Sediment in bottles

[banditgrrr]

I'm a new home brewer and I've made about 8 batches of extract with specialty grains. I just made a Pliney Elder clone which consists of tons of hops. I bottled about a week ago and when I hold the bottle up to the light, I have quite a bit of sediment floating in the bottle. I know a little is to be expected but there seems to be more than I thought there would. What is the best way to filter this out? Here is what I'm doing as far as filtering. Am I missing something?

1. Using hops bags to contain the sediment during the boil
2. Racked from kettle to primary and used a grain bag around the bottom of the rack to help strain
3. Racked from primary to secondary using another grain bag around the bottom of the rack leaving about 1" of trub in the bottom of the primary
4. Washed out all bottles using a high pressure bottle washer. Then ran all bottles through the sanitize cycle on my dishwasher with water only
5. Racked from secondary to bottling bucket leaving the bottom 1" of trub in the secondary

What can I do differently to filter better?

 

[mirthfuldragon]

My Pliny clone came out the same way - after cold crashing and fining with gelatin no less, and leaving probably a gallon or more in the bottom of the fermentor. I think of them as 9 ounce pours, and pour once, don't top off the glass, and dump the dregs. Mine finished in imperial territory (8.8%), so a 9oz pour is enough.

Not something I would brew again any time soon. I would probably go with a higher flocculation yeast instead of Omega's 004 West Coast Ale (Chico strain).

 

[azmark]

Cold Crashing can help.

Other suggestions, stop using a secondary, which will stop the grain bag oxidation going from primary to secondary.

 

[banditgrrr]

Thanks for the response. I was more worried about giving a few out to friends and having them say "what's this stuff floating around?" LOL. My Pliney came out at about 8.1%. Since I purchased this as a kit, I used the Safeale 05 that was included. I just wasn't sure if maybe I was doing something wrong or if there was maybe a better way to filter.

 

[flars]

How long do you primary? You may be moving your beer before the excess yeast and sediment compacts at the bottom of the primary.

 

[bucketnative]

Sediment doesn't float, it is sedimentary by definition. Now, if you pour it into a glass aggressively (or if you pour the whole bottle into the glass), you can kick some of the sediment into suspension and it will appear cloudy or as floating particulate. I pour gently into a glass, and I leave the last 1/2 oz or so in the bottle. When I see the sediment head into the neck of the bottle, I stop pouring.

It is also normal during (and just after) bottle-condition (priming, carbonating) to see some yeast rafts at the top of the beer or yeast in suspension. These generally drop out of suspension in to the sediment after several hours in the fridge.

 

[banditgrrr]

I've been leaving it in the primary for about a week and then rack to secondary for 7-10 additional days. I have not tried cold crashing in the carboy yet. I think maybe I'll try adding Whirfloc or irish moss to my next batch and see if that helps any.

I greatly appreciate all the feedback.

 

[ncbrewer]

I think flars got it. Leave it in primary for 2 - 3 weeks and skip the secondary. I'd give it 3 weeks to start with to make sure.

 

[65C]

This sounds like a lot of sediment getting in - are you doing something around the syphon/bottling time that is shaking things up - or are you syphoning out trub to the bottling bin?

In my first brews I was getting a lot - but that was because I was moving the primary to the kitchen before syphoning, not I syphon out and move the bucket to the kitchen to bottle

 

[65C]

Also are you using Protofloc or equiv in the boil so the big stuff falls out before syphoning to primary?

 

[banditgrrr]

I have a fridge I use for fermenting that's on the opposite side of the house than my kitchen. I used to carry them back and forth from the fridge to the kitchen to rack but now I built a shelf outside the fridge and I do the transfer right there. For the Pliney, I transferred from secondary to the bottling bucket right by the fridge and then carried the bottling bucket to the kitchen. I let it sit for about 3 hours to settle before bottling. In this particular batch, I did not use any whirflock or irish moss, but I will be using it moving forward. I'm trying to avoid buying a second fridge to cold crash.

 

[RM-MN]

At one week in the fermenter your yeast are probably done with the fermenting and have begun to flocculate, that is, stick together before they settle out. When you move the beer to secondary you break up the clumps of flocculated yeast. That doesn't help with clarity.

When you bottle you also stir up the yeast and other sediment. It takes time for this to settle out again as your yeast stir it up in the bottle as they consume the priming sugar which gives you carbonation. You mentioned sampling at one week. Try again at the 3 week mark. This extra time will do three things. It will start the maturing of the beer, let the sediment settle out and compact somewhat, and allow the formation of the heading compounds. While I often sample a beer at one week, I know that it will improve greatly in the next 2 weeks.

 

[jalc6927]

According to brulosophy the neither the trub nor racking hurts a beers clarity as much as it's reported to, they say that in their experiments beer that had more trub when it was bottled actually cleared up better than filtered batches

The main thing is that your bottles aren't quite ready yet, and using Irish moss or another type of fining agent will help for sure

Get brulosophys podcast and listen to their experiments, kind of like brewing myth busters