Nelson's Revenge final gravity

[terrym]

The easiest way of finding out what yeasty beer tastes like is to first pour most of the beer from a bottle into a glass leaving the dregs behind (as normal) then tip the dregs into another glass. Then sample each to compare.
And if you want to ensure the beer you bottle has minimal yeast going forward from FV to bottle choose from any or all of these
- use a highly flocculating yeast, e.g. in my experience GV12/Nottingham usually sticks like you know what to a blanket in both FV and bottle given time
- don't bottle as soon as the primary has finished, leave it a few days longer at least
- rack off to a second FV when the primary has almost finished
- crash cool for a few days, colder the better
Time and gravity usually clear most beers in bottle and my only experience of using gelatin as finings was that I ended up with floaty bits in the beer which rather defeated the object, so I don't use it

 

[Burtie]

I've never used finings on a kit beer.

I also find I waste less beer if I use a Pressure Barrel than bottle condition.

Have bought finings for first (country) wine brew though.

 

[Ian Piper]

The easiest way of finding out what yeasty beer tastes like is to first pour most of the beer from a bottle into a glass leaving the dregs behind (as normal) then tip the dregs into another glass. Then sample each to compare.
And if you want to ensure the beer you bottle has minimal yeast going forward from FV to bottle choose from any or all of these
- use a highly flocculating yeast, e.g. in my experience GV12/Nottingham usually sticks like you know what to a blanket in both FV and bottle given time
- don't bottle as soon as the primary has finished, leave it a few days longer at least
- rack off to a second FV when the primary has almost finished
- crash cool for a few days, colder the better
Time and gravity usually clear most beers in bottle and my only experience of using gelatin as finings was that I ended up with floaty bits in the beer which rather defeated the object, so I don't use it

Thanks - that all makes sense.
I will try the suggestion about beer versus dregs. It might nail down the taste that I've found in my beers.
Presumably I can just replace one yeast with another? The kits I've used have a sachet of yeast in them - can I just swap that for something like the GV12 you mentioned?
I've let this fermentation run for nearly two weeks this time. I've used a second bucket. I don't know what crash cooling is, but happy to try anything. And time certainly made some difference with the last brew, so I'm going to apply patience to the latest one.

Let's see what happens in six weeks!

 

[terrym]

@Ian Piper
Crash cooling (or cold crashing} is where the beer in the FV is put in a cold place at the end of the primary fermentation with little or no yeast activity and any residual yeast in suspension basically goes to sleep and falls to the bottom of the FV, thereby substantially clearing the the beer. A beer fridge is ideal for this although at this time of year you can get good results in an outhouse provided the temperature doesn't fall below about -2*C or the beer will freeze.
You can substitute kit yeasts, many on here do, but my personal view is it won't change the finished significantly so isn't worth it, However using a yeast like GV12/ Nottingham (also sold as Wilko Ale yeast) does floc well compared to many kit yeasts so that might be a good reason to change if that's what floats your boat.
And even the least flocculating yeasts will eventually settle given time. You just have to be careful when opening so as not to disturb the sediment layer. And if you are sparing on the carb level beers are less likely to foam up in the bottle disturbing the yeast, which is why I now carb all my beers to no more than about 1.9 vols CO2 which works out at no more than 85g sugar for 20 litres of beer, although to some brewers 1.9vols (like cask ale) would be flat and unacceptable.

 

[Pavros]

If you haven't got a beer fridge or similar, you can do what I do. Put the fv on a concrete floor (garage etc) overnight and this will have the same effect. Obviously you have to be careful when moving the fv around so that you don't stir the yeast up too much.