Hmm... More Floaters Than Sinkers

[Kilroy08]

Right now I have an English ale that I brewed from a Brewer's Best extract kit.

I did everything I was supposed to and tossed a whirfloc tablet in at the end of the boil. By the way, it was a 2 1/2 gallon boil.

The primary, secondary, and assorted tools of the trade were all sanitized properly.

My mistake was substituting the balance of the water completely with ice. This made the wort temperature shoot all the way down to 41° F. I pitched the yeast anyway as it would wake up when things achieved room temperature.

The fermentation seemed normal, after a week I racked it to my secondary. One thing of note was that there wasn't a whole lot of yeast on the bottom of the primary fermenter. My two previous brews had at least an inch and a half of mud on the bottom. It then spent two weeks in the secondary. The beer smells good with no hints of anything being off.

I currently have a bunch of floaters in suspension. Research indicates these are protiens. While not ruinous to a batch of beer, they are certainly undesirable.

Will cold crashing get these to drop out, or will I need to rig up a strainer on my siphon hose to eliminate them?

 

[grathan]

You could post a pic? I can't picture what they are.


You could try siphoning down and leaving some liquid above the siphon level so the floaters stay behind.

 

[Kilroy08]

I tried taking a picture, but it didn't turn out. Best way I can describe them is that they look like cracked grain.

I've got the carboy in my kegerator cold crashing now. I might rig up some sort of filter or strainer for my racking cane.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

You haven't mentioned anything about the gravity. Have you taken readings? The only way to really know what's going on is to get a gravity reading. See how close you are to your FG and you'll know if the yeast have done their thing. If you gravity looks good then go ahead and bottle/keg following grathan's advice.

 

[HopSong]

I have no idea what the problem is either. But, I'll say that I would never use ice as make-up water. The likelihood of it being brewing sanitary is slim to none. There is 'stuff' at an ice house.. and there is 'stuff' in your freezer. That's one of the reasons you don't use tap water as is to make beer.

 

[Ianflean]

I only use tap water!


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[kal]

I have no idea what the problem is either. But, I'll say that I would never use ice as make-up water. The likelihood of it being brewing sanitary is slim to none. There is 'stuff' at an ice house.. and there is 'stuff' in your freezer. That's one of the reasons you don't use tap water as is to make beer.

You can use tap water if it's ok for what you want to brew (I alter mine with various minerals but as mine's very soft, many use it as is), but you need to boil it first to kill off any nasties. For this reason you don't want to use ice either.

So moral of the story: Don't put ice in your beer.

So what sort of starting/finishing gravity did you get with beer?

Kal