Sediment at the bottom of IPA's or other Ales

Brewbert · Post by **Brewbert** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:42 pm

What is this?

I frequently see it on older bottles of IPA. (Not old but bottled 4 weeks ago or more). I taste no difference, I pour it into a glass so it all mixes in. Just wondering what it was, not like the beer went bad it tasted the same as another bottle that didn't have it.

Well it's not so much sediment but it looks almost goopy.. then you mix it around and it becomes all cloudy and sometimes it looks like snowflakes.

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:11 pm

Any brews in particular?

I presume it's unfiltered, and the majority of the sediment is probably yeast.

mintjellie · Post by **mintjellie** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:18 pm

Could it possible be protein?

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/commerc ... ks-166055/

fourth post down.

mintjellie · Post by **mintjellie** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:37 pm

http://blog.stonebrew.com/?p=2639

An even better post on this subject.

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 1:05 am

mintjellie wrote:http://blog.stonebrew.com/?p=2639

An even better post on this subject.

Nice!

Maybe they should drastically reduce their hop content and triple cold filter.

Ale's What Cures Ya · Post by **Ale's What Cures Ya** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 1:44 am

4 weeks is now what constitutes an old bottle of beer now? Jeez, I have some downright fossils in my basement.

Brewbert · Post by **Brewbert** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 4:09 am

Not since I've been to BC, but Red Racer is in a can, and the Bels Two hearted ive gotten from over the border have been bottled within two weeks.

I had a smashbomb IPA from Flying Monkeys back in ontario left and i noticed it on the bottom. Noticed it often on bottles over 4 weeks with Mad Tom, Smashbomb, and Tree Brewing's Hophead. Some of the older bottles of Southern Tier's 2x IPA on the LCBO shelves back in September had this as well.

Ale's What Cures Ya wrote:4 weeks is now what constitutes an old bottle of beer now? Jeez, I have some downright fossils in my basement.

Old was a wrong word to use, but I find anything over 4 weeks with an IPA the hop profile is definately off.

JasonTremblay · Post by **JasonTremblay** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 8:27 am

Something else to consider with IPAs is that oxygen kills hop flavours and aromas, at VERY low concentrations. Many brewers leave their IPAs unfiltered (instead relying on finings, crash cooling, even lagering to clear things up) so that the filter won't add oxygen into the beer. This can lead to ... less than sparkling hop bombs.

IPAs are a bear to bottle well -- it's one of the reasons that fresh kegged and (well-made) casked IPAs often taste better than bottled. And bottling lines have their own challenges. By the time an IPA wends its way through the Beer Store or LCBO ...

FWIW, one of the reasons Sierra Nevada bottle conditions its beers is to use yeast to pick up an residual O2. SN also uses oxygen-scavenging caps ...

markaberrant · Post by **markaberrant** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 9:09 am

JasonTremblay wrote:FWIW, one of the reasons Sierra Nevada bottle conditions its beers is to use yeast to pick up an residual O2. SN also uses oxygen-scavenging caps ...

SN beer is also pretty much fully carbed before it is bottled, they add a very small amount of sugar and yeast to finish it off, that is why you see so little sediment in their bottles.

markaberrant · Post by **markaberrant** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 9:11 am

Execessive sediment or "goop" is just sloppy brewing/bottling processes, there are a multitude of factors, but the brewer should be correcting it.

Tapsucker · Post by **Tapsucker** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 2:21 pm

There is some irony in considering IPAs has having a limited shelf life. The style was developed specifically to last a long journey.

Arguably, even if the hop profile is more enjoyable when fresh, a month or two old IPA that has travelled thousands of miles should taste more authentic.

matt7215 · Post by **matt7215** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 2:28 pm

Tapsucker wrote:There is some irony in considering IPAs has having a limited shelf life. The style was developed specifically to last a long journey.

Arguably, even if the hop profile is more enjoyable when fresh, a month or two old IPA that has travelled thousands of miles should taste more authentic.

the style was developed to last a journey but what we consider IPAs to day have very little in common with the IPAs that were being shipped to India

i dont think many people on this board would have enjoyed the "authentic" IPA of old

its actually getting to the point where the term IPA simply means "hoppy" in craft beer culture, i dont know if thats a good or bad thing but the term IPA certainly doesnt mean the same thing now that is did back then

markaberrant · Post by **markaberrant** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:38 pm

Yep not even close in comparison.

Timmy · Post by **Timmy** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 9:06 pm

I noticed some in bottles of Smuttynose Finest kind IPA before