46 replies to this topic

[Big Nake]

Well, I get yeast blobs floating on the surface of the seconary from time to time, so I wouldn't worry about that part.On the floating particles, you will have to determine if they are gel granules, actual pieces of gelatinized gel (sounds redundant, doesn't it?) or bits of yeast. If it's yeast, pour slower. If it's gelatinized gel, you boiled your gel solution which you should not do. If it's gel granules, then you did not heat the gel long enough to dissolve the gel. Any way you can closely examine them and tell me what the particles are? Otherwise, the beer sounds lovely. I have a "British Blonde" in secondary now and I'm anxious to try it. Cheers.

[DaBearSox]

I am pretty sure they are bits of yeast. It's a blonde so I can make out the contrast in color and I cannot feel them on my tongue when they go down. They are still in suspension when I look through a bottle into the light. Probably because there is still a little bit of fermentation goin on. I don't think its granules because I let them "bloom" and heated it up until i didn't see anything anymore..I think i let it sit at 160 for 5 minutes as well. Guess I will give it a month and see if they drop out. I am also thinking that when the yeast bonds to the gelatin it doesn't floc as well?Bottling up the ESB tonight so in a few weeks i'll see if it happens again then I know there is probably something wrong in my process.

[DaBearSox]

we would want to be careful not to disturb the finings after they have set at the bottom and done the job of fining. For some reason, they have a hard time settling out again.

Lonnie Mac wrote this on the 'other' board. This could also be the problem. I only move my better bottle about 2 feet upward from my mini fridge that sits under the table. I am extremely slow when doing so and most of the time let it sit on the table for a few extra days (or at least hours) to let anything I disturbed settle back down. It makes sense that i possibly sucked some of the fallout up through the better bottle port when racking to my bucket, and if what he says above is correct, the reason for my speckled beer. Maybe next time I will try chilling the beer down, racking on top of some gelatin, then setting the 2ndary on the table that i bottle on so not to disturb it after the fining has done it's business. From what I have read I don't THINK that the beer has to stay in chill haze temp for a few days after using the fining. It just has to be cold when racking it onto the gelatin. Trial and error to the rescue. Get wait til I can just keg...

[Big Nake]

It seems to me that when yeast and gel get together (along with beer, obviously) in a secondary, the layer on the bottom is usuually pretty compact. I lift my secondaries off the floor and then carrythem about 20 steps to my back bar where I let it sit for 30 minutes or so before I rack the beer. If I look at the sediment, I'll see that I disturbed some of it. But when I come back, it's usually all settled by then and I just rack to the keg. You know that the yeast particles will settle in the bottle and they should stay there once they're settled.It reminds me of when I made a raspberry beer for my wife and I used Wyeast 1968 London ESB which is a huge floccer. I bottled the beer with priming sugar and each bottle had a 1/8" to 1/4" pancake on the bottom. If you poured the beer carefully, it would remain crystal clear. But for some reason she turned the whole bottle upside down and shook it and a huge blob splashed into her beer bringing shrieks of horror from everyone in the kitchen! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! She looks at me like, "Not good Ken. Not good".

[DaBearSox]

so I poured another one out tonight (slowly) and success no floatys!!! It was eithier an unclean bottle or ken was right i just poured it too fast (probably that) Not the best picture in the world the beer is a few shades lighter and the the stuff you can see in the glass is wonderful CO2 bubbles....

[ncbeerbrewer]

Looks mighty fine to me BeerSox.

[DaBearSox]

i'll put one in over night tonight and actually see how much the gelatin helps with chill haze...this one was pretty damn clear but was only in the fridge 3-4 hours waiting for me to bottle an ESB. I find that chill haze will show up for me when I chill overnight.and yes...I had to hide the Miller Lite logo on the pint glass..