Question About Sediment In Commercial Beers

[Lobsta]

hi there,
i went to the bottle-o today armed with my work christmas bonus (50 buck coles myer voucher) with the intention of "broadening my palate" as far as beers go. so i got one of the guys that works there to recommend a wide variety of stuff. many of the beers that i bought have sediment at the bottom, but the guy at the bottle-o said to mix it in (by rolling the bottle) rather than pour off it. huh? what should i do? (list of beers i bought at end of post)

btw, there are some VERY good looking bottles of beer in the mix i ended up with:

6 pack of little creatures pale ale
6 pack of gage roads IPA
6 pack of Furstenberg Lager
2 X Leffe Blonde bottles (330 mL)
1 X Schneider Weisse German Hefe-Weizen Ale (500 mL)
and the most expensive (and apparently best) of the lot,
1X Duvel Belgian Gold Ale White Label (750 mL) <--- that had better be bloody good, it was 18.50 for the bottle. i only got it coz the guy was basically doing back flips over how good it was.

cheers fellas

Lobby

 

[glennheinzel]

Roll the hefe and leave the rest (to settle).

 

[0M39A]

you got all that for $50?

damn!

oh, and to answer your question, do as Rukh said. dont disturb the sediment except for the hefe.

the only beer i havent tried in your list is Furstenberg Lager, but i can confidently say that the rest are fantastic. two thumbs up on all of them.

 

[Lobsta]

you got all that for $50?

damn!

oh, whoops, no, i got most of it for 50 bucks, i think the total on the docket was 80, so only 30 dollars of 'real' money spent. and as soon as i got this coles myer card, i knew it was getting turned into alcohol - i dont shop at coles, i dont shop at myer (to overpriced), that leaves booze stores or officeworks; not much competition

 

[alexbrand]

Hey Lobsta!
I thought "furstenberg" sounds German and so I tried to find this unknown brewerie on the web. Is the beer from this brand? If yes... funny. they don't have any beer with sedimet except Weizen.... So what's the best before date?!


ALex

 

[Lobsta]

Hey Lobsta!
I thought "furstenberg" sounds German and so I tried to find this unknown brewerie on the web. Is the beer from this brand? If yes... funny. they don't have any beer with sedimet except Weizen.... So what's the best before date?!


ALex

yeah, thats them. why is that funny? the beer i got wasnt on the website btw, i got the imported 'premium lager', but no, it doesnt have sediment. they are the most commercial beer that i bought (in that they were on special), but the dude said they were a pretty good german lager. and i said that MANY of the beers that i bought had sediment, not ALL.

 

[alexbrand]

Okay, I didn't read correctly. Thought they all had sediment...

BTW: Frstenberg brewes for more than 725 years now and I'venever seen their beers in a store. I think we have to many breweries here in Germany...LOL...

Alex

 

[milpod]

Never too many

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Hey Lobsta,

For general drinking pleasure, I agree with the other guys. Roll the Schneider Weisse and pour the others as clear as you can.

BUT for palate education purposes .... do exactly the opposite with a little of each bottle. Let them all settle undisturbed in the fridge for as long as you can stand it -

Then with the Schneider Weisse, pour just a little (100ml or so) into a separate glass, and the rest into a big glass and swirl the yeast up at teh end to make sure you get it in. The taste the difference. See what the yeast does to the mouthfeel, how the bready yeastiness works with the clove and banana of the rest of the beer, how it adds body and "chew" to what would otherwise be a kind of thin lightish beer. The yeast "should" make it a better beer, but you might not think so.. and its up to you after all. You'll know for next time.

With the others, pour them as clear as you can, but again 100ml into a small glass and mix a little of the yeast into it at teh end of the pour, just a little. This will give you a good feel for what suspended yeast does to the flavour of various different kinds of beers. It might do nothing, it might ruin them or it might add in something that would otherwise be missing.

Then, when you look at a glass full of your ow homebrew thats a bit cloudy... you'll have a much better idea of what ti might taste like if you decided to do something about clearing it up and whether you think you want to or not.

If you're just drinking... the hell with it, but if you're learnin' then you might as well suck as much knowledge out of the experience as you can.

Oh, and share the beer with someone else who is a little interested in flavours. Two sets of tastebuds are better than one and someone else agreeing will prove to you that you aren't necessarily completely mad if you taste bubblegum or passionfruit in one of those beers.

Thirsty

PS - let us know what you think of the beers

 

[tcraig20]

Its worth remembering that the sediment is yeast, and can be harvested and reused in your own brews.

$18.50 for a beer might sound a bit steep, but $18.50 for a liquid Belgian yeast doesnt sound too bad. And you get a free beer to boot!

 

[drag]

Its worth remembering that the sediment is yeast, and can be harvested and reused in your own brews.

$18.50 for a beer might sound a bit steep, but $18.50 for a liquid Belgian yeast doesnt sound too bad. And you get a free beer to boot!

I have heard that some of them use different yeasts for carbonation in the bottle.

 

[tcraig20]

I have heard that some of them use different yeasts for carbonation in the bottle.

Really? I havent heard that, but that certainly doesnt mean you arent right.

 

[drag]

Pretty sure I read that LCPA has lager yeast in the bottle for carbonation.
Can any one confirm?

 

[b_thomas]

I've heard the same thing in regards to commercial breweries using different yeasts to bottle condition the beer. I definitely know that Coopers use a bottle fermenting yeast that's no good for larger carboy fermenting.

Anyways, all of those beers are great, if you want to get a real appreciation for the flavours in each you could also try a small nip of each at a warmer temperature (mainly to find out why they're better drunk cold )

 

[bconnery]

It definitely is the case that many breweries use a different strain for bottling.
There is information out there on the web but sometimes it is hearsay and sometimes contradictory. Search around and you should find things...

Furstenberg is a decent enough lager. Next time consider the Konig Pilsner if you haven't tried it. Usually reasonably cheap and quite good in my book.

I know $18 seems a little high for a beer but consider that it is no more than you'd pay for a half decent wine, less than many people would in fact. Duvel is a world class beer. Many of the bottle stores have Chimay even cheaper, or at least did a while back, so that is worth considering too if you haven't tried it...
You are going to find yourself paying more for beer than you are used to. It is both a benefit and a drawback to learning more about the world's greatest beverage

 

[bierbaron]

the duvel is worth every cent. excellent beer. :beer:

 

[Lukes]

This is a link to yeast in bottles post in a yeast farming thread.



- Luke