Sieve / mesh fixed to the top of a bottle to get around the yeast / sediment residue?

hatrickpatrick

So we all know that when you home brew, you are likely to have a good amount of yeast sediment left sitting in the bottom of the bottle (unless you carbonate using a keg and a CO2 tank obviously). One friend of mine had an ingenious suggestion and I wondered whether people here thought it was a good idea and if it would work: He was thinking of how when you brew a pot of standard coffee, you have to use a coffee jug with a filter, which of course you then push down into the jug before pouring so that all of the coffee sediment is forced to the bottom and prevented from coming out with the liquid.

Has anyone ever thought of using mesh, or cutting circles off a metal sieve, and affixing this to the end of a beer bottle before capping so that when you drink from it, the yeast residue is caught by the mesh and there's no risk of accidentally drinking it?

It's just a thought and I haven't put a huge amount of thinking into how one would fix it in place securely etc, but in principle what do people think of the concept? Think of it like essentially attaching a filter to each bottle before capping them.

maximum12

Yeast would be far too fine to be trapped. Even with coffee plungers you're meant to use a fairly course grind.

It would also impede the flow from the bottle making for a weird drinking experience.

Best bet is too chill the bottles for as long as possible which will compact the yeast and pour carefully. This will get you almost all the beer clear.

BeardySi

Surely pouring carefully isn't that hard?

Failing that, give it 4 weeks in the fermenter and there'll be hardly any sediment in the bottle. I've got a couple of batches that waited that long and you can basically upend the bottle and still get almost no sediment in your glass.

covey09

Id say the mesh will act as nucleation point for the CO2 and just turn the beer to foam

loyatemu

there was a product called Sedex that was designed to remove the sediment before pouring, but it appears they've gone out of business, which I guess shows lack of demand. Just pour slowly. https://youtu.be/B2PPBmJZFd0

irish_goat

You could use finings in the fermenter too. I've started to use gelatin and I am noticing much clearer beer as a result.

maximum12

irish_goat wrote: »

You could use finings in the fermenter too. I've started to use gelatin and I am noticing much clearer beer as a result.

Tempted to try this. I'm having trouble clearing kegged beers, which was never an issue in bottles. How long does it take to work ?

Can I just use supermarket gelatine like this ? http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=280932920

irish_goat

maximum12 wrote: »

Tempted to try this. I'm having trouble clearing kegged beers, which was never an issue in bottles. How long does it take to work ?

Can I just use supermarket gelatine like this ? http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=280932920

That's exact type I use. 1 teaspoon in a cup of water that has been boiled and cooled to about 60c. Ready to bottle or keg after 2 or 3 days.

If you already have the beer kegged you could add it in still. You might need to pull off a pint or two of cloudy beer first just. Cold conditioning kegs is a good trick too though.

Carawaystick

When do you add the finings to the fermenter? a day before bottling or so?

rubadub

The mesh would not be fine enough, and if only the diameter of the neck it would be clogged instantly if it was fine enough. If you look at commercial wine filter discs they are very wide and take days to filter.



Under pressure it would be faster but once cracked open the pressure is gone.

loyatemu wrote: »

there was a product called Sedex that was designed to remove the sediment before pouring, but it appears they've gone out of business, which I guess shows lack of demand. Just pour slowly.

The sedex was quite expensive, especially as it had really high shipping costs. I know it was reusable but it was still dear for what it did, it was complicated enough I checked out the patent drawings online. Pouring slowly still gets some seds unless you want to sacrifice some beer, but the plus point of sedex was being able to bring bottles to other places, or store bottles on their side in the fridge etc.

I was thinking of priming in tall 2L PET bottles and carefully decanting into small bottles to the brim and recapping, maybe with a pinch more sugar if you did leave room. You would leave say 300ml in the 2L to be sure it was all clear, then collect up a few of those and make a new 2L bottle and do it over again. If your 2L bottles were very chilled it should hold onto the fizz well, then bottle and stick them in teh fridge again if you can. I am not sure if infections would be more of an issue due to this idea.

Also the "lack of demand" for sedex would be due to the fact that most homebrew people just accept seds and do not mind them. Many people who may have considered brewing take one look at cloudy homebrew and be put off and just never even get into it. I know many people who would never touch homebrew. I remember drinking a cloudy beer in messrs once and someone coming up warning me as I was just about to drink it, really worried look as though the drink was gone off or someone had dumped something in it.

I think if the sedex had become popular then non-brewers might have been impressed and and then had a go.

maximum12

Carawaystick wrote: »

When do you add the finings to the fermenter? a day before bottling or so?

I added gelatine yesterday and will be kegging tomorrow. Will post a sample pic when it's pouring.

loyatemu

rubadub wrote: »

I was thinking of priming in tall 2L PET bottles and carefully decanting into small bottles to the brim and recapping, maybe with a pinch more sugar if you did leave room. You would leave say 300ml in the 2L to be sure it was all clear, then collect up a few of those and make a new 2L bottle and do it over again. If your 2L bottles were very chilled it should hold onto the fizz well, then bottle and stick them in teh fridge again if you can. I am not sure if infections would be more of an issue due to this idea.

hard to see that working, it would fizz up no matter how carefully you poured. Growler filling stations have a tube so they can fill from the bottom to reduce foaming but even there you're supposed to drink the growler within a few days. Also if you add more sugar you'll just end up with more sediment and you're back to square one.

rubadub

loyatemu wrote: »

hard to see that working, it would fizz up no matter how carefully you poured.

The trick would be to have all the bottles lined up, and never put the 2L back down, i.e. once tilted it remains tilted so you are not sloshing it and stirring sediment back up. If its heavily carbonated it might stir it up alright. I have decanted soft drinks into smaller bottles and it holds carbonation well.

There may be bottles available to help, see this sediment catching bottle. Of course that does not look suitable for carbonation.





Something could probably be done with a keg but I have no space for one.

Another idea was to make a sedex device for a lager bottle, like say those 3L country spring lemonade bottles. You have a ball valved attached to the lid (the lids on those are much wider than standard PET bottles). Then you have a small bottle attached to the lid on the outside. Leave the bottle upside down so seds collect in the small bottle and shut off the valve and take off the cap. This would you could get it highly carbonated so if any is lost during pouring it would be OK. It may not even need a ball valve, it could be some hose that can take the pressure which is just pinched by hand, turn the bottle upright and screw the top off and discard the yeast in the pinched off section.

loyatemu wrote: »

Also if you add more sugar you'll just end up with more sediment and you're back to square one.

Yes, but as it is already fizzy you would not have to add as much sugar, so the sediment would be at least reduced.

rubadub

ball valve idea is similar to this.
http://www.fastbrewing.com/products/fastferment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0smM0vcrvpY

maximum12

maximum12 wrote: »

I added gelatine yesterday and will be kegging tomorrow. Will post a sample pic when it's pouring.

Just kegged blonde ale and first pull from keg is very clear. Pic attached.

This was a double batch and the first fermenter was in the fridge a few days. The second fermenter didn't look as clear as this one but it will be sitting around a while before being drunk so should clear up nicely.

matt007

Try Gervin GV12 yeast..
Excellent floculation