Ginger Beer, more trub than ever before

[Roughneck201]

TL;DR Made a batch of Non-alcoholic Ginger Beer (ale) with Lalvin D47 yeast and ended up with more trub/sediment than usual.

Longer post with details: I've been working on a naturally carbonated ginger beer recipe for a couple of months now. I've brewed alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions and have had pretty good success. This week I made a 1.5 gallon non-alcoholic batch fermenting in 12 16oz Grolsch bottles for 2 days before putting in fridge. Fridge is between 34 - 38 degrees (if I can keep the kids out of it long enough!). This time the bottles have a thicker layer of trub/sediment at the bottom than ever before. Anywhere from 3/4" to 1". Usually when I do this I have a thin layer of "dusty" sediment at the bottom of the bottles. Never this thick before. If I strain a bottle with it comes out thick and clumpy. It still tastes fine though.

I've put in pics so you can see carbonation as well as trub in bottles. Has anyone else had this issue? Any advice?

Trub in Bottle:

Poured in Glass:

 

[GFHomebrew]

Looks beautiful.

I known olden days they used a (Mother culture) to make the home made stuff. One of them feed it ginger and sugar every other day taking a away a portion of the mother mixture when you've fed it.
Sorta like sour dough.
Could be something like this

 

[Roughneck201]

Yeah, when I first started brewing Ginger Beer I use a culture bred from wild yeast. Did exactly what you said, took me about a week to get a culture strong enough ferment a batch. Researched online and found Lalvin D47 to be a goot yeast to use. Doesn't go as dry as champagne, but I definitely need to halt it before all the sweetness is gone.

I'm reviewing my brew notes and one thing that was different this go around was that I pulsed the ginger in the blender finer than before. In addition, I didn't have any cheesecloth so used a double strainer to filter out as much of the particulate matter as possible. My guess is something in that has affected the outcome.

I'll probably make another batch as the family has been going through these bottles pretty quickly.

 

[716Brewer]

I'm reviewing my brew notes and one thing that was different this go around was that I pulsed the ginger in the blender finer than before. In addition, I didn't have any cheesecloth so used a double strainer to filter out as much of the particulate matter as possible. My guess is something in that has affected the outcome.

I would speculate that this is precisely the reason why.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Yeah, when I first started brewing Ginger Beer I use a culture bred from wild yeast. Did exactly what you said, took me about a week to get a culture strong enough ferment a batch. Researched online and found Lalvin D47 to be a goot yeast to use. Doesn't go as dry as champagne, but I definitely need to halt it before all the sweetness is gone.

I'm reviewing my brew notes and one thing that was different this go around was that I pulsed the ginger in the blender finer than before. In addition, I didn't have any cheesecloth so used a double strainer to filter out as much of the particulate matter as possible. My guess is something in that has affected the outcome.

I'll probably make another batch as the family has been going through these bottles pretty quickly.

Well a good cold crash should compact that before bottling bucket.

 

[Roughneck201]

I would speculate that this is precisely the reason why.

I love a good science project. I brewed another batch a couple of days ago. I made sure I had cheese cloth on hand to filter out
the pulsed ginger from the boil. I just checked the fermenting the bottles and the same thing is happening. I guess I'll be straining these
bottles during pour as before.

I'm wondering if maybe I'm pitching too much yeast? I'm using 1 tsp of D47 per 1.5 gallon batch.

 

[716Brewer]

I'm wondering if maybe I'm pitching too much yeast? I'm using 1 tsp of D47 per 1.5 gallon batch.

I wouldn't think that that would cause what you had in that picture of the bottle.

 

[Roughneck201]

Yeah, when I did my back of the envelope math I'm pitching about 11 Billion cells short of where I should be. So it can't be that.

Maybe something off in my bottles? I'm using star san just like before.

 

[Mase]

... Maybe something off in my bottles? I'm using star san just like before.

Star-San is only a sanitizer, but it’s not a cleaner. When I bottle (rarely anymore), I give the bottles a good soaking clean with something like PBW, I use a similar cleaner called One-Step. But you need to be sure they are clean before you sanitize. Hope this helps

 

[Roughneck201]

True, after pouring a bottle, I usually immediately fill it with water until I do the dishes. I use regular dish soap and water with a brush to scrub the insides. On brewing and bottling day, I dip them in a container of Star San solution, fill them up, then pour them out, cap them and then fill.

What is PBW?

 

[GFHomebrew]

Powdered Brewery Wash it's a cleaner

 

[Roughneck201]

Okay, I'll definitely pick up some.

The one thing that I remembered as being different these last two batches is that instead of letting the boil cool to room temp on its own, I sped up the process by using an ice bath in the kitchen sink. I only moved to the ice bath to speed up the process so I can bottle within an hour of brewing versus waiting several hours or overnight for the must to cool.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Okay, I'll definitely pick up some.

The one thing that I remembered as being different these last two batches is that instead of letting the boil cool to room temp on its own, I sped up the process by using an ice bath in the kitchen sink. I only moved to the ice bath to speed up the process so I can bottle within an hour of brewing versus waiting several hours or overnight for the must to cool.

If you chill the final product for a day or three that trub you get in the bottle will stay In the fermentor then you'll only have a yeast sediment mostly in your bottles.

 

[Please Delete!]

Yeah, when I first started brewing Ginger Beer I use a culture bred from wild yeast. Did exactly what you said, took me about a week to get a culture strong enough ferment a batch. Researched online and found Lalvin D47 to be a goot yeast to use. Doesn't go as dry as champagne, but I definitely need to halt it before all the sweetness is gone.

I'm reviewing my brew notes and one thing that was different this go around was that I pulsed the ginger in the blender finer than before. In addition, I didn't have any cheesecloth so used a double strainer to filter out as much of the particulate matter as possible. My guess is something in that has affected the outcome.

I'll probably make another batch as the family has been going through these bottles pretty quickly.

How are you transferring from kettle? if you're just pouring thru cheese clothe, maybe try using racking cane to cheese clothe.

Also where is your avatar from?