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Antler

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2011
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Carbonear
Hey guys I haven't brewed yet, still researching and asking a lot of questions. I'll be using a basic bucket kit my local brew shop offers, but I have some questions.
I love Rickards Red, so I'd like to brew a beer similar in style to that brand. Can I brew and bottle red ales in clear beer bottles?

My local brew guy says I can bring in my brew in the Carboy and he can force carbonate it, and bottle it for me, for around 25 bucks a batch. He will also do another process where he eliminates all sediments. I'd really like to have a beer with zero sediment but I'd like to bottle the beer myself. Can the brew guy carbonate the beer, get rid of the sediments, and then putt back into the Carboy so I can bring it home to bottle myself?

What red ale kits would you guys recommend?
 
No, the only way to carbonate it and make it available for transport home to be bottled you would need a Corny keg and a suggested blichmann borrowing gun. The LHBS would have to carbonate and filter while pushing the liquid into your corny, can't use a regular carboy. As long as you let it condition you can eliminate damn near all sediment.
 
its a lot less hassle if you do it all yourself, and if you brew it and ferment it correctly you will have little settlement too.

if you gotta pay 25 per visit, in four visits you can buy your own force carbonation kit, with keg and all.
 
Thanks guys. I guess I'll just do an extra stage and try to lower the sediments. Anyone know about the bottling question? I'm just wondering can I put my red ale into clear bottles and not have to worry about them going skunky.
 
Although some sediment is inevitable in living bottle conditioned beers, and it's something you shouldn't fear but embrace. Read this and even watch the video, and get over your aversion to yeast in bottles. If you haven't had many living, bottle conditioned beers that have sediment, you're missing out on some of the best beers on the planet. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/anyone-using-filter-bottling-123758/#post1379528

Although some sediment is inevitable, it doesn't have to be overwhelming.

I get little if any sediment in my bottles, simply by opting for a long primary. This is my yeastcake for my Sri Lankin Stout that sat in primary for 5 weeks. Notice how tight the yeast cake is? None of that got racked over to my bottling bucket. And the beer is extremely clear.

150874_473504884066_620469066_5740814_2866677_n.jpg


That little bit of beer to the right is all of the 5 gallons that DIDN'T get vaccumed off the surface of the tight trub. When I put 5 gallons in my fermenter, I tend to get 5 gallons into bottles. The cake itself is like cement, it's about an inch thick and very, very dense, you can't just tilt your bucket and have it fall out. I had to use water pressure to get it to come out.

156676_473504924066_620469066_5740815_1970477_n.jpg


Ths is the last little bit of the same beer in the bottling bucket, this is the only sediment that made it though and that was done on purpose, when I rack I always make sure to rub the autosiphon across the bottom of the primary to make sure there's plenty of yeast in suspension to carb the beer, but my bottles are all crystal clear and have little sediment in them.

Half the time I forget to use moss, and you can't tell the difference in clarity.

Another thing is to leave your beer in the fridge for at least a week. The longer you chill the beer in the fridge, the tighter the yeast cake. I had a beer in the back of my fridge for 3 months, that I could completely upend and no yeast came out. Longer in the cold the tighter the yeast cake becomes. Even just chilling for a week (besides getting rid of chill haze) will go to great lengths to allow you to leave the yeast behind, but with only a minimum amount of beer.

The only filtering I've ever done has been through my kidneys.

I get the barest hint of sediment in my bottles....just enough for the yeast to have done the job of carbonating the beer.

THIS is where the latest discussion and all your questions answered.
We have multiple threads about this all over the place, like this one,so we really don't need to go over it again, all the info you need is here;

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/secondary-not-john-palmer-jamil-zainasheff-weigh-176837/


You'll find that more and more recipes these days do not advocate moving to a secondary at all, but mention primary for a month, which is starting to reflect the shift in brewing culture that has occurred in the last 4 years, MOSTLY because of many of us on here, skipping secondary, opting for longer primaries, and writing about it. Recipes in BYO have begun stating that in their magazine. I remember the "scandal" it caused i the letters to the editor's section a month later, it was just like how it was here when we began discussing it, except a lot more civil than it was here. But after the Byo/Basic brewing experiment, they started reflecting it in their recipes.

:mug:
 
I use clear bottles and just keep them covered and out of the light and my beer is fine.

By the way, I see where you are from and wonder if you know T. Wrice who used to live there but now she's in Ontario, I think?

B
 
Birvine no I don't know him/her. I'm actually from a small town about 20 minutes away, moved here last fall so me and the lady could be closer to work.
 
What are some good amber/red ale kits? I really like Rickards Red, I've also tried PumpHouse Fire Chiefs Red Ale but that one is a little on the fruity side for my liking, I'd like to go closer to the Rickards.
 
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