Busy, Busy Busy!

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

Hey guys,

I had a massive score this week. A workmate's neighbour used to brew back in the day and since he got older he lost interest. which is good news for me, i scored "300" old thick fourex tallies with mr fourex on the bottle (not the label). i always used to look in the weekend shopper and the trading post for bottles but they were all too expensive (to me anyway......). SCORE! So i had to get my 3rd fermenter out of retirement yesterday and started brewing like crazy!

got a tooeys old style, a carlton cold style and a heineken style all bubbling away now and the wife is complaining about the smell in the garage.... does anyone know what i can do about the WIFE????

(i am joking seriously!!!!!!)

And...

i like to drink out of a stubbie every now and again with a good brew, but hate the cloudiness towards the end of the bottle. is there a way of getting no sediment in the bottle at the time of bottling? (c'mon please, i'm competing against the father-in-law).

But at the end of the day i enjoy brewing the beer, enjoy bottling the beer and especially enjoy knocking over a few "coldies" in the arvo.

 

[benno1973]

If you're bottle conditioning, you'll end up with sediment in the bottom of the bottle. It's the yeast that carbonated the bottle settling out. Only solution is to pour carefully into a glass...

 

[real_beer]

Hey guys,

I had a massive score this week. A workmate's neighbour used to brew back in the day and since he got older he lost interest. which is good news for me, i scored "300" old thick fourex tallies with mr fourex on the bottle (not the label). i always used to look in the weekend shopper and the trading post for bottles but they were all too expensive (to me anyway......). SCORE! So i had to get my 3rd fermenter out of retirement yesterday and started brewing like crazy!

got a tooeys old style, a carlton cold style and a heineken style all bubbling away now and the wife is complaining about the smell in the garage.... does anyone know what i can do about the WIFE????

(i am joking seriously!!!!!!)

And...

i like to drink out of a stubbie every now and again with a good brew, but hate the cloudiness towards the end of the bottle. is there a way of getting no sediment in the bottle at the time of bottling? (c'mon please, i'm competing against the father-in-law).

But at the end of the day i enjoy brewing the beer, enjoy bottling the beer and especially enjoy knocking over a few "coldies" in the arvo.

For a clear beer you could use some of these:

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/newinventors/txt/s2269977.htm

There not cheap but if you only want a few you might consider them.

Cheers

 

[manticle]

To reduce sediment you can do one or any of the following:

1. Rack for either secondary fermentation or just for clarity. Both are the same process - transfer the beer gently (through a hose and either through the tap or with a bottling/racking wand from the top) to a different, clean, sanitised vessel, leaving behind the majority of yeasty sediment.. For secondary fermentation you do this about 2/3 - 3/4 through primary ferment. For clarity, just do it when primary is finished. Both are different things but both will have a similar effect on sediment amounts.

2. Add finings - you can use gelatin or isinglass. For gelatin: boil some water, allow to cool to about 90 degrees and stir the finings through until dissolved. Add straight to fermenter (carefully) then leave for 2 days.

3. Cold conditioning - bung the fermenter in the fridge for about a week after primary fermentation has finished.

You can also buy sediment reducers for your taps but I find them a pain in the arse and not amazingly effective. You can also leave behind the last litre or so when you bottle.

I do one two and three with most brews and get very little sediment. Most of the sediment that is there will stay at the bottom of the bottle thanks to the finings but pouring into a glass (leaving the last tiny bit behind) just ensures that last bit of clarity.

 

[buttersd70]

As others have alluded to, reduction of sediment, and having a more compact sediment, are achievable relatively easily. Elimination of sediment, on the other hand, is a different story. It's possible, but for many of the methods, is a complete PITA, and not worth the effort involved just to enable you to drink directly from the bottle. Some of the possibilities to eliminate sediment are:

• the caps already mentioned...but iirc, they're not cheap. But it is probably the easiest option (assuming they work as they're meant to. Having never used one, I couldn't comment).
• fining, cold conditioning, and extended storage, followed by force carbonation using a carbonating cap....again, unit price is the main obstacle. The caps are great, but I wouldn't want to do any significant amount. Also, it would require a gas source and reg, and I presume from your post that you bottle only.
• CPBF (counter pressure bottle filler). Best option by a country mile, however it does require the beer to be kegged first.
• Bottle carbonation, chilling, decanting, recapping. If you carbonate in the bottle, slightly over the desired result, then chill to very cold, you can decant into another pre-chilled bottle, leaving the yeast behind, and then seal. Slight overcarbonation in the first instance will account for any loss in transfer. However, you would have oxygenation occuring, so would need to consume quickly, and it's a complete, total, pita. And would probably result in a hell of a lot of wastage as well.

As you see, each of the methods either involves kegging gear, or expensive per-unit items, or is a complete pain and not worth the time and effort (imo), considering that the easy solution is to reduce and compact sediment, then pour into a glass, as manticle advised.

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

For a clear beer you could use some of these:

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/newinventors/txt/s2269977.htm

There not cheap but if you only want a few you might consider them.

Cheers

yeah, saw them a while ago on the telly and at a party a few months later. they seem to do the trick.

 

[Effect]

To reduce sediment you can do one or any of the following:

1. Rack for either secondary fermentation or just for clarity. Both are the same process - transfer the beer gently (through a hose and either through the tap or with a bottling/racking wand from the top) to a different, clean, sanitised vessel, leaving behind the majority of yeasty sediment.. For secondary fermentation you do this about 2/3 - 3/4 through primary ferment. For clarity, just do it when primary is finished. Both are different things but both will have a similar effect on sediment amounts.

2. Add finings - you can use gelatin or isinglass. For gelatin: boil some water, allow to cool to about 90 degrees and stir the finings through until dissolved. Add straight to fermenter (carefully) then leave for 2 days.

3. Cold conditioning - bung the fermenter in the fridge for about a week after primary fermentation has finished.

You can also buy sediment reducers for your taps but I find them a pain in the arse and not amazingly effective. You can also leave behind the last litre or so when you bottle.

I do one two and three with most brews and get very little sediment. Most of the sediment that is there will stay at the bottom of the bottle thanks to the finmings but pouring into a glass (leaving the last tiny bit behind) just ensures that last bit of clarity.

+1

1 week primary, 2 weeks secondary, Cold Condition, Gelatin and then bottle. Easy! (if you have enough fermentors and enough room in a fridge).

 

[Bribie G]

You can get your beer crystal clear using finings and a long cold crash, bottle a portion of your brew in 2L PET bottles such as Aldi Cola bottles that only cost you 99 cents and can do a few 'trips'. Then when the beer is carbonated and the slight secondary yeast haze has all dropped to the bottom, reduce to almost freezing and you can get a few stubbies out of each bottle and cap immediately. I did this for my Son in Law who loves Corona, so I bottled up a batch of a Cerveza style brew into some Corona bottles and he was rapt.

As you can see it almost looks like the real thing (but tasted way better ) It's the cheapest system but is a PITA for regular usage as stated by other posters.



If you ever get into kegging then your options are far greater as you can carefully run beer off into chilled wet bottles and cap immediately, and if you get a 'counter pressure' bottling system which will set you back about a hundred bucks, then even easier.