the replies!

 

[blackonblack]

I got the two mixed up thank you for the clarification

Also just an FYI, ales are not bottom fermenting, they are top fermenting. That is why you get a layer of krausen on top when it is fermenting, a layer of yeast, foam and hop matter....then at some point that will drop and settle on the bottom. Meanwhile lagers are bottom fermenting in that in many causes you get very little foam if any at the top of the beer.

 

[Terek]

Thanks for the great info!

My original gravity was around 1.043 the gravity after 6 days was 1.016 when I transferred it in to the glass carboy secondary.

I'm sure the 6 day transfer was early but I'm so new to the hobby I just tried to follow the recipe to a T which I did fairly well. My OG was slightly higher than the recipes estimated value. I did a "fly sparge". I also did not check ph values but will my next brew!

I like the concept of the secondary fermentation but of course I have no experience to compare. There was a lot of trub in the primary I just thought it could skew favors. The beer in the secondary is very clean looking with just the yeast cake on the bottom.

Thank you so much for the replies!

it can mess with the flavor, but that is generally when doing a very large beer that will be in the fermenter for months. If you are fermenting for 4 or less weeks, you are generally fine. When I do a cider, or a barley wine, i will rack it sometimes 3-4 times to get it off the lees. I generally secondary once a month

 

[Terek]

Thanks for the great info!

My original gravity was around 1.043 the gravity after 6 days was 1.016 when I transferred it in to the glass carboy secondary.

I'm sure the 6 day transfer was early but I'm so new to the hobby I just tried to follow the recipe to a T which I did fairly well. My OG was slightly higher than the recipes estimated value. I did a "fly sparge". I also did not check ph values but will my next brew!

I like the concept of the secondary fermentation but of course I have no experience to compare. There was a lot of trub in the primary I just thought it could skew favors. The beer in the secondary is very clean looking with just the yeast cake on the bottom.

Thank you so much for the replies!

it can mess with the flavor, but that is generally when doing a very large beer that will be in the fermenter for months. If you are fermenting for 4 or less weeks, you are generally fine. When I do a cider, or a barley wine, i will rack it sometimes 3-4 times to get it off the lees. I generally secondary once a month

 

[rlmiller10]

There is another reason not yet discussed to avoiding bringing all that yeast into the bottles. Depending on your particular digestive system getting that much yeast into said digestive system while consuming the beer could have explosive results. Results that lead to spouses leaving, houseplants dieing and laundry bills, not to mention socially awkward moments.

 

[DarthCitra]

There is another reason not yet discussed to avoiding bringing all that yeast into the bottles. Depending on your particular digestive system getting that much yeast into said digestive system while consuming the beer could have explosive results. Results that lead to spouses leaving, houseplants dieing and laundry bills, not to mention socially awkward moments.

I avoid yeast and still have this problem! I blame her cooking and she blames my beers...i'll never win!

 

[user 213331]

LOL. I remember my first brew I did and was in the same situation and thought "hmmm, maybe some of that stuff would add some extra flavor".

Stay away from the yeast cake!

In the immortal "word" of Homer Simpson.


DOAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
:cross: