Fluffy bottom bottles

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nastyphoenix

Fluffy bottom bottles

Post by nastyphoenix » Wed Jul 26, 2017 3:59 pm

I bottled my brew following conditioning in a conical with isinglass for a couple of weeks in the fridge at 6 C. Added 4.5g sugar per liter and a little sprinkle of fresh yeast.

Beer is tasty and nicely carbonated, but as soon as a crack it open the yeast on the bottom comes into the nice clear beer in the form of lumps :cry:

I know this isn't an issue, but I would rather it didn't happen.

1. How can I prevent this from happening in future?

2. For these bottles, is there anything I can do to get the yeast to stick to the bottom of the bottle? I wondered if a long chill/spell in the freezer might do it? If not, I would rather the beer was cloudy with evenly dispersed yeast. Is there a good way to do this? I doubt rocking the bottles would do it and I am reluctant to shake them!

Fil
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Re: Fluffy bottom bottles

Post by Fil » Wed Jul 26, 2017 6:49 pm

chill the beer to a cooler temp to reduce the pressure difference when you crack the bottles and bottle in glass rather than pet which can stretch more.

and dont bother sprinkling extra yeast? where did that come from btw?? once opened a vacuum packed yeast sachets viability will rapidly deteriorate, its possibly the dead cells you sprinkled on thats the problem??
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simon12
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Re: Fluffy bottom bottles

Post by simon12 » Thu Jul 27, 2017 11:24 pm

What fil said and some yeasts stick to the bottom of the bottle than others ie nottingham is very good.

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IPA
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Re: Fluffy bottom bottles

Post by IPA » Fri Jul 28, 2017 8:30 am

nastyphoenix wrote:I bottled my brew following conditioning in a conical with isinglass for a couple of weeks in the fridge at 6 C. Added 4.5g sugar per liter and a little sprinkle of fresh yeast.

Beer is tasty and nicely carbonated, but as soon as a crack it open the yeast on the bottom comes into the nice clear beer in the form of lumps :cry:

I know this isn't an issue, but I would rather it didn't happen.

1. How can I prevent this from happening in future?

2. For these bottles, is there anything I can do to get the yeast to stick to the bottom of the bottle? I wondered if a long chill/spell in the freezer might do it? If not, I would rather the beer was cloudy with evenly dispersed yeast. Is there a good way to do this? I doubt rocking the bottles would do it and I am reluctant to shake them!
Your problem is due to two things. First of all you have too much residual yeast in the bottle and you are using roughly two times the amount of priming sugar that is necessary ( I would guess that you are following one of those US priming calculators) To quote, once again, Graysalchemy. "If you want clear beer coming out you have to have clear beer going in"
To achieve this when the gravity in the secondary FV has remained constant for three days add your finings. Gelatine works well. Leave for three days and then rack into your bottling bucket and add 2.5 grams per litre of sugar dissolved in hot water. Stir well to mix and then bottle. DOT ADD MORE YEAST. Store bottles at 20 degrees centigrade for fourteen days. Then transfer to somewhere cooler at about 12 degrees. Here is a tip. For your first bottle use a sanitised half litre sparkling water bottle. A simple squeeze of the bottle will let you know how carbonation is progressing. When it is rock hard it is carbonated.
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monkeyboy
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Re: Fluffy bottom bottles

Post by monkeyboy » Fri Jul 28, 2017 9:59 am

All the advice above is spot on, but it does definitely depend on the yeast too. I can never get WLP001 to 'stick' to the bottom of the bottle without chilling the beer, but other yeasts have been fine. I think the key is how flocculant the yeast is. So if you're still having problems after following the above advice, you might want to consider using a different yeast.
Fermenting: AG#22 San Diego IPA
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