So I tried Biofine Clear for the first time on my Belgian Tripel. I put about 3/4 a dropper’s worth into my secondary vessel and racked onto it. I then stored the tripel at 34*F for about a month. The batch I bottled was crystal clear. Now after about 2.5 weeks I opened a bottle and it’s dead flat (which I kind of expected) but there is NO yeast sediment at all at the bottom of the bottles. Usually I can see a visible amount of sediment at this point, even if it hasn’t fully carbed.
I did hear a very very faint hiss when i opened the bottle so it’s possible there is a very small amount of yeast but lord knows how long that will take to do its work. It could also be what was trapped in suspension when i bottled it. The yeast was WY3878 which has a tolerance above the 10% ABV that this tripel is at.
The plan is to give it another few weeks and try another one. I added enough sugar to carb to 3 vols so it’s definitely not a lack of sugar issue.
Is it possible I dropped out too much yeast? Has anyone ever done this?
It is very likely the yeast has been dormant at 34°F. There will be enough yeast to carbonate your beer, but give the bottles a few weeks at room temperature to begin working.
Sorry maybe what I said was confusing. I have been bottle conditioning at 68 for 2.5 weeks now. I’m going to give them another 2 weeks before trying another one. My concern was not seeing any yeast sediment at all after 2.5 weeks at room temp in the bottles.
So a small update on this, I took a look at a couple of bottles and holding them up to the light I can see a number of small floating chunks of…something in there. Wondering if that’s yeast…though I’ve never see yeast clump up but still stay in suspension. Any idea if this is is normal behavior of WY3787 during bottle conditioning? Could it be a result of using the Biofine Clear causing the yeast to act like this (assuming that its yeast and not some other protein clumps)?
It is most likely yeast that you are seeing. The yeast will probably settle with more conditioning time. 3787 is a medium flocculating yeast so some clumps can be expected. Lot fewer clumps than a low flocculating yeast like 1968.
Here we are about 6 weeks after bottling and been sitting at 70* the entire time and this doesn’t appear to be gaining any carbonation. I’d estimate its currently around 1.0 vols or less. If I pour the into the glass with “glugs” i dont get any head at all. Maybe a couple bubbles. I know I added enough sugar to carb it to 3.0 vols so any idea what gives? Did the yeast poop out? Any suggestions on what to do here? It’s pretty disappointing cause the beer tastes pretty amazing but its just way too undercarbed.
I would roll the bottles gently a few times, then set them in a “warm room” environment (around 75-80 degrees) for a week. Duvel does something similar at bottling.
How would you compare this method of trying to clear beer as opposed to gelatin? I have not tried either, but I hope to try gelatin in the most recent Pliny the Elder clone I made.
