Thick blobs of yeast cake looking stuff in my bottles (Image Added)

Question

The last batch of beer I have made seems to have a lot more sediment in it than any of my other beers. It has been sitting for 3 weeks and some of the bottles when I pour have gloopy looking sediment which I am presuming is a yeast cake type of thing?

The beer is a Muntons Connoisseurs Larger with an OG of 1.048. I used Copper Tun Czech Pilsner No 62 for the first time (instead of 1kg of dextrose) and added an extra cup of castor sugar. After 6 days fermenting I added Wakatu hops by dry hopping without using a muslin bag and let it sit for another 10 days before bottling. The FG was 1.010.

The beer tastes fine but there is a bit of wastage when I am pouring them. Is the extra sediment cause by the use of the Copper Tun Czech Pilsner No 62 or is it something else I may have done?

The only difference between this beer and the others I have made is the additional Copper Tun Czech Pilsner No 62 and not using a muslin bag with the hops. I also note that the OG and FG are higher than I normally would have.

Here is the difference between two beers I have done. One was using the method above, the other was using dextrose, and hopped in a muslin bag. I had to use the flash for the image so you cant see the clarity as good but you can see the sediment better.

Answer 1

It's likely since you are bottling directly from your fermentation vessel through a spigot that the spigot is low enough on the vessel that it is able to pull in a bit of the yeast cake as you fill your bottles. Each batches' yeast cake at the bottom of the vessel will vary in size depending on such things as:

• Original gravity
• Proteins and cold break in the wort
• Quantity of dry hops

The higher the original gravity is, the more the yeast will re-produce, therefor the more yeast there is to settle out to the bottom of the vessel once fermentation is complete. The more proteins there are in the wort, the more there will be to settle out. Did you use a fining agent (e.g. irish moss) in your boil and then pour the entire contents of the boil kettle into the bucket? That would be a lot of proteins that get poured in and immediately settle to the bottom. If not, those proteins that would normally settle out right away will slowly settle over time, either in the vessel, or in your bottles. For future reference, if you are using boiling kettle fining agents, use your siphon to track the beer from the boil kettle to your fermentation vessel, avoiding sucking up the cold break at the bottom of the kettle. Finally, if you dry hop using pellet form hops, they will absorb wort and sink to the bottom of your vessel, contributing to the size of the yeast cake.

Over time, proteins and yeast that are still in suspension in the beer will settle out, so the thickness of the trub in the bottom of your bottles will slightly increase over time. It's best to let them sit in your refrigerator after they've carbonated, which will help to get all of that to settle out, and stick to the bottom of the bottle.

Next time, take a book or two and prop up one side of your fermentation vessel, the side that the spigot is on. This will raise the spigot up higher than the opposing edge where the majority of the yeast cake will settle out at. Let it sit like that for the entirety of the fermentation and aging. On bottling day, bottle while tilted, until the last little bit is left in the vessel, then flatten it out and expect the last bottle to be your first "is it carbonated yet" bottle that you can easily discard since it will have the most amount of trub.

Answer 2

First off, I would expect to have sediment in the bottles if you bottle directly from the FV. Actually I am surprised that you havent had this before, probably the muslin bag was catching most of it.

In addition, when I am bottling, I like to move my FV to it's racking location a day or 2 in advance of bottling so it has time to settle again after all the movement. Then I rack to the bottling bucket before I bottle, making sure the cake is below the spigot. This allows you to avoid transferring most of the cake to your bottles. Also, when you add your bottling sugar, you need to make sure your wort is thoughourly mixed with it so that is another reason for racking to a bottling bucket (unless you use tablets).

I suppose if you want super clear beer, you could move to a short term secondary and allow more settling and rack that to a bottling bucket after a couple more days.

Anyhow, I have had a few batches with sediment and besides being careful during your pour, its all good!

Relax!