Priming with Dextrose created chunky sediment issue

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Hi Guys,

I have found my latest brew has formed a hard layer of sediment at the bottom of each bottle, which were primed with 5.5g Dextrose per 750ml bottle at approx 18c on the 12/3/20.
When agitated it breaks up into large chunks but does not dissolve into the fine clouds of 'dust' as per all my previous brews.

I have not experienced this before over the 40+ AG brews of 14Gal batches, all primed with Dextrose. All my previous brews do have sediment at the bottom of course, but not this hard chunky shit. Unfortunately I do not have records of when I opened this bag of Dextrose but I believe this is the first brew to use this bag.

Has anyone seen this before, is it a case of 'old' stale dextrose? By the way the beer is well carbonated and tastes fine, but I do not want to give it to friends as the chunks look like I'm a muppet.

Cheers big beers,
Ben
 
I just found another bag of Dextrose, so I will bottle today with that bag for 99% of the brew and do a couple of bottles with the older Dextrose bag (when I say 'older' i only bought it a month ago). I will let you know how they compare in a few weeks.
 
Odds on its the amount of yeast in the bottle rather than the priming sugar you used.
At a guess you just didn't wait long enough for the beer to clear before bottling, pretty obviously if there is more yeast in suspension when you bottle the thicker the slab on the bottom will be.
Different strains of yeast behave differently, when you look at the specifications for various yeasts you will often see "Sedimentation" along with other information. Compare US-05 and S-04, 05 is given as medium, 04 is high. US-05 tends to take a long time to settle out, 04 drops like a rock when its finished fermenting, it tends to make a hard well stuck to the bottom thin layer in the bottles. Some yeasts like hefeweizen tend to be very reluctant to drop out at all and it's very easy to get them back into suspension.
Mark
 
Thanks for the reply Mark.

This brew was fermented with S-04 which I use very regularly (buy it in 500g bricks) and haven't had this result previously. Also I cold crash to 4c for 2 days before allowing it rise back to 18c for bottling day. The beers are always very clear at time of bottling...?
Anyway I'll run this little experiment with different bags of Dextrose and let you know if I get a different result.
 
Thanks for the reply Mark.

This brew was fermented with S-04 which I use very regularly (buy it in 500g bricks) and haven't had this result previously. Also I cold crash to 4c for 2 days before allowing it rise back to 18c for bottling day. The beers are always very clear at time of bottling...?
Anyway I'll run this little experiment with different bags of Dextrose and let you know if I get a different result.
 
Hmm, not sure why you'd think it's the dextrose. It's the control variable in all your batches, so something else has changed (ingredients/process*) that's led to the changed outcome. Different bags of dextrose will be the same – it's all simple glucose.

*Type of yeast, amount of yeast, temperature at pitching (all affecting amount of yeast at end of growth phase), fining (or lack thereof), agitation before bottling, hop material, other included proteins, etc.
 
What he said
I would be much more worried about having an open packet of yeast sitting around for any length of time (days even).
The odds of contamination, even moisture or oxygen affecting it are too high. I'm sure you are looking after it, but suspect not as well as you think.
Mark
 
Ok great thanks guys, I will investigate other changes. This really helps me as I just couldn’t find any material reference to a ‘shelf life’ or potential differences in what some people sell as dextrose. I note on supplier labels with a Packed Date and a Best Before Date and others don’t include any information like this.

It’s good to know I can rule out the dextrose and look at what else has made it through to the bottle.

I will report back soon, yesterday I bottled a lager (new yeast packs S-23) 57 with the new dextrose and 3 with old.

Today I will bottle another Pale Ale that was the same grain bill, water profile and mash schedule as the problem brew. Most importantly it was obviously fermented subsequently with the same bag of S-04 so it might give me the problem too. Only difference in this brew was different hops and addition of a dry hop. I also have a Brown Ale to bottle today that used the same bag of yeast, but everything else was different (well same base malt).

Cheers again, chat soon.
Ben
 
Thanks for the reply Mark.

This brew was fermented with S-04 which I use very regularly (buy it in 500g bricks) and haven't had this result previously. Also I cold crash to 4c for 2 days before allowing it rise back to 18c for bottling day. The beers are always very clear at time of bottling...?
Anyway I'll run this little experiment with different bags of Dextrose and let you know if I get a different result.
Hi Chookherder ,
What style are you going for mate ? ;
Here`s my two bob`s worth :
I`d hold for a few days @ say Pitching Temp - 3-4 c ; from 4 Degrees above racking gravity , stillage the Racking Vessel @ + 4 Deg Grav and allow a rise to Pitching Heat , then either Rack to draught / Bottle as clear as possible @ P/Ht then stand 4 - 5 days before cellaring for a minimum of 3 weeks - 1 Month Draught @ say 10 - 12 c on most average ABV beers , and a minimum of 1.5 - 2 Months on Bottled beers , and if a Sacch as opposed to a Malt Sugar priming is used , 1.002.5 above PG , With a Malt Extract priming averaging to 1.004 above PG .
Hope that`s of some help mate ,
Edd
 
My final assessment of the situation is that this heavy layer of sediment is unrelated to the dextrose or the yeast.

I believe it was the result of not mixing the dextrose through the beer immediately after filling. Usually I invert the bottle and give a good shake after capping, but when I don't do this the chunky sediment appears later.

Thanks for everyones input.
 

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