Yeast in bottles

Bottled up my 3rd batch of beer about 3 weeks ago. It was a kiwi crossing ipa kit from Midwest supplies. I utilized secondary fermentation on my first two batches and decided to forego it this time around since so many people have said it's unnecessary. After a week in the bottle I noticed a good bit more yeast settling a the bottom of the bottle (I have made it a habit to bottle at least one clear bottle to see whats going on), almost double what I usually get from secondary. However, I tried it and was pleased with the results and figured it would only get better with age. Today I tried the beer and wasn't quite as pleased with the taste as I had initially tried. Could the extra yeast in the bottom have something to do with it? I have been pouring the beer as not to include the yeast.

Did you allow the same amount of total time in the fermenter, and was it a comparable beer? Doing away with the secondary doesn't mean less fermenting time. Also, it should be pretty clear when you bottle regardless of whether you secondary - not all fermentations go on the same schedule.

ncbrewer said:

Did you allow the same amount of total time in the fermenter, and was it a comparable beer? Doing away with the secondary doesn't mean less fermenting time. Also, it should be pretty clear when you bottle regardless of whether you secondary - not all fermentations go on the same schedule.

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Yea, it spent about a month in the primary.

And when racking from primary be careful not suck up the yeast cake that will be a lot bigger than the one in a secondary. Some people suggest moving the carboy a day in advance to where you rack from so everything will settle out from you moving it. I just move it before I start setting up for bottling. So a good 3 hours or so before I rack. Maybe if it was a really aged beer the yeast may contribute some off flavors but I wouldn't think this soon that it could. Maybe you got some yeast in that pour or perhaps it was a bad bottle.

Do you rack to a bottling bucket or bottle straight from the fermenter? Using a bottling bucket helps leave trub behind.

There is some yeast suspended in all non-filtered beer, to my understanding. I don't think off flavors could be coming from that. Some commercial crafts go to great lengths to bottle condition with yeast, believing it makes a better end product. Three batches in, there are still tons of variables in your process. My first thought is always fermentation temps, unless you have controlled fermentation, this is likely the largest variable in flavors when doing a kit.