Query on Sediment for newbie

bennyc

Hi all, been lurking on here a while with envy and I finally bit the bullet on a simple beer kit to get me started in the world of home brewing.
I have a Mangrove Jacks Pink Grapefruit and used malt extract instead of brewing sugar.
I pitched the yeast @22/24 degrees and noticed a lot of movement within 24 hours, the initial hydro reading was 146 and after 5 days (dropped to 20 degrees) read 118. I put in the hops at this stage and it now 48 hours on.
This morning I took another sample from the tap and I noticed it was extremely cloudy , the hydro didn't go below 1010, I popped the lid and took a quick sample from the top, this read at 1014-15.
of course the first sample matched after getting time to settle (know now to wait)
So I will leave it a few days and think about bottling on the Hydro settles for 48 hours.
I don't have a siphon tube so I am going to bottle from the tap with the bottle attachment, just wondering if I will encounter much sediment on the bottom and should I do anything to get around it such as tilt the bucket etc.

Any advice would be great.

Bogwoppit

Leave it a few days and it should be fine to bottle straight from the fermenter, your beer will have some sediment in the bottles but it’s fine.
Try drop the temperature a bit if you can, will help it settle.
Just double check the gravity before you bottle.

BeerNut

I would suggest giving it the full two weeks in the bucket before bottling. That will help the sediment to drop more, and you can be fairly sure your gravity will be stable -- though check and make sure it is.

One bit of advice on your system: don't use the tap for anything other than bottling. If you take samples from it it becomes an infection risk. Always take the sample from the top. It sounds like you have a good fermentation going so there's no need to take any readings for the first week anyway.

bennyc

Cheers for all that , I have it at 20 at the moment and its in an old fridge (turned off) wrapped up in a blanket so hopefully it wont drop below 18.

BeerNut

bennyc wrote: »

hopefully it wont drop below 18.

I have fermented kit beers happily at half that. The beer being too warm is a much bigger risk than it being too cold.

sharingan

bennyc wrote: »

Cheers for all that , I have it at 20 at the moment and its in an old fridge (turned off) wrapped up in a blanket so hopefully it wont drop below 18.

if the gravity has settled, then you can put the fridge on and let it chill down and this will clear up the beer dramatically

bennyc

Gravity has settled for last 48 hours @1012 where its supposed to be so I have turned on the fridge to chill and bottle Thursday which will be 2 full weeks.

I am using old bottles which I soaked in the bath for 2 days then scrubbed with a bit of bicarbonate of soda then ran through the dishwasher, I have bought the Aldi Milton equivalent so I am going to soak again in a solution with the caps, I take it I don't need to rinse off the bottles before use ?

Also am i right in saying regular white granulated sugar for carbonation at the correct measurement for bottle size ?

loyatemu

bennyc wrote: »

Gravity has settled for last 48 hours @1012 where its supposed to be so I have turned on the fridge to chill and bottle Thursday which will be 2 full weeks.

I am using old bottles which I soaked in the bath for 2 days then scrubbed with a bit of bicarbonate of soda then ran through the dishwasher, I have bought the Aldi Milton equivalent so I am going to soak again in a solution with the caps, I take it I don't need to rinse off the bottles before use ?

Also am i right in saying regular white granulated sugar for carbonation at the correct measurement for bottle size ?

personally I would rinse off Milton before filling the bottles, it has quite a strong smell.

you can make a no-rinse sanitiser with thin bleach, vinegar and water but thin bleach seems to have disappeared from the supermarkets in recent months.

mordeith

sharingan wrote: »

if the gravity has settled, then you can put the fridge on and let it chill down and this will clear up the beer dramatically

Would you do that before priming though? Might chill the beer too much to allow carbonation. Personally I'd leave them at room temp for 2/3 days after priming and then chill

BeerNut

mordeith wrote: »

Personally I'd leave them at room temp for 2/3 days after priming and then chill

Surely all that will do is slow the conditioning process. You need a couple of weeks at room temperature in the bottle to allow carbonation to happen.

sharingan

mordeith wrote: »

Would you do that before priming though? Might chill the beer too much to allow carbonation. Personally I'd leave them at room temp for 2/3 days after priming and then chill

no. you dont prime the fermentation vessel. You crash cool to clear the beer (assisted by auxilliary finings/gelatine if desired).

Then you prime and package (bottle/keg).

This is the same process that home brewers and pros use, you will have loads of yeast left for bottle conditioning. You would need to age for months to drop the yeast count below what is necessary for bottle conditioning.

mordeith

sharingan wrote: »

no. you dont prime the fermentation vessel. You crash cool to clear the beer (assisted by auxilliary finings/gelatine if desired).

Then you prime and package (bottle/keg).

This is the same process that home brewers and pros use, you will have loads of yeast left for bottle conditioning. You would need to age for months to drop the yeast count below what is necessary for bottle conditioning.

Interesting. I know there's no priming of the fermentation vessel but wasn't aware of the order of cold crashing before priming. Must give it a go with my next brew

sharingan

mordeith wrote: »

Interesting. I know there's no priming of the fermentation vessel but wasn't aware of the order of cold crashing before priming. Must give it a go with my next brew

Think about it - chilling the finished beer / cold crashing is about encouraging sediment and yeast to drop out and clear the beer. If you prime and bottle, then chill what are you achieving? You have just trapped all the sediment in your dispense vessel. Chilling before packaging lets you leave all that stuff behind.

sharingan

sharingan wrote: »

Think about it - chilling the finished beer / cold crashing is about encouraging sediment and yeast to drop out and clear the beer. If you prime and bottle, then chill what are you achieving? You have just trapped all the sediment in your dispense vessel. Chilling before packaging lets you leave all that stuff behind.

If you drop the yeast then how do you make it carbonate, or do you just mean for one of those kegs where you use gas?

Bogwoppit

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

If you drop the yeast then how do you make it carbonate, or do you just mean for one of those kegs where you use gas?

Unless you chill for months there will be enough yeast still in suspension to carbonate.

BeerNut

Bogwoppit wrote: »

Unless you chill for months there will be enough yeast still in suspension to carbonate.

Or pasteurise, or micron-filter. There's no way the home brewer can take out the yeast that will cause refermentation in the presence of sugar without some seriously involved industrial processes. Sparkling clear beer that still has live yeast in it is the backbone of English real ale.

bennyc

I ended up waiting a few days and then bottling and it went ok mostly until the krausen got caught in the bottling tube and it got a bit messy. I opened a few at the weekend and am happy with the result.
So with lessons learned the biggest one buying a siphon and another bucket I am going again, this time I got a different Mangrove Jacks IPA and a Coopers Canadian Blonde, the Coopers is currently working away since Friday, after taking advice here the temp is currently 16 but its very active, should I be worried about the temp going too low, am I right in saying as long as its active I should be ok ? I am going to bring the heat up in the room a bit but I don't want to blast it either.

BeerNut

bennyc wrote: »

should I be worried about the temp going too low, am I right in saying as long as its active I should be ok ?

It's fine. Too low is always better than too high, especially for a blonde ale where low-and-slow will result in a cleaner-tasting beer. Remember also that the yeast generates its own heat during fermentation so the temperature of the liquid will be higher than the air in the room.