yeast in bottom of bottles

[rookiecd]

Hi all,
I'm new to all this, so please bare with me.
I'm told that once the brew is bottled that when you pour the beer you should do it carefully and leave about 1/2 inch in the bottle so you don't get the yeast from the bottom of the bottle (unless of course you like the yeast!). Anyway, how would one go about getting rid of this yeast? Yeast is needed at bottling time for the carbonation, correct? How do the big micro brewers do it, they must have some way of getting rid of that yeast?

 

[Zamial]

http://www.videojug.com/webvideo/how-to-pour-the-perfect-pint-of-homebrew

You "Pour to the shoulder" of the bottle. The other things you asked about is called force carbing. This is done with kegs and a CO2 tank normally but can also be done with the TAD system or a hacked Miller/Coors home draft system, the later uses CO2 carts and can be expensive. Some craft beers are bottle conditioned, like Serria Nevada. Macroes also filter their beer removing all the vitamins, minerals and yeast.

 

[McGarnigle]

The big guys filter and force carbonate rather than let the yeast carbonate. There are things you can do to get less than 1/2" of yeast at the bottom, e.g., se finings (Irish Moss, gelatin), cold crash, just wait longer before bottling.

 

[curlyfat]

If you really want naturally carbonated beer, and really want as small amount of sediment as possible, you can always filter, then add a tiny amount of yeast when bottling. It doesn't take much yest to do the job, and you will have minimal sediment in the bottles. *


*Not from personal experience. I've only read about people doing this. If you have the ability to filter, you probably have the ability to keg/force-carbonate anyway.

 

[Skyforger]

Increasingly, craft breweries are releasing beers with yeast on the bottom. It allows the beer to develop complexity with time and maturity, rather than just going bad.

But most commercial beers don't have yeast on the bottom, it's true. Lager almost never do, as that would create very un-lagerlike flavors over time. They do this by filtering all the yeast out of the beer, then force-carbonating it and then bottling it.

You can replicate this setup at home if you have a kegging system. Basically, you keg the beer, force carbonate it with a CO2 tank, and once the yeast drops out you just fill the bottles from the keg and cap them. Most people don't bother to do this, in my experience. Only if they've kegged a beer already and want to take a few bottles somewhere.

What's the point in removing the yeast? It can add a slight flavor, but it's only really an unpleasant flavor if there's way too much yeast in the bottle to start with and the beer is lightly flavored. It can add cloudiness, also, but that's just aesthetic. And both of those things only happen if you pour incautiously. And the yeast makes it so that the beer tends to become better with age rather than worse (though lighter alcohol beers eventually go downhill even with yeast).

 

[rookiecd]

So is it safe to say that the longer I keep the beer in the bottles before drinking, the less amount of yeast will remain in the bottle? Personally, I'm not worried about the yeast, I just don't want it to cause any adverse side affects for my guests. I've heard that it can be used as a colonoscopy prep.

 

[IceFisherChris]

The longer they stay in the bottle, the more it settles down. It won't go away and it will only pack down so much.

 

[PanzerBanana]

I say drink it and get your body used to it. lol There is apparently a strange and somewhat common phenomena where some people's digestive tracts are upset by ingesting the yeast.

I've never had an issue with downing the last yeasty drop of craft or home brew. But I have a fairly veggie and fiber friendly diet. My little bro on the other hand, not so much. And some beers with yeast sediment seem to work him over pretty well.

I just consider any reaction beer's way of telling you you need to eat better. lol

 

[curlyfat]

I say drink it and get your body used to it. lol There is apparently a strange and somewhat common phenomena where some people's digestive tracts are upset by ingesting the yeast....

I just consider any reaction beer's way of telling you you need to eat better. lol

After almost a decade, my body never got "used to it." Good excuse to add another brew-gadget to the garage! (filter)

And, yeah, I could probably eat healthier too. Buzzkill.

 

[mutedog]

I always drink the yeast, it's full of b-complex vitamins that help to minimize hangover effects

 

[Skyforger]

If you keep the bottles around longer, the yeast may compress more and so it may be easier to pour more beer off without taking it along. But it's there to stay.

You can wait longer before bottling, so more yeast settles out before it goes into bottles. You don't need much yeast to carbonate.

Bear in mind that some yeast settles out faster than others. This quality is called flocculation; the more flocculent a yeast is, the faster it settles out. So with a highly flocculent yeast you could bottle quite quickly and still get only a small amount of yeast in the bottle; many british strains are like this. Lager and Belgian strains tend to take a long time to settle out well, by contrast, so leave them longer before bottling if you want less yeast in the bottles.

 

[danlad]

Leaving the primary fermentation for 3 or 4 weeks then syphoning into a bottling bucket and bottling from there helps too of course.

Gives more time for the yeast to drop, then you are syphoning off that and bottling from comparatively sediment-free beer to begin with.

 

[rookiecd]

the yeast doesn't taste nasty?

 

[mutedog]

I don't think so, I mostly make fairly flavorful dark/robust beers so the small amount of yeast doesn't have too much impact on flavor, I could see it being more significant if you're trying to brew clones of miller lite or something...

 

[16one94]

I always drink the yeast, it's full of b-complex vitamins that help to minimize hangover effects

I will have to remember that. We don't usually drink the sediment, but I might try... it is hard to get too much B.

 

[unionrdr]

I've noticed that by the time mine hits a stable FG,there's only a slight yeast haze left in the beer. Mostly clear,just a tiny bit hazy. Then prime & bottle. Plenty of yeast for good carbonation. My OS lager got a beautiful color,& bubbles right down to the last gulp. Nice head too.
All that from 3 weeks in the bottle at 70F,then 3-5 days in the fridge. Gunna try & get a pic of it later.

 

[rico567]

So is it safe to say that the longer I keep the beer in the bottles before drinking, the less amount of yeast will remain in the bottle? Personally, I'm not worried about the yeast, I just don't want it to cause any adverse side affects for my guests. I've heard that it can be used as a colonoscopy prep.

I drink my homebrew (which is totally bottle-conditioned and unfiltered), along with a number of other family members I can think of, and no effects on the Great River of Life that I know of. Pretty much just pour the beer per the above video, and you're good to go.

 

[IPYay]

For what it's worth, health food stores actually sell brewers yeast as a naturally-derived vitamin supplement, and people buy it!!! It's full of B vitamin, like mutedog says.

I say skip the health supplements and drink your unfiltered, lovely lovely homebrew!

 

[unionrdr]

^^^CAN I GET AN AMEN-A!!!

 

[IPYay]

RDWHAHADTY (Relax, don't worry, and have a homebrew, and drink the yeast)

 

[rookiecd]

now I'm actually looking forward to it!