Whenever I get down to the bottom of my keg, the last couple pints are always full of yeasty sediment. I was under the impression that when you cold crash, all the sediment should fall to the bottom. Hence it should come out in the first few pints. But that is clearly not the case.
Can someone please explain the science to me?
It would take a long time to crash everything out of suspension. As the keg sits, more yeast falls out. As the beer is pushed through the diptube, it clears a spot around it. Think of a small pile of grain on the floor and placing a shop vac right in the middle of the pile. When the keg gets low, it picks up that yeast that fell out as the fluid levels draws across the concave bottom and gets dispensed.
I did a terrible job 'splaining…
[quote=“roffenburger”]It would take a long time to crash everything out of suspension. As the keg sits, more yeast falls out. As the beer is pushed through the diptube, it clears a spot around it. Think of a small pile of grain on the floor and placing a shop vac right in the middle of the pile. When the keg gets low, it picks up that yeast that fell out as the fluid levels draws across the concave bottom and gets dispensed.
I did a terrible job 'splaining…[/quote]
Perfect explanation. It makes me so sad to see the big glop of yeast come out of the tap as I know that my keg is dead.
Yes last night I had one of the legs I have been really taking my time on because I like it so much kick… what sad moment then I smiled and thought well room for something new.
My last pints are generally the clearest beer of all, only that very last bit carries yeast. I would suggest that you let the beer settle out a little longer, and/or try and rack more cleanly so you don’t have as much sediment in the keg. There will always be some of course. You can also cut the dip tube off a little (e.g., 1/2"), I’ve done this on a couple of kegs.
[quote=“tom sawyer”]My last pints are generally the clearest beer of all, only that very last bit carries yeast. I would suggest that you let the beer settle out a little longer, and/or try and rack more cleanly so you don’t have as much sediment in the keg. There will always be some of course. You can also cut the dip tube off a little (e.g., 1/2"), I’ve done this on a couple of kegs.[/quote]My experience as well but I secondary everything for two weeks.
Not much to add to what’s already been said, but I’ll add this:
I used to rack to a keg with a short dip tube (sawed off about an inch) and cold crash for 1-2 weeks, then push to a fresh keg to reduce the amount of yeast sediment. This significantly reduced the amount of sediment in the serving keg, but did not eliminate it entirely. I’ve since adopted a fairly lazy (um, I mean “efficient”) approach and just started racking to the same keg I’ll serve from and letting it sit in the keezer for a couple weeks before dispensing. I just try not to move the kegs much after tapping.
