IPA is bottled-wondering about my procedure

[scrambledegg81]

So my IPA's been bottled for 1 out of about 3 weeks now. It's been bugging me lately about the procedure I used, so I'll step-by-step what I did.

-Setup auto-siphon with sanitized tubing
-Put bottling bucket on the floor
-Put a standard wire filter (collander) on the bucket
-Siphoned through the filter, pointing the flow against the side of the bucket to make sure it wouldn't splash/aerate
-Let it sit for 2 days to settle
-Bottled as normal

I guess my question is how to deal with mass amounts of trub & particulates when clarifying my brews (probably a majority being IPA's). I know there's additives and such, but I don't want to rack straight from the carboy with all that trub on the bottom.

 

[weirdboy]

All the sediment tends to settle to the bottom of the fermenter. So, what I do is put the output end of my hose into the bottling bucket on the floor, hold the autosiphon just below the level of liquid in the fermenter, and start the siphon. As the liquid level slowly drops, I adjust the position of the intake so that it remains just below the surface. Once it gets down near the bottom, I tilt the fermenter so I can keep the intake in sediment-free liquid. Once it gets down to a level where I cannot adjust things to avoid any crud, I stop the siphon and leave it all at the bottom of the fermenter.

 

[Nurmey]

I do about the same thing as weirdboy. How long are you letting your beer ferment that you have that many floaties in it?

 

[elmetal]

well you did fine by my standards, I just wouldn't wait two days of beer sitting in air. I would bottle right away but that should make no difference. I guess you could add gellatin to a secondary and then repeat the same bottling process from above?

I don't know just throwing it out there

 

[scrambledegg81]

I do about the same thing as weirdboy. How long are you letting your beer ferment that you have that many floaties in it?

It stated 14 days on the recipe, but it was still bubbling at day 16, so I let it sit for a total of 20 when airlock bubbles stopped. Only issue was the FG was at 1.020, about .01 off of what the recipe said for finishing. I sparged at about 75F, so I know the yeasties weren't DOA (California Ale Yeast WLP001), so I don't know what the issue was. Final ABV was 5.4%.

elmetal-the recipe called for 1/2 oz of Irish Moss, so I thought that would've solved the issue, but even at bottling day, there was a good 3/4" of hops sitting on top.

Think this one get the title of Strange IPA.

 

[elmetal]

wait...

ok, so it sounds like you have hops in your primary. use a strainer or mesh bag to filter them out when you put them in the primary. unless this is from a dry hop

as for the gravity, airlock activity does not indicate fermentation status. take gravity readings. if I were you I would've left it in the fermentor at least another week if not 2.

as far as fermentation time goes, don't worry about what the recipe says. ferment until it finishes.

1.02 off a 1.01 FG is very very far off. at least 3-4 more days I'd say

I'm no expert though. I just like to make beer

 

[scrambledegg81]

Ah, true. It was a dry-hop procedure, and being my first IPA I wasn't totally sure how to go about it. I just popped them in the carboy after sparging to the right temp. Only reason I bottled at the .01 difference is because it was reading the same for 4 days running.

And yes, I like making beer too. :cross:

 

[elmetal]

hmm well you did everything right... did you pitch dry yeast or liquid? starter or no starter?

sounds like a stuck fermentation.

 

[scrambledegg81]

Liquid. No starter, but I took a 1/2 glass of wort to blend it in with about 15 minutes before adding.

 

[elmetal]

hmm what was your OG?

the yeast from liquid vials is typically enough to underpitch...

did you aerate the wort a lot? that oculd also be a nother problem

 

[scrambledegg81]

OG was 1.063. Wondering if the wire filter might've aerated it more than it should've at this point.

 

[elmetal]

well you REALLY want to aerate it a lot when going from kettle to primary. that's crucial.

as for primary to bottling bucket or primary to keg, you want no aeration.

if you don't aerate from kettle to primary you may end up in a stuck fermentation

 

[scrambledegg81]

Meh. Think that's the issue-I didn't want a whole lot of the trub getting transferred from the primary>bottling bucket. Even with 2 days of settling there was still a fair bit of floaty bits in the bottles. We'll see on beer day (Nov. 9th)!

 

[elmetal]

it'll probably still taste good. maybe a little on the sweet side though. cover the bottles with a heavy towel. since fermentation hadn't finished (at least hadn't reached FG) you may have some bottle bombs.

 

[scrambledegg81]

We're doing OK with almost a week in carbonating/settling so far. Suppose I might've been a bit over-zealous in getting as much out of the carboy as possible. The bottling bucket read at a little over 5.5 gallons...maybe I just pumped too much out of the carboy??

 

[elmetal]

as long as you didnt pickup the trub at the bottome of the carboy youdid just fine.

chances are your bottling bucket amounts are off. mine are off by almost a half gallon sometimes.

 

[scrambledegg81]

Good stuff. So I'll make a mental note not to pull the last 1/4 gallon or so...tanks!

 

[elmetal]

just bottle what is not the sediment at the bottom of the primary. then move that to the bottling bucket with priming sugar (I usually rack on top of the priming sugar syrup (priming sugar boiled with water)) and then stir without aerating

stir some more for good measure

then bottle

 

[scrambledegg81]

I've only used carbonation drops to this point...

 

[elmetal]

well then same idea, still I would rack ot a bottling bucket to make sure I dont get any trub in the bottles. so bottle non trub to bucket, then to bottles.

I find that the spigot plus hose plus bottler makes it easier to bottle than just a racking cane straight from the carboy because when you get towards the ends you start having to initiate more siphons and it's a PITA

 

[Nurmey]

Sounds like you had particularly buoyant hops in that beer. :cross:
This beer would have been a good candidate for a few weeks in a secondary. Do you have any way to cold crash your beers? That also would have helped.

 

[scrambledegg81]

Buoyant hops= 2 oz. Perle, 1 oz. Kent Golding, 2 oz. Centennial (dry-hopped).

elmetal-that's basically what I did, it's just that I think I let the transfer go for too long and pulled a bit too much sediment. Oh well.