questions about unfiltered draft beer

[Brew Chef]

Is anyone not using a filter and kegging beer?

How long would an ale need to sit in a fermenter and BBT to be conditioned enough to go to kegs. Let's say the yeast used is highly flocculant..like Fermentis S-04. I'm not looking for super polished beer either. A slight haze is ok but sediment in the keg is not good.

If you have sediment in your BBT, how can you leave it behind and go to kegs?

Also, to what vessel are brewers who don't filter adding hops for dry hopping? BBT or FV? It would seem like a wise choice to dry hop in a FV and keep the BBT clean but I don't know. But it would also seem like you would get the most aroma and flavor from dry hops if you dry hopped the BBT....but then filtering would probably be neccesary.

Please chime in. Thanks

[ibrewforyou]

With a highly flocculant yeast and significant time you can get a pretty clean, clear beer. 1-2 weeks @ 32F in the fermenter and dropping the yeast from the cone should do you good. Put some top pressure on the beer.

Are you using conical fermenters?
Do you have a racking arm or standpipe in your fermenters?

If your brite beer tanks have racking arms you're in luck, otherwise you could always pull beer from the sample valve while waiting for the beer to clear up.

Hopping in the fermenter is best due to temperature control and having it a little warmer for dry hops. Then again time and fermenter shape will determine things. Easier to purge dry hops from conical and/or it'll take longer for dry hops to settle out before transferring.

[Brew Chef]

how about adding finings to the BBT...like gelatin? would that be a fine choice ;-) ? Are racking canes/arms an option in BBT's?

[ibrewforyou]

racking arms usually a custom thing in brite tanks. have heard of some people that have a little standpipe that they put in the bottom of the tank or push a hose up through the bottom that extends off the bottom of the tank.

gelatin would be a great addition if you want the extra clearity. shoot in-line with beer during transfer for a good mix or shoot in with a keg before, during, or after. a good floc yeast and gelatin can make for a very clear beer.

[burlybeer]

In my last pub, I had older DME fermenters which lacked a racking port, so everything came out of the bottom cone. I would carefully pull yeast over several days then dose with gelatin finings on the way to the serving tanks (side manway grundys). We didn't have a filter and seldom served cloudy beer. It usually took two days to drop bright in the grundy-the gelatin/yeast seemed to stick quite well to the bottoms. For dryhopped beers, I would dose the fermenter with gelatin and allow it to drop brite before racking onto the whole leaf dry hops in the server. First several pints were always a bit cloudy, but after that smooth sailing.

Chris

[drewseslu]

At the smaller pub where I work we keg everything (no serving tanks) and don't filter, and the 'Brite tank' is just a FV rigged up with a stone and sight glass.
Our yeasts are quite flocculant and with many of our beers I am happy putting them on tap at three weeks (12 or so days is OK for the Wit, if we need to push it). I do all of our dry hopping in the FV, but it still ends up causing a mess further down the line (BBT and in kegs), but it is still worth it, IMO. The dry hopped beers can get longer (4-5 weeks) to get some of the crud to settle out.

[MJMurphy]

Are you usign conical fermenters? If you don't plan on filtering packaged beer use a flocculent yeast and in the week before racking the beer, make sure to pull yeast at least once a day.

You could even use some CO2 to agitate the beer a week or so before you are going to package. This may help in dropping the yeast out of solution and into the cone.

If you are looking to have yeast as a feature of the beer, you could also ship and store the kegs upside-down. We used to do this with a Hefeweizen we brew and I believe Widmer still does with their Hefeweizen. That way the yeast redistributes itself once it is turned upright for service. Of course, time will eventually to an accumulation at the bottom.

We have an unfiltered beer that uses a troublesome bavarian yeast strain. We want a decent amount of yeast in the beer, but trying to let it drop naturally results in heavy yeast load and excessive sediment in the kegs and bottles. As a result we do a rough filtration to bring the load down to our specs.

Another option-if you have the tank space-you could transfer the beer to a second conical fermenter a week or so before you rack it and start pulling yeast there. The agitation helps some yeast strains flock so picking an appropriate strain is important if you plan on not filtering.

[jazzmac]

We use Wyeast 1968 and conical fermenters. We can turn beer in about 12 days (granted we are connected to an icehouse with 1500 gallons of 18 degree glycol). Beer is perfectly crystal clear everytime.

[HumanFish]

I use S-04 and keg beer after 10 days but prefer 2 weeks. We do not have seperate BBT's so we do primary in one fermenter (not conical but with a standpipe), let it rest, crash it as best we can to 2C...cannot get lower... leave it for a few days and then shift it to the 2nd tank with a shorter standpipe.

Occasionally we get a really small slug of yeast in the first keg....but otherwise it is fine.