Nizmoose
Well-Known Member
Okay so a week ago I decided to start a little experiment with a simple as you can get K&K brew.
The Aim: To find out whether turning the bottles upside down and giving the bottles a little shake to re-suspend the yeast layer into the brew had any effect on carbonation or taste.
I did this experiment initially to determine whether or not I'd get faster carbonation with one method and less the other, here's what I did.
The brew was a mexican cerveza with BE2 and kit yeast, ie a 20 minute crappy brew with minimal expectations.
I had the bottles sitting for a 1 week before I decided to give them all a little tip upside down and shake before leaving them another two weeks all of this was stored in the shed at about 25 degrees C. After this I put one in the fridge for a few days and opened it and they just weren't quite carbonated enough so I decided to try out a little experiment. I grabbed two of the bottles (both crystal clear as the yeast had resettled a long time ago) from the box in the shed and marked one shaken and one not shaken. I tilted the one I marked shaken upside down and gave it a gentle shake just to remove the yeast layer from the bottom of the bottle back into suspension. I then put both in the fridge to chill and for the shaken one to settle out somewhat.
I left both for a week and today opened both to compare. Grabbing the two bottles out there was little difference visually (totally forgot to take photos and I feel terrible!). Both bottles had the layer of yeast back on the bottom of the bottle by the time I took them out of the fridge.
I opened the non shaken one first, poured it and had a look, as you'd expect from a k and k there was minimal head but decent carbonation. The beer was clear enough and had some nice bubbles going however the taste was well below average. Watery, thin, and very solventy tasting ie I could taste the alcohol. Hard to drink tbh.
I opened and poured the shaken one and in the glass there was a very small amount of haze but to be fair it looked pretty good. about the same carbonation and a tiny bit more head (might have just been my pour). Then I had a taste. Completely different! I assumed the shaken one would carbonate more and that maybe there'd be a slight taste difference but this was black and white different. The first one I could not finish, the second one was tasty, light, great carbonation, and the flavour was much more rich and interesting and almost tasted more hoppy ( more likely me tasting the yeast?). Also there was no hint of the solventy alcohol taste the other one had.
Don't know if this is common knowledge (ive never read about it) or not but I'd definitely recommend giving the bottles a tip and shake before storing them in the fridge for a week, made a world of difference to the beer. Also I should mention that I had the bottles sitting in the shed in the warm to carb for 3 weeks before putting two in the fridge. So it was three weeks warm, give a shake then fridge for a week but from now on I'll leave them warm as long as they like (could be 5 months) but before I fridge them I'll be giving a shake. I also imagine opening them shortly after shaking them is a terrible idea
Sorry for the essay just thought I'd share this finding in case people bottling especially those doing just K&K or even extract find this changes and improves their beer immensely.
The Aim: To find out whether turning the bottles upside down and giving the bottles a little shake to re-suspend the yeast layer into the brew had any effect on carbonation or taste.
I did this experiment initially to determine whether or not I'd get faster carbonation with one method and less the other, here's what I did.
The brew was a mexican cerveza with BE2 and kit yeast, ie a 20 minute crappy brew with minimal expectations.
I had the bottles sitting for a 1 week before I decided to give them all a little tip upside down and shake before leaving them another two weeks all of this was stored in the shed at about 25 degrees C. After this I put one in the fridge for a few days and opened it and they just weren't quite carbonated enough so I decided to try out a little experiment. I grabbed two of the bottles (both crystal clear as the yeast had resettled a long time ago) from the box in the shed and marked one shaken and one not shaken. I tilted the one I marked shaken upside down and gave it a gentle shake just to remove the yeast layer from the bottom of the bottle back into suspension. I then put both in the fridge to chill and for the shaken one to settle out somewhat.
I left both for a week and today opened both to compare. Grabbing the two bottles out there was little difference visually (totally forgot to take photos and I feel terrible!). Both bottles had the layer of yeast back on the bottom of the bottle by the time I took them out of the fridge.
I opened the non shaken one first, poured it and had a look, as you'd expect from a k and k there was minimal head but decent carbonation. The beer was clear enough and had some nice bubbles going however the taste was well below average. Watery, thin, and very solventy tasting ie I could taste the alcohol. Hard to drink tbh.
I opened and poured the shaken one and in the glass there was a very small amount of haze but to be fair it looked pretty good. about the same carbonation and a tiny bit more head (might have just been my pour). Then I had a taste. Completely different! I assumed the shaken one would carbonate more and that maybe there'd be a slight taste difference but this was black and white different. The first one I could not finish, the second one was tasty, light, great carbonation, and the flavour was much more rich and interesting and almost tasted more hoppy ( more likely me tasting the yeast?). Also there was no hint of the solventy alcohol taste the other one had.
Don't know if this is common knowledge (ive never read about it) or not but I'd definitely recommend giving the bottles a tip and shake before storing them in the fridge for a week, made a world of difference to the beer. Also I should mention that I had the bottles sitting in the shed in the warm to carb for 3 weeks before putting two in the fridge. So it was three weeks warm, give a shake then fridge for a week but from now on I'll leave them warm as long as they like (could be 5 months) but before I fridge them I'll be giving a shake. I also imagine opening them shortly after shaking them is a terrible idea
Sorry for the essay just thought I'd share this finding in case people bottling especially those doing just K&K or even extract find this changes and improves their beer immensely.
