Sediment on the side of the bottle

[Nobby Novice]

I bottled my Nog 10 days ago. I have kept it in the shed to condition in cardboard catons. I had a look tonight to see how it was doing and I have noticed that as well as the sediment settling nicely at the bottom of the bottle, there appears to be a covering of sediment at the side of the bottle. It looks brown through the dark colour of the Nog, Is this anything to worry about ?

[Barm]

I've had this quite often when bottling. Never seems to affect the brew though.

Sometimes giving the bottles a few sharp twists can encourage it to 'un-cling', but obviously this stirs up the 'bottom' sediment also, and you'll have to wait for it to resettle.

My guess is that it's either a) preventable, since due to the bottles not being quite completely clean, or b) not preventable, being a normal consequence of the yeast activity, because it hangs in suspension during the conditioning fermentation.

[Nobby Novice]

Thanks Barm. I shall try to pour a bottle on Friday. I had something similar happen when I sterilised my bottles in weak bleach instead of the homebrew cleaner.
I shall now be ruthless in my bottle cleaning. I am looking at a way of standing 40 bottles in the dishwasher, but I might have to take out the top rack to do it.

[Barm]

If the cause is to do with bottle cleanliness, I reckon it is more likely to be due to poor mechanical cleaning (ie scrubbing with bottle brush) rather than poor sanitisation. The latter would surely more likely lead to infection rather than yeast clinging to the bottle walls?
As hinted previously, I haven't bottomed out the real reason behind it yet.

[ger]

Hi Nobby,

I had the same problem with the first brew i did ( a woodfordes eastern ale) but my mistake was putting the bottles straight into the shed. Ever since I have left them inside for a week first at same temp as fermenting and then out in to the shed and have never had the problem since

[Nobby Novice]

Thanks Ger, I intend to do that with my next brew. I shall also intensify my bottle cleaning regime.

[Barm]

ger - are you sure that was the real cause?

Because I have always held the bottles at "fermenting temperature" for a week or so before moving out to the garage to mature! And this procedure is really the 'conventional wisdom': unless you want flat beer - or you want to wait aeons for it to carbonate - surely it's the regime you have to follow? Putting freshly-filled bottles straight out in the cold would just make the yeast fall dormant and impede proper conditioning.

Not doubting your experience: but it doesn't match what I'm seeing, and I'm not convinced that it's really the true cause...

[ger]

Hi Barn,

Yeah you may be right, maybe my cleaning process has became better after the first brew... but just from my own limited experience (have only done six kits so far). As you say though it is down to having the process or regime right, and luckily for me this just meant letting the beer carbonate first indoors before conditioning

[JT.]

Hi there,

I've had this problem too. I think it's down the the strain of yeast rather than bottle cleanliness - as this has happened with my brews where the yeast is easily disturbed on pouring and has been much less of a problem for kits where the yeast settles well and forms a nice crust at the bottom of the bottle (all bottled in re-used Franziskanner bottles).

Like the chap said earlier - give them a sharp twist to dislodge and then allow tiem to settle out again.