I am concerened with clarifying my beer. What is the best way to clarify a 5 gal. batch of beer? After the primary fermentation is done I rack the beer and put it in glass carboy. I then let it sit for another week , sometimes two and then I rack it again and bottle it. Several weeks after bottling I notice yeast in the bottom of my bottles. Is it best to let it sit a little while longer or should I add something to it to help clarify it?

Is it not clear, or is it just that there is sediment on the bottom of the bottom that concerns you? I have bottled some beers after they have been in secondary fermentation for several weeks and there is always some sediment.

I believe unless you carb and then bottle, ie force carb in a keg, you will have some settling occur in the bottle and always have some sediment. I believe this is due to the fact that when you bottle condition you are adding priming sugar and thus reactivating the yeast to do their job and carb the beer.

I can't say this for certainty, but I just looked at 2 bottles of beer that I bottled in the past month. One was bottle conditioned for carbonation, the other was force carbed in a keg. The bottled conditioned beer has some sediment, but the keg carbed has none.

If you are concerned with this sediment, just slowly pour your beer into a glass, if you are careful, you will have little to no sediment in your glass. But honestly a little sediment is normal and not going to hurt anything at all. Some beers are suggested to be swirled before the last bit is poured into a glass to stir up the sediment and add it to the glass!

your priming (secondary) yeast is settling out of suspension. This is normal.

When you bottle condition (carbonate) you add sugars that reactivate the yeast to produce C02 for carbonation, this yeast will end up at the bottom of your beer.

A gentle pour will avoid any of the sediment getting into your glass. This yeast is not bad for you.

If your beer is cloudy throughout then that is a different issue.

I agree that normally the sediment is the yeast settling after it's done its work carbonating the beer.

A couple of thoughts:

- I like to use a little gelatin finings when I bottle. It helps to further clarify the beer and seems set the sediment on the bottom of the bottle a little more than without using it. I put the finings in the water and let it "bloom" for 5-10 minutes before adding the bottling sugar and applying heat.

- A couple of beer styles are supposed to be a little cloudy - hefeweizen and wit come to mind. If fact wit means "white" which is caused by the yeast cloud. With these styles, pour off half the beer then swirl the yeast off the bottom and pour the rest.

- Yeast is full of vitamin B12. After you carefully decant the beer into a glass, swirl the yeast up from the bottom and drink it (from the bottle, so you have a "pretty" glass of brew to present)! It's good for you.

Hoppy brewing.