Sugars, Finings and Yeast

[davewalnut]

Hi there,

I've been reading up on the pages and forum here for help in brewing my first brew (Almondbury Old) and have found a vast amount of invaluable information. Thanks!

I'm planning on bottling the beer tonight and have a couple of final questions.

1) The beer has a lot of sediment at the top and has a distinct 'yeasty smell', is this normal, and if so, when will it go away?

2) I've read up a lot on the use of finings and only seem to have confused myself further. The H&G kit I'm using came with some Young's finings; would you recommend I use these or not? If I should use them, how?

3) The kit didn't include any priming sugars, so I'm not sure what to do here. I've read that standard 'supermarket' sugar is fine to use, but I don't know how. Is it necessary? And how should I use it?

It's probably worth pointing out that I'll be transferring the beer direct to the bottles from my FV.

Thanks in advance.

[pauljmuk]

1. - cloudyness in the FV (or indeed in the bottle after bottling) is normal - it should clear naturally over a week or two, and quicker in bottles (and if they are somewhere cool)

2. I personally don't like the use of finings, not least because my homebrews always clear naturally in the bottle. Finings can also give an unpredictable sediment in the bottle (making it hard to pour without sloshing up into your beer)

3. At the most basic level, supermarket sugar will of course work, but will leave the beer thin in body, and many say if leaves a notable homebrew "tang". Next step up is brewing sugar (which is dextrose or similar). You can then step up to some other more exotic sugars if you want to experiment (golden syrup, treacle, honey, molassess have all been talked about on here). By far the best route for a professional tasting beer is to go the spraymalt route. You can buy it in bags from homebrew shops, or online - replace like for like with sugar - its basically dried, powdered malted barley, and works like sugar, but gives much more body to your beer.

[robharper]

3) ...but for priming it doesn't really matter what sugar you use as it is just intended to create a bit of CO2, so you might as well use supermarket sugar or whatever. You could either add about half a teaspoon to eack 500ml bottle before filling, or you could ad about 85g of sugar to a 5 gal batch all at once (probably dissolved into some hot water first, then cool and add to the keg -- or the FV if you will go on to bottle).

[davewalnut]

Thanks for that, all very helpful and very much appreciated.

I've bought some Muscovado sugar today and plan on using either that or standard sugar by mixing with water and adding to each bottle by syringe prior to adding the beer. I'm hoping this will give a more even distribution without having to stir the contents of my FV.

About finings; can anyone tell me what benefit they bring? I.e. do finings help to condition the beer quicker? And, how do I add finings to a brew prior to bottling, would I be fine mixing it with my sugar solution and add it to the bottles at the same time?

Thanks again, all very helpful.

[Normski]

Hi Dave
The Muscovado sugar will be fine for primming. I just put a measured half teaspoon in to the bottles before filling with beer, cap it and then give a few shakes to mix. works everytime for me. I dont use finnings and I dont believe very many people on here do either. Keep it simple.

[pauljmuk]

sorry - misread your OP - priming sugar - i use brew sugar (dextrose) - mainly cos its so easy to dissolve. Get it in 500g boxes in Morrissons for about £1 - £1.50