Too much yeast

[eastwood44mag]

A while back I brewed with a yeast that's far too strong, and so it didn't die out during fermentation.

Now I have a case and a half of beer that causes loose bowel movements. While I'd prefer not to pour it down the drain, I don't care to drink it. Is there anything I can do to kill off yeast while it's still in the bottle?

Thanks.

 

[the_bird]

Yeast DOESN'T die out during fermentation, otherwise we wouldn't be able to prime our beers. It'll stop reproducing when the fermentable sugars are gone, but it won't die. After the beer is carbed from priming, the yeast should be settled at the bottom of the bottles, so if you pour carefully into a glass you can leave most of it behind. You drinking right from the bottles?

 

[Brewsmith]

May I ask what yeast you used? I'm curious how the yeast could be "too strong." It's practically impossible for the homebrewer to pitch too much yeast. All I can think of is that you drank it too early before everything had a chance to settle.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I think your problem may be that you are transferring too much beer into the bottling bucket. If you try to get the last drops out of the secondary you will definitely rack too much yeast.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Drinking green beer will give you the craps. Give that beer more time.

What was the recipe? How long did you age in the primary, secondary and in the bottle before drinking?

 

[david_42]

Sounds like you have a lot of unfermentable sugars your body doesn't like. I have the same problem with fructose and many of the sugar-alcohols used as sweetners.

If you are convinced that it is the yeast, dissolve a campden tablet in a a half cup of water, open each bottle & add a teaspoonful, recap. In 24 hours, all of the yeast will be dead.

Assuming you don't have a problem with sulphites.

 

[eastwood44mag]

About 7# of DME, 1 1/2 # of crystal malt, 1/2# of roasted, 1/4# dark
WLP099 Super High Gravity Ale Yeast

The bottles have been sitting for a few months (brewed in March, maybe April?), and I don't drink from the bottle.

 

[sonvolt]

Isn't it a myth that yeast will do this to your digestive system? Doesn't the yeast die as soon as it hits the stomach acid?

 

[Walker]

it it's a myth, it's a myth that I happen to believe whole-heartedly. If I drink a bunch of homebrew, I get a little loose and have terrible gas.

Maybe it's the process of your body digesting the yeast that causes it and not the actual work of the yeast in your belly?

and a note for the_bird: your yeast can die during fermentation if you have a super high OG. The yeats will keep fermenting the sugar in the wort until they literally suffocate in their own waste. A run of the mill ale yeast can only handle an ABV of 11% or so before the alcohol kills it, so a really big beer might need to be finished off with champagne yeast.

-walker

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

It is the breaking down of the yeast not the yeast eating things that give you the craps/farts. I thought that was obvious?

It's actually the high levels of B12 in yeast that causes this.

 

[disaffected]

Would filtering out the yeast at bottling time solve this problem?

I've noticed that certain commercial beers are more likely to give me the craps/farts if I have more than a couple. Fat Tire, Aventinus, Guinness Extra, for example.

 

[Brewsmith]

If you filtered out the yeast, how would you carbonate the beer unless it's kegged?

 

[Walker]

If you filtered out the yeast, how would you carbonate the beer unless it's kegged?

besides that, isn't a filtering set-up prohibitively expensive?

 

[sirsloop]

Super high gravity yeast is just that... yeast that can successfully ferment beer to a higher %ABV.

I find that drinking 1-3 beers in a night is not a problem for me. I'm workin on a wheat beer and a belgian wit, so they both are cloudy and have suspended yeast. Point is, its a good reason to limit the amount you drink!

no hangovers, no beer sh**s, no problem.

 

[eastwood44mag]

Super high gravity yeast is just that... yeast that can successfully ferment beer to a higher %ABV.

I find that drinking 1-3 beers in a night is not a problem for me. I'm workin on a wheat beer and a belgian wit, so they both are cloudy and have suspended yeast. Point is, its a good reason to limit the amount you drink!

no hangovers, no beer sh**s, no problem.

That's all fine and good, but if I drink one of my "questionable" beers, I get powerful sick for days. It's a bit hard to drink half a beer, recap it, and drink it in a week without it tasting awful.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

besides that, isn't a filtering set-up prohibitively expensive?

No, not really. $100 tops.

 

[disaffected]

I don't know how accurate it is, but the Wikipedia article on Saccharomyces cerevisiae says they are 5 to 10 microns in size. Perhaps a 5 micron filter would let some through, but stop most of them. A 2 micron filter would probably filter nearly all of them out.

Maybe if you used a 5 micron filter, you could let enough through to enable carbonation in the bottle as they continue to feed.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

As long as it's an absolute filter.