Sediment Removal

c - 13

Sediment in my drinks doesn't bother me in the least but it seems to bother other people I have given my brew's to leading to questions such as "Why is it like that", "Is that normal" and "It doesn't do that in shop bought stuff" :rolleyes:

Up until now I have been bottle priming but today I was reading a method that said to try priming in PET containers, leaving the sediment to settle and then syphon into bottles and cap.

This seems a little overkill so I was wondering if anyone had any good methods of removing the most sediment possible from your brews for a beginner homebrewer ?

I should mention I have already tried passing the brew through coffee filters but found it to be excruciatingly slow and the filters prone to clogging and causing my brew to spill.

Degsy

Rack it into a secondary vessel,prime it as a batch in the secondary and leave it for a while for the sediment to settle.
Then bottle from there leaving the sediment behind in the secondary.

mayto

You will get some sediment in the bottle if you prime your bottles with sugar as you are basically fermenting in the bottle and creating more yeast. It is not really something to worry about, just decant the beer and leave last bit in the bottle. Some yeasts like safale S04 will leave a real compact layer of yeast in the bottle when ready to drink and will not budge when pouring from the bottle. I generally transfer from first fermenter to another fermenter after about 10 days assuming fermentation is about done. People usually call this racking to secondary(not secondary Fermentation!). This leaves a lot of yeast behind and bottle then after a week in the second fermenter. Others just leave the beer in the first fermenter until ready for bottling usually in 2-3 weeks. Secondary fermentation is done in the bottle and will create the fizz for your beer.

c - 13

Cheers lads. I had a feeling that might be the only way to go. I have a batch of mead on at the moment so I might try that with it over the next few days as I want it to be as clear as possible.

davemie

Degsy wrote: »

Rack it into a secondary vessel,prime it as a batch in the secondary and leave it for a while for the sediment to settle.

When you say leave it for a while in the secondary after priming, are we talking minutes, hours or days?

mayto

davemie wrote: »

When you say leave it for a while in the secondary after priming, are we talking minutes, hours or days?

If you are batch priming, you bottle the beer immediately as it will begin fermenting again. The c02 created will carbonate your beer. It can be confusing seeing terms like secondary and secondary fermentation. Just think of ''secondary fermentation'' as the fermentation that is done in the bottle. You would usually add your batch priming sugar to another empty fermenter and transfer the beer from the first fermenter to it. It will mix the sugar evenly and you then bottle this.

Saruman

mayto wrote: »

If you are batch priming, you bottle the beer immediately as it will begin fermenting again. The c02 created will carbonate your beer. It can be confusing seeing terms like secondary and secondary fermentation. Just think of ''secondary fermentation'' as the fermentation that is done in the bottle. You would usually add your batch priming sugar to another empty fermenter and transfer the beer from the first fermenter to it. It will mix the sugar evenly and you then bottle this.

Actually no, when people (at least in Ireland and UK) refer to secondary they mean this. You ferment in the Primary for a week or two (or whatever you like) and then move it in to a secondary fermenter leaving behind most of the sediment. The beer matures a little more and the rest of the sediment falls to the bottom.

The result is that when you bottle, you have a beer that has less sediment in it.
Once you bottle condition you will still have sediment, just less of it as there is less yeast in suspension, though this could cause less carbonation than expected if there is not enough yeast to bottle condition correctly.

OP the best way to clear your beer is to use something like Irish moss, or in my case Whirlfloc tablets which is Irish moss in tablet form. You pop it in 15 minutes from the end of the boil. The problem is that if you use are brewing with a kit, you will not be boiling so this is not an option.

In my case I keg using the Corny keg system. My beer clears to crystal after a couple of weeks in the Kegerator fridge. If I give someone a beer I simply pour it in to a bottle from the tap and the carbonation is good for a few days.

Kegging is also far quicker than bottling You just need the space for an extra fridge (or modified freezer).

adamski8

c - 13 wrote: »

Sediment in my drinks doesn't bother me in the least but it seems to bother other people I have given my brew's to leading to questions such as "Why is it like that", "Is that normal" and "It doesn't do that in shop bought stuff" :rolleyes:

does not a quick explanation not satisfy them no?
good to educate them id say

mayto

Saruman wrote: »

Actually no, when people (at least in Ireland and UK) refer to secondary they mean this. You ferment in the Primary for a week or two (or whatever you like) and then move it in to a secondary fermenter leaving behind most of the sediment.

Well fermentation is usually basically complete when racking to a secondary fermenter and the yeast is just cleaning up the beer. calling it secondary fermentation when you add sugar to your bottles and get the beer fermenting again seems ok to me. Although I know many refer to secondary fermentation when they have transfered the beer to another fermenter for a few weeks.

Martyn1989

Probably a stupid question, but sorry I'm a first-timer, will drinking the sediment thats in your beer cause either a worse hangover or an upset stomach.
Just wondering because I'll be putting mine in a plastic keg with a bottom tap and when I have to re-pressurise the keg it'll probably mix up the beer and cause alot of sediment to pour into the glass.

Saruman

On the contrary. I may be talking out of my arse here. One of the elements that causes a hangover apart from the obvious dehydration is the a loss of vitamin b12. The yeast sediment theoretically contains vitamin b12. Chances are, not enough to make a difference if there is any b12 at all (plenty of other B vitamins though).

In the end, the best way to avoid a hangover is drink a less and most importantly, drink a lot of water during the night out and before you go to bed.

Martyn1989

Thanks for the reply
Yeh of course, still, theres many stories of badly brewed beer causing rotten heads and stomachs the next day, not that I'm plannin on mine being badly brewed (fingers crossed), but with regards to causing an upset stomach, does it?
It dosnt bother me, but is it worth going to extra effort to removing the sediment i.e. to improve the quality/drinkability of your beer?

Martyn1989

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-9.html
answered my own question!

BeerNut

Martyn1989 wrote: »

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-9.html
answered my own question!

I do believe Mr Palmer is talking crap there.

The English have an aversion to yeast sediment and cloudy beer because in delicately-flavoured low-ABV English ales, yeast will interfere badly with how they taste. So you use a relatively neutral yeast and you try to remove as much of it from the finished product as possible.

However, he's talking about Belgium there. Beers like Duvel and Chimay Bleu are not only strongly flavoured and high ABV, but the yeasts are chosen precisely for what they can bring to the flavour. Swirling the "dregs" in the bottom of a bottle of Duvel and adding it to the foam on top of the glass is standard (though entirely optional) practice in Belgium.

It wasn't the proprietor who was doing things wrong in that anecdote. I don't envy him trying offer hospitality to a table full of English blokes who reckon they know everything about brewing and serving beer.

Certain yeast types can produce higher alcohols that are more likely to cause worse hangovers: again it's the Belgian strains and the German wheatbeer yeasts that will do this, and are supposed to do this. They're not designed for our six-pints-in-one-sitting beer drinking culture. Other beer styles suit that better.

Don't sweat the sediment.

kenmc

Saruman wrote: »

In the end, the best way to avoid a hangover is drink a less and most importantly, drink a lot of water during the night out and before you go to bed.

Yeah I always try and remember drink plenty of beer and to have one more beer before heading home - after all, beer is ~95% water, so drinking a full pint of beer is just like drinking most of a pint of water. Unfortunately I often forget to not have a kebab or chips on the way home, I find that since there's little or no water in these, I end up with a mouldy head.

Martyn1989

Both seem to be good points!!!! cool, I suppose I'll find out for myself as soon as brew is ready!
Thanks lads