little bottler and clear beer

madbadsad

Hi all,

New to site and been reading up. So far I have brewed a woodfordes wherry and a simply bitter. The wherry has had over a month in the bottles and I must say its great. The simply bitter is still new but tasting good already. Think this may mature into a great pint

Now I have seen a lot about the sediment left in the bottles. Both my brews have virtually no sediment at the bottom of the bottles and im fairly confident that this is due mostly to the little bottler. So when I started my woodfordes,after reading other peoples advice, I decided I would second rack it .Here is a basic run down of my approach.

Day 1. Start brew

Day 6. Second rack to Bucket (both primary and secondary have little bottlers on them so I could connect my siphon tube directly to the tap of the primary and let it coil on the bottom of the secondary allowing the beer to transfer smoothly with no splashing) 

Day 15. Bottled

Tested brew once a week to see how it matures. About 5 weeks after bottling I found it to be excellent. Rounded, smooth and good head. Now in each bottle there is just a mist of sediment stuck to the bottom of each bottle. Even with the wife's heavy handed pouring, the pint comes out nice and clear.

Out of curiosity as to whether my approach about second racking was sound ,I bottled the simply bitter straight from the primary. I must say that I have not noticed any increase in sediment in this batch.(Though the tiny amount that is there is not "stuck" to the bottom of the bottle like the wherry is).

So my conclusion is the little bottler works above and beyond its aide to bottling. Just an extra point. I did not move the primary at all. When I bottled I just gently slid it to the edge of the work surface so no chance of stirring up the sediment.

Hope this helps anyone. Especially the new guys like myself. I have been well and truly bitten by the bug now. Thanks to HBO for the education and the great start to my new hobby.

Thanks guys

HBO_Staff

That's great we're really pleased it's going so well, and you sound to have adopted a great technique. With a little care sediment can be kept to a minimum, although just bear in mind different yeasts compact better than others, so this can also have an effect - upgrading to one such as a Danstar can help as it forms a thick 'sludge' at the bottom of the fermenting vessel which is less easy to disturb, but they are more expensive and the yeasts supplied with the beer kits will do the job. Keep us posted on how the brewing goes!