Sediment at top of bottles

[TheDudeAbides]

So I bottled a wheat beer on Tuesday, and there is this weird sediment stuff clinging to the bottles at the top of the beer.
A quick check online told me everything from I've got bottle-bombs on my hands, to, don't worry, it'll settle and taste great.

Thing is, I had a bit of an issue with primary fermentation, where the krausen layer would not die down even after FG read 1.018 for four days.

What do people think is going on?

INGREDIENTS
1.5kg DWME
1.5kg DLME
25g Saaz hops
15g Brew Cellar Wheat Beer yeast (Fermentis equivalent, apparently)

OG 1.056
FG 1.018

Primed with carbonation drops

Bottled when krausen layer was still there.
All bottles have this sediment.

I don't believe bottle sanitisation is the problem, as I think I do this very thoroughly.

Cheers

 

[carniebrew]

How long has this brew been in the bottles? If a few days, then try opening one and pouring it, see how much head/carbonation it has, and how it tastes. If it's infected you'll know upon tasting. It's unlikely it was infected pre-bottling, as far as I recall infections normally result in much lower FG's rather than higher.

I'm a bit worried about your FG, 1018 is high for a kit beer with those ingredients and a good serve of yeast. What temperature did you ferment at? If you did it around 17C I'll be less concerned, all my extract wheat beers seem to finish that high when I ferment low. Also, how/when did you add the hops? Did you boil all this up? It could just be hop residue, which I expect would drop down after a while.

Finally, just for legibility (I hope you don't mind), try to stick with LME and DME, being Liquid Malt Extract and Dry Malt Extract. The "light" or "wheat" is easier written in full, so "1.5kg Wheat DME, 1.5kg Light LME" for example.

 

[TheDudeAbides]

Thanks Carniebrew. Still learning the lingo and acronyms, so appreciate that.

It fermented around 19-21 degrees.
Hops were boiled for 40 minutes with the Wheat DME, and the Light DME added with about 10 minutes to go.
From the recipe, both the OG and FG were a couple of points higher than expected.
It was bottled three days ago.
I just cracked one open as suggested, and it bubbled out of the bottle. It's a boy! A lot of the sediment lifted off the bottom. Head retention not the best, but the taste is okay. Not an award-winner, but it doesn't seem like there is anything funky.
The sediment at the top seemed to disappear after I opened the bottle.
One thing I should've mentioned before: when I bottled it, there was quite a bit of head in the bottle. Perhaps the sediment is just from that?

Thanks for the help.

 

[monkeybusiness]

Out of curiosity could you get a gravity reading of the beer from a bottle after opening? The gusher suggests its still fermenting whether its infection or just the yeast doing its biz. Unless you overdid the carbonation sugar.

I haven't used the Brew Cellar yeast but the site confirms its top fermenting so maybe you are just seeing the yeast from a mini krausen in the bottle. I get this sometimes from wheat yeasts. It might be the ferment just stalled in the fermenter for some reason and bottling gave it all a jiggle up to get going again?

In any case I'd be handling those bottles with care & keeping them cold to stop them fermenting further & going kaboom!

 

[BottloBill]

So I bottled a wheat beer on Tuesday, and there is this weird sediment stuff clinging to the bottles at the top of the beer.
A quick check online told me everything from I've got bottle-bombs on my hands, to, don't worry, it'll settle and taste great.

Thing is, I had a bit of an issue with primary fermentation, where the krausen layer would not die down even after FG read 1.018 for four days.

What do people think is going on?

INGREDIENTS
1.5kg DWME
1.5kg DLME
25g Saaz hops
15g Brew Cellar Wheat Beer yeast (Fermentis equivalent, apparently)

OG 1.056
FG 1.018

Primed with carbonation drops

Bottled when krausen layer was still there.
All bottles have this sediment.

I don't believe bottle sanitisation is the problem, as I think I do this very thoroughly.

Cheers

About a week or so ago I had a similar problem and only noticed it when I went to move that brew from the second shelf to the top shelf when doing my monthly rotation and it has now settled after giving them a little tap

 

[carniebrew]

Yeah if it's foaming out of the bottle after only 3 days, I'd suspect it hadn't finished fermenting, despite the constant reading over 4 days. Your fermenter might have needed a gentle swirl to get things going again.

I agree with monkeybiz, treat 'em with care and fridge as many as you can to stop the fermentation process (the yeast will go to sleep once the temp is under about 12 degrees). Any you don't fridge, keep them in a sealed esky or something waterproof in case they go bang....

The other thought is hop sludge, how did you transfer from your boil pot to the fermenter, just pour the lot in? You might have stirred it up a bit while bottling, and some hop matter got in each bottle. Those particulates will act as nucleation points (now I just sound like an episode of mythbusters), making your beer foam up when opened.