Floaters

[james_m_r]

Current brew has now been in the fermenter for 9 days and will be kegging tomorrow. Just wondered if it is best to fish out all the yeast bits floating around on top before hand or is it not worth it?

[Jim]

I never bother, as it all usually settles out in the secondary, but there's no harm doing so as long as you sanitize whatever you fish them out with.

[james_m_r]

thanks Jim. I wont bother then as no need to risk contamination if not necessary.

[james_m_r]

If you are bottling as apposed to kegging, is this still just a question of preference or is there a right and wrong?

[Calum]

If possible it would be best to drop the beer into another container and then bottle from there (its always easier if you have two fermentation bins). That way the majority of the gunk is left in the primary and you don't have to worry about the floating stuff when bottling.

If this isn't possible then just bottle as best you can without letting the floaters into the syphon tube. Given enough time it should all settle out (even the unwanted floaters).

[james_m_r]

Tomorrow will be kegging only my second kit brew after bottling the first batch and plan to bottle/keg alternate brews. Looking at the bottles which have now been stood for 4 weeks (only had 4 bottles so far due to the wife giving birth 2 weeks ago, it is killing me) and seeing that the ones filled towards the end have a lot more sediment settled at the bottom compared to the ones bottled first which I guess is normal? When drinking the latter bottles is the usual procedure to leave (waste) a bit of beer in the bottom of the bottle to avoid transfering the sediment to your pint glass?
BTW when I bottled the first lot I used a syphon tube but have since added a tap to ferm bin so I would think this will help not disturb the sediment?

[james_m_r]

how much water do you boil the priming sugars in Daab?

[Calum]

I've nothing to add to Daab's advice as it is exactly how I do my bottling. The only slight difference is that got myself "The Little Bottler" from Malt and Hop which makes the whole process a doddle.

Congratulations on the wee one. I hope all is going well. Plenty of time to drink that beer - it won't go off too quickly.

[james_m_r]

Cheers both. Mother & baby doing fine. Father suffering from alcohol withdrawal.
I will follow your advice tomorrow regarding priming sugar when kegging DaaB.
My ferm bin is fitted with a lever tap & with a bit of force a 3/8" syphon tube can be stuffed inside the spout which I had planned to cut to around 500mm ish so as the bottle can sit on the worktop next to the fermenter and tranfer this way next time I am bottling. Will this be ok? Next time I order online from Hop & Grape or wherever I will definately get one of those bottling stick jobbies though. They look the biz!

[Vossy1]

Just to add my own experience to this post.

I've been using S04 in my last few brews and I've encountered the 'floaters' in primary as discussed.

I've avoided them when bottling, but even so, the sediment in the bottle settles as large flocculent, making a clean pint hard to pour.

Worse, I've found the sediment sticks to the side of the glass bottle and wont settle.

I've aggitated the bottle to re-suspend the particulate, but it still does'nt settle.

Fun and games

[james_m_r]

so maybe it's best to fish the little buggers out if bottling then?

[Vossy1]

so maybe it's best to fish the little buggers out if bottling then?

It can only help, but remember, the flocculent is only the large particles.

The beer still contains the same yeast in soln and if it's prone to flocculate it'll do the same in the bottle...as I have found

[james_m_r]

pardon me?

[Vossy1]

pardon me?

What yeast did you use JMR

I'm quite new to HB and at the mo I'm selecting my yeast for taste as opposed to settling characteristics

[james_m_r]

ended up just using a youngs yeast from wilkos after a failed rehydrate attempt with the stuff that came with my Tom Caxton. next kit is a wherry and after reading about wherry yeast on this site had planned to use youngs again as this is all I have in stock.