Yeast cloudiness cleared by stirring??

NRMiller1958

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I've been bottling straight from primary after 2-2.5 weeks (no cold crash). Most of the time my beer goes into the bottle quite cloudy, but within hours I see yeast on the bottom of the bottle, and after 1-2 days at room temp it clears significantly, and in a week it's crystal clear, but with a lot of yeast on the bottom of the bottle. I use a carrageenan product at 15 min to flame-out.

I'm perplexed why the beer doesn't clarify more in the fermenter, but the yeast seems to drop like crazy once bottled. I'm wondering if the stirring action of the bottling process somehow causes the drop,and if I should maybe slosh the fermenter a couple days before bottling?

Any ideas?
 
I've been bottling straight from primary after 2-2.5 weeks (no cold crash). Most of the time my beer goes into the bottle quite cloudy, but within hours I see yeast on the bottom of the bottle, and after 1-2 days at room temp it clears significantly, and in a week it's crystal clear, but with a lot of yeast on the bottom of the bottle. I use a carrageenan product at 15 min to flame-out.

I'm perplexed why the beer doesn't clarify more in the fermenter, but the yeast seems to drop like crazy once bottled. I'm wondering if the stirring action of the bottling process somehow causes the drop,and if I should maybe slosh the fermenter a couple days before bottling?

Any ideas?
 
If you use gelatin 24 to 48 hours before bottling you will have crystal clear beer but it does take longer to carbonate.
Here's what I do.......... half a teaspoon of gelatin in a quarter cup of cold water and microwave in 7 second bursts until 63c to 65c stirring with the end of the thermometer between bursts and just pour it straight into the fermenter......no need to even stir it, I just evenly spread it around.
The cooler the fermenter temperature, the better, I find it works perfectly at about 10 to 12c.
I got this method from the Brulosophy website and it works a treat.
 
I've been bottling straight from primary after 2-2.5 weeks (no cold crash). Most of the time my beer goes into the bottle quite cloudy, but within hours I see yeast on the bottom of the bottle, and after 1-2 days at room temp it clears significantly, and in a week it's crystal clear, but with a lot of yeast on the bottom of the bottle. I use a carrageenan product at 15 min to flame-out.

I'm perplexed why the beer doesn't clarify more in the fermenter, but the yeast seems to drop like crazy once bottled. I'm wondering if the stirring action of the bottling process somehow causes the drop,and if I should maybe slosh the fermenter a couple days before bottling?

Any ideas?
Think in terms of the distance the yeast has to fall - it's much less in a bottle than in a carboy. Let your beer stand in the carboy a bit longer or as Aub suggests, fine it with gelatin or isinglass and it will clear. Cold crash is not required.
 
The first step of getting clearer beer starts with the boil kettle: finnings and of course a 20-30 minutes whirlpool at a lower temperature, which along with a " Irish Moss " product, will help precipitate a lot of proteins and hop debris at the bottom of the kettle. I don't know your setup, but you must have some sort of filter in your kettle. Whirlpooling, without using any fancy methods, can easily be done by cooling down the wort and stirring in the kettle to create a whirlpool. You then let the wort sit for 15-30 minutes and then come back to it. Transfer to fermenter and you should notice a much clearer wort.

The yeast you are using is also important. Some yeast flocculate better than others and will also stick better to the bottom of the bottle. Dry yeast examples here are BE-256, S-04, Nottingham and to some degree, US-05. US-05 is lazier than the aforementioned and will take longer to clear, especially in the fermenter and bottle, but nothing that cannot be solved by lagering the bottles once carbonated, in the fridge for 5-7 days as close to 1-2 degrees Celsius as possible.

Adding gelatin to the fermenter also works well. Aub explained well how to use it and the results will be good. I would say that 48 hours is kind of the minimum, especially if you are not cold crashing below 5 degrees Celsius.

Cheers!
 
The first step of getting clearer beer starts with the boil kettle: finnings and of course a 20-30 minutes whirlpool at a lower temperature, which along with a " Irish Moss " product, will help precipitate a lot of proteins and hop debris at the bottom of the kettle. I don't know your setup, but you must have some sort of filter in your kettle. Whirlpooling, without using any fancy methods, can easily be done by cooling down the wort and stirring in the kettle to create a whirlpool. You then let the wort sit for 15-30 minutes and then come back to it. Transfer to fermenter and you should notice a much clearer wort.

The yeast you are using is also important. Some yeast flocculate better than others and will also stick better to the bottom of the bottle. Dry yeast examples here are BE-256, S-04, Nottingham and to some degree, US-05. US-05 is lazier than the aforementioned and will take longer to clear, especially in the fermenter and bottle, but nothing that cannot be solved by lagering the bottles once carbonated, in the fridge for 5-7 days as close to 1-2 degrees Celsius as possible.

