Yeast floaties?

[JackoNZ]

Guy's, cracked my Oktoberfest on the weekend, it was the last bottle to be filled off the yeast cake so might have had a bit too much yeast in the bottle. Recipe was 57% Vienna, 38% Munich, 4% Melanoidin. When I poured the first glass it looked fine but the second glass was full of what looked like yeast floaties, the beer was going mental, like a ferment in the glass kinda thing.
Tried another two bottles tonight, one which was last but one to be filled, and one from the middle of the batch, both had the same thing, just not to the same degree. Beer tastes ok, looks ok. Used gelatine for the first time but doubt it's that as lots of others use it too.

Any ideas what it could be? Not fully fermented? Infection? Could it be too much sugar to carb? I went 5g per 750ml bottle and beer was fermented at 10c for 11 days where it was stable at 1.014 down from 1.050 and then lagered for 2 weeks at 2c.

[vdog]

Are you pouring into a jug and pouring your glasses from there? If not, what may be happening is that the yeast hasn't packed down properly into the bottom of the bottle, so when you pour the first glass nice and gentle you get the good stuff. Putting it down and then going for a re-pour will unsettle some of that sediment, which is how it ends up in the glass.

Another couple of weeks at 2c might help, otherwise pour the whole bottle into a jug in one hit (you'll see when the sediment is about to come out, so stop then) and pour your glasses from there.

[Patrick]

Good call - I have two identical 375ml glasses so I just pour the whole bottle out in one go, and either share with someone or drink them both myself :)

[JackoNZ]

Yeah this is way more violent that just a bit of yeast sediment coming out though! I'm talking like, open bottle, now I can see huge floaties in there, pour off a fairly clear beer, then pour second glass straight away and the yeast or whatever it is is literally churning up and down in the glass, huge clumps!

[denimglen]

So the first glass from the bottle is fine but the second is yeasty and foamy?

I'd say what's happening is your first pour is normal, you put the bottle down and a bit of agitation coupled with the CO2 rising from the bottom is kicking up all the yeast sediment. Then when you pour into the glass the yeast clumps are coming out and creating a bazillion nucleation points for the CO2 to come out of solution.

I'd say it's a combination of high flocculating yeast (hence the 'clumps') a bit of overcarbonation and not pouring steadily in one go.

If you pour the whole bottle into a jug before drinking I'd say you'd be fine. Or since it's an oktoberfest, just use a 1.0L stein ;-)

[Nick T]

5g of sugar when you had primary fermented at 10c is quite a high level of carbonation, around 3 volumes I think (but not too much out of style, 2.6 - 2.7 accordong to this calculator) . It may just be that the yeast is being lifted up in the glass by the CO2 bubbles, then being dropped again as it gets up to the top of the glass and the CO2 leaves the surface? - Just a thought.

[Reviled]

Sounds overcarbed to me, as above pour very quickly into a jug, or you could try venting all of the bottles and leaving them for another week or so...

[JackoNZ]

I swear I saw a clump of dextrose drop off the surface when I popped one last night! So yeah maybe too much sugar and the yeast left couldn't work it's way through it all?

Rev - you still want a bottle to sample? Not ideal conditions but tastes alright.

[Reviled]

Mate ill never say no to a sample of anything, unless its wheat beer ;oP lol

[JackoNZ]

Thanks guy's, I'll try the big pour in one go and see what happens.