Stuff still floating around - help please

[danskitt]

Hi all,

I am fermenting an Exmoor gold from DW book. It has now been in the FV for 17 days and seems to have settled out at 1.010 which I am pleased with but when I take a sample for testing it has loads of bits floating around in it still which I would have expected to drop out by now. My plan was to drop it down to about 5 degrees on day 18 and then bottle on day 21 but I'm worried about the bits now. Will the temp drop get the bits to settle or do I just leave it for longer?

Thanks
Dan

[floydmeddler]

First of all, don't worry. This is normal. Dropping the temp should help the bits fall out. Either way, they prob won't end up in the bottle and if you're kegging, they'll prob fall to the bottom. No worries.

[jimp2003]

Its probably nothig to worry about but what do the bits look like? And are they on top or floating aorund beneath the surface?

[danskitt]

The bits are small and light in colour and float throughout the beer. There is a thin crust on the surface with deposits of the krausen around the FV above the beer line, could this be slowly breaking up and slowly falling to the bottom? should i try to remove the crust layer?

[jimp2003]

If you are going to cold crash the beer then beforehand you could use a sanitised spoon to gently encourage the bits on the surface to break through the surface tension and then drop out quicker with the bits floating throughout the brew.

Personally I don't like to interfere too much and would just cold crash and just be careful racking the beer out from beneath any surface floaters when bottling/kegging.

[danskitt]

Yeah I'm also not keen on messing about with it to much either. I think I will try dropping the temp for a few days and see if it makes any difference.