Adding gelatin to the fermenter also works well. Aub explained well how to use it and the results will be good. I would say that 48 hours is kind of the minimum, especially if you are not cold crashing below 5 degrees Celsius.

Cheers!
Counterpoint: In my old setup, I've been unable to whirlpool and had no filter in the kettle, in other words, I dumped everything into the fermentor. And I got clear beer. If your beer is not clearing, there are a few potential reasons. To address the haze you need to know the cause: Is it protein haze? Starch haze? Haze from ingredients? Contamination? Try to find out what kind of haze you have, then you should be able to stop it.
 
Second Nosy on this. We dump the entire lot from the boil kettle into the fermenter. I do use a hop filter to catch all the hops from pre fermentation.
 
Counterpoint: In my old setup, I've been unable to whirlpool and had no filter in the kettle, in other words, I dumped everything into the fermentor. And I got clear beer. If your beer is not clearing, there are a few potential reasons. To address the haze you need to know the cause: Is it protein haze? Starch haze? Haze from ingredients? Contamination? Try to find out what kind of haze you have, then you should be able to stop it.
You've got some good points there Nosy, I should have pointed out to the OP that I whirlpool and have a filter on the pump so the wort going to the fermenter is pretty good. I use a conical fermenter with a yeast dump as well so by the time fermentation is finished I usually allow it to sit for about a week and cool it to about 10c, so it's pretty clear before I use gelatin. I don't fine all of my beers, just the lighter colored ones that I want to look pretty.:)
 
Storing beer warm then chilling it = chill haze that's why I recon cold crashing is a goer first before adding geletin helps to drop this haze that occurs sooner.
 
Most of y'all are missing my point here. I get beautiful clear beer just days after putting it in bottles. Sitting in the primary it stays cloudy. The agitation of siphoning it off into bottles seems to make the yeast (mostly US-05) drop like crazy. I'm surprised if no one else has experienced the same.
 
what makes yeast and trub drop are finnings, chilling and time, if chilled for a long time most beer will clear on it's own
 
Might also be that you're looking at more mass in the fermentor. Color also looks different when comparing.
 
Most of y'all are missing my point here. I get beautiful clear beer just days after putting it in bottles. Sitting in the primary it stays cloudy. The agitation of siphoning it off into bottles seems to make the yeast (mostly US-05) drop like crazy. I'm surprised if no one else has experienced the same.

Yes, it happens often. The reason is likely due to the c02 "holding" the yeast in suspension. Racking it agitates the gas, and so the yeast will fall.

Winemakers experience it all the time. Cloudy primary, rack to secondary and it'll clear from the top down in just a couple of days sometimes. With wine, often there is more than just yeast suspended like pectin and tannins, and it'll really be noticeable how quickly it clears after racking. It also explains why you can bottle a seemingly clear wine (or beer) and within days there is a layer of lees/trub in the bottle.
 
Storing beer warm then chilling it = chill haze that's why I recon cold crashing is a goer first before adding geletin helps to drop this haze that occurs sooner.
You have to lager to get the haze to drop out - a quick cold-crash won't do it. See Yooper's post for a good explanation of the physics of stirring to clarify. I've found a week or so in the fridge benefits everything I brew.
 
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Most of y'all are missing my point here. I get beautiful clear beer just days after putting it in bottles. Sitting in the primary it stays cloudy. The agitation of siphoning it off into bottles seems to make the yeast (mostly US-05) drop like crazy. I'm surprised if no one else has experienced the same.

I just don't use US-05 because when compared with other yeast, is much lazier and takes more time to clear and flocculate. I therefore use Nottingham as my choice for dry, crisp, refreshing, somewhat hoppy and cheaper beers.

So yeast selection will get you clearer beer. High flocculators like Nottingham, S-04, Fuller's strain, and so on will flocculate much better and faster at the same time. Another thing that can help is avoid transferring too much from the kettle. Post fermentation trub level in my fermnenters for any of my non dry hopped beers is max. 0.5 cm thick, that's 0.2 inch. That trub is just yeast with the tiniest protein particulate amount. Dry hopped beers are a bit thicker due to the hops added, but not that much.
 
Yes, it happens often. The reason is likely due to the c02 "holding" the yeast in suspension. Racking it agitates the gas, and so the yeast will fall.
Great to know I'm not crazy. I think I'll try sloshing the fermenter around a few days before bottling...
 
So yeast selection will get you clearer beer. High flocculators like Nottingham, S-04, Fuller's strain, and so on will flocculate much better
I do use S-04 as well, but only when the weather cools off since I don't have any temperature control. The thing I like about US-05 is the wide temperature range. Do you know of better flocculating yeasts that do well at 72-75F?
 
Try Cooper's dry yeast. Very flocuulant and can handle 75F.
 

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