Sediment floating

[ncoutroulis]

I've bottled my first bath, 2 weeks ago. Just put a tester in the refrigerator yesterday and noticed there was some floating sediment in it.
Also had a closer look at the other bottles and noticed the same thing.

Just wondering if this sort of thing is "normal", or if it means the beer needs more time to carb up, or if i've don something wrong while brewing.

thanks

 

[1977Brewer]

You're going to get floaties, no matter what. They'll settle down in the fridge.

 

[andy6026]

There are a few things that might have caused that.

1) you may have not fermented it long enough - most brewers will leave it in the fermenter for at least 3 weeks which gives the yeast lots of time to 'clean ' up the beer and compress any sediment in the bottom of the fermenter. Once fermentation is finished many brewers will also cold crash the fermenter for a few days (i.e. put it in a fridge) which is a very fast and effective way of clearing the beer and compressing the sediment in the bottom of the fermenter.

2) While many brewers will advise you not to bother using a secondary fermenter because it increases the chance of oxidation and introducing infection, and it also makes more work - I find that using a secondary reduces the amount of sediment that ends up in the bottles because of point #3:

3) you may have stirred up a lot of the compressed sediment on the bottom of the fermenter when you racked to the bottling bucket. Best practice is to move and agitate the fermenter as little as possible when you are going to rack to the bottling bucket. Also be careful that you don't push the racking cane way down into the trub when racking. Try to rack from on top of it as carefully as you can. I purposefully use a secondary to eliminate most of this gunk that I inevitably get from the first stage of racking.

4). Due to the priming sugar consumption from the yeast you will inevitably have some extra yeast /sediment in the bottom of your bottles. Keep them upright in the fridge and the longer you keep them cold before opening them the better any yeast/sediment will compress on the bottom. Avoid agitating them and pour constantly until there's about 1/4--1/2 inch of beer left in the bottom of the bottle to avoid stirring up that sediment and getting it into your glass.

Fail at one or two of these steps and it's not the end of the world. Fail at all of them and you will likely have lots of floaters.

 

[flars]

Clarification of what the floating material is would help. If it is white, may be yeast. If it is dark may be trub/hop debris.

Problem, if it is not yeast, could be in the fermentation process, to short of primary time which left a large amount of suspended particulates. Problem could also be in the racking procedure, siphon was down into the trub.

Extended bottle conditioning time may allow the particles to settle in the bottle.

 

[ncoutroulis]

There are a few things that might have caused that.

1) you may have not fermented it long enough - most brewers will leave it in the fermenter for at least 3 weeks which gives the yeast lots of time to 'clean ' up the beer and compress any sediment in the bottom of the fermenter. Once fermentation is finished many brewers will also cold crash the fermenter for a few days (i.e. put it in a fridge) which is a very fast and effective way of clearing the beer and compressing the sediment in the bottom of the fermenter.

2) While many brewers will advise you not to bother using a secondary fermenter because it increases the chance of oxidation and introducing infection, and it also makes more work - I find that using a secondary reduces the amount of sediment that ends up in the bottles because of point #3:

3) you may have stirred up a lot of the compressed sediment on the bottom of the fermenter when you racked to the bottling bucket. Best practice is to move and agitate the fermenter as little as possible when you are going to rack to the bottling bucket. Also be careful that you don't push the racking cane way down into the trub when racking. Try to rack from on top of it as carefully as you can. I purposefully use a secondary to eliminate most of this gunk that I inevitably get from the first stage of racking.

4). Due to the priming sugar consumption from the yeast you will inevitably have some extra yeast /sediment in the bottom of your bottles. Keep them upright in the fridge and the longer you keep them cold before opening them the better any yeast/sediment will compress on the bottom. Avoid agitating them and pour constantly until there's about 1/4--1/2 inch of beer left in the bottom of the bottle to avoid stirring up that sediment and getting it into your glass.

Fail at one or two of these steps and it's not the end of the world. Fail at all of them and you will likely have lots of floaters.

Thanks.

I left it in the carboy for about 4 weeks, so the fermentation was complete for sure.

possibly during racking, i picked up some bottom sediment with the auto siphon...Was I supposed to use that attachment that came with it to prevent this from happening?

Even with sediment, the beer is hopefully drinkable, right?

thanks

 

[andy6026]

Yes, a lot of racking canes or auto-siphons will have a large enough nub on the bottom of it that will allow the racking cane to rest on the bottom of the fermenter but collect from just above the trub. It really depends on how much trub there is in there though - sometimes there's on a little, other times it can be a heck of a lot. It';s a good idea to rack carefully and keep it out of the muck on the bottom in order to avoid that. I use a secondary because I inevitably get some, and the extra step eliminates the majority of it.

Assuming we identified the source, the beer is fine. Best thing to do if you want to make this batch as clear as possible is to keep the bottles in the fridge for as long as you can before drinking them. 3+ days is ideal. This will compress the sediment to the bottom, and then just pour it into a glass as described above.

 

[mrgrimm101]

It happens. As previously stated, just keep the bottles refrigerated for a few days prior to opening them and it should settle in the fridge.