First lager - very dirty

[ben2904]

Ok so today I openned my first bottle of first lager batch.
It tastes good, but it is SO DIRTY of yeast and trub.
I did the bottling process just like I usually do with ales.

Why is that? how can I prevent it?

Now all of my bottles are gonna be like that?
Now I cant give bottles to others, because of that

Edit: also it has almost no head...Why?

 

[VladOfTrub]

Explaining the brewing process used, right through fermentation, the recipe, can help with diagnosing problems. No foam could be from a dirty glass, certain lipids, excessive protein reduction, not aging long enough. Cleaning up the process to clean up the wort helps. Allowing the beer to settle out before bottling helps. Lager needs to be treated a little differently than ale. Maybe invest in Noonan's book on Lager, if you are getting into producing Lager. If everything works right the first time, little is learned.

 

[bulgarianbrewmaster]

Transfer into secondary and then even a third ferm to clean it up and then bottle

 

[bulgarianbrewmaster]

Also lagers require a longer fermentation than ales. So therefore allowing more time for the harder particles to drop to the bottom. When transferring to second or third just be careful to not stir that stuff up or it will end up in ur beer

 

[hunter_le five]

Agreed, it's hard to diagnose the problem without knowing more about your process.

How long in primary? Did you secondary? Did you wait until the beer was clear before bottling?

 

[Darwin18]

You left out some important information like others have mentioned above, but:

If it tastes good but seems to have a bit of yeast in suspension, then cold crash the bottles for at least a couple weeks. That should drop everything and it should compact nicely at the bottom. You will still need to be careful to avoid stirring it up when you pour into a glass though.

 

[rmyurick]

Did you prime & bottle condition? If so, did you condition at warm enough temperature for at least a week?

 

[ben2904]

Ok, about the fermantation process:
I did a 2 weeks of 10-12 degrees ferm, then 1 month of lagering in 4 degrees.
At the bottling day, unlike the ales that I make, it didnt have a nice yeast cake at the bottom.
It was like big chunks of yeast and trub at the bottom AND also at the top of it.
I tried to take out the ones at the top and tried not to get to the bottom ones.
Then I let it prime at 18 degrees for 2 weeks in bottles.

Now it looks like it has almost no foam and it has a small carbonation (I didnt use much sugar, but it doesnt need to affect the foam right?),
and about the yeast at the bottle, I will let it sit in 4 degrees for a while and see what happens.
And anyway, it looks like small yeast/trub practicles that go into the glass and settles down (In every sip, it needs to settle again).

 

[TopherM]

Did you take gravity readings? 2 weeks may not have been enough for a lager fermentation. They are much slower than ale fermentations.

Also, I don't think you did a diacetyl rest. Following the primary fermentation, you really need to take the beer out of the fermentation chamber and let it warm up to room temp over a period of about 48 hours. Yeast have difficulty breaking down diacetyl at lower fermentation temps, so you must get the temp up over 60-65ish for a short period to increase their metabolism rate to the point where they will break down diacetyl, which causes an off-flavor otherwise. The diacetyl rest also serves to knock off those final few points of gravity.

I just do my diacetyl rest at room temp. Since the bulk of fermentation is complete at that point, I find no ill effects from the slightly higher temp.

Also, your carbonation is going to take a while at 18C (64F). You should condition at closer to room temp as well. At 18C, I would expect the carbonation to take more than 2 weeks, probably closer to 3+.

Finally, a proper lagering would be on the order of 8-12 weeks, not one month.

Some combination of missing these standard procedures may be to blame for your issues. I would guess you are NOT at FG, and the little bit of yeast in your bottles is struggling with the proportionately high % of sugars in your beer at 18C. What you are seeing as trub on the top of your bottles sounds more like a secondary krausen that would support this!

Take them all out, give them all a slight swirl, and let them sit at room temp for another 2 weeks. Put one in the fridge for 48+ hours, then check the carbonation levels. If it is then OK, put the rest in the fridge and forget about them for 2-3 months.

Oh, and:

I didnt use much sugar, but it doesnt need to affect the foam right?

Yes, no carbonation = no head or head retention. Head is when carbonation pushes very small pieces of proteins to the surface. That protein then gets traped in nucleation sites on the surface of the beer due to surface tension and diffuses and traps more and more proteins and carbonation as they pass through them. No carbonation = no head or head retention!

 

[ben2904]

Did you take gravity readings? 2 weeks may not have been enough for a lager fermentation. They are much slower than ale fermentations.

Also, I don't think you did a diacetyl rest. Following the primary fermentation, you really need to take the beer out of the fermentation chamber and let it warm up to room temp over a period of about 48 hours. Yeast have difficulty breaking down diacetyl at lower fermentation temps, so you must get the temp up over 60-65ish for a short period to increase their metabolism rate to the point where they will break down diacetyl, which causes an off-flavor otherwise. The diacetyl rest also serves to knock off those final few points of gravity.

I just do my diacetyl rest at room temp. Since the bulk of fermentation is complete at that point, I find no ill effects from the slightly higher temp.

Also, your carbonation is going to take a while at 18C (64F). You should condition at closer to room temp as well. At 18C, I would expect the carbonation to take more than 2 weeks, probably closer to 3+.

Finally, a proper lagering would be on the order of 8-12 weeks, not one month.

Some combination of missing these standard procedures may be to blame for your issues. I would guess you are NOT at FG, and the little bit of yeast in your bottles is struggling with the proportionately high % of sugars in your beer at 18C. What you are seeing as trub on the top of your bottles sounds more like a secondary krausen that would support this!

Take them all out, give them all a slight swirl, and let them sit at room temp for another 2 weeks. Put one in the fridge for 48+ hours, then check the carbonation levels. If it is then OK, put the rest in the fridge and forget about them for 2-3 months.

Oh, and:

Yes, no carbonation = no head or head retention. Head is when carbonation pushes very small pieces of proteins to the surface. That protein then gets traped in nucleation sites on the surface of the beer due to surface tension and diffuses and traps more and more proteins and carbonation as they pass through them. No carbonation = no head or head retention!

Thank you.

So I guess I won't try to lager for a while, my ales were just getting really good and lager are way too different.

I'm aware of my issues at the process, but right now, there is something that I can do to prevent the yeast/trub practicles?
There is any way it can turn into a 1 yeast/trub settlement at the bottom of the bottle without going up all the time and go into the glass?

 

[watersr]

I can't tell from your post but it looks like you didn't do a secondary. I don't use secondary for ales but I do for lagers just for this very reason. After primary fermentation I cold crash the beer then transfer it to secondary on top of some gelatin finings. After lagering I transfer to keg and cold condition for a week or so to get as much dropped out as possible.


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