Floaties, Like or Dislike!?

It has hit over there... and for much of the same reasons it has hit over here.

 

I also have really bad floaters. They can be a real pain sometimes.

 

I don't mind haze or yeast sediment, but, man, big floaties are disgusting. When they reach corn flake size, they're truly awful.

 

I read some of thread, and my inner angry person feels like grabbing a Rochefort 10 bottle and becoming violent with it.

Floaties are "unacceptable?" (I read that ... no lie)

Learn to decant, asshole(s).

 

I believe there is a line of thought, right or wrong, that if a beer were "made properly" then you should not have to decant. Many of us grew up on AAL before finding craft, and never had to decant a Bud to avoid floaties.

 

Just the word 'floaties' brings up images I'd rather not describe.

 

Oh-ok, yeah, "yeast clumps" I call them, they're perfectly safe to drink - it's just caused by the flocculation process of yeast in brewing.

White Labs write an interesting article on that: https://www.whitelabs.com/resources/attenuation-and-flocculation

Technically the yeast should fall to the bottom of the fermentor when the beer has reached final gravity which makes it easier to filter the beer as well, however I've noticed that NEIPAs are using low flocculating yeast strands (my guess is to increase the sugar left in the finished beer).

 

I like haze and cloudiness from wheat or an unfiltered beer. I do not like large pieces of matter in beer, be it fruit, hops or whatever. I know they are harmless but visually unappealing and if they are that abundant, they keep me from drinking the beer sadly.

Schlafly Tasmanian IPA was so full of floaties it was basically a glass of floaters. Call it picky but i drank some of it but couldnt finish

 

Floaties of such are cool with me. Ive seen beers with what seemed like 10x that amount. It was like beer with pulp.

 

That in a nut shell. If floaties change the flavor I can't tell, I'm also forgiving of floaties, haze, orange juice etc. if it's a good beer it's a good beer, but I don't equate that to lazy sloppy brewing practices, they're achieving what they want to present. If it was a problem they'd simply use a clarifier, but since guys stand in line and are willing to pay $22 for a 4 pk seems like they're hitting their market.

 

Floaties in "Fresh" beers are fine and welcome! Floaties that are a result of "out of date" beers will not be drank by this guy!

I love any Alchemist with floaties and remember when Jai Alai was off the chain and had floaties in it when it was fresh.

 

Funny enough, he has the same opinion that I do. Ironic that a lot of these cases involve his beer.

 

Disgusting, I don’t need or want to use a strainer for my beer

 

You can't decant the beer when the something that you're looking to decant the beer off of has been agitated (by carbonation) and is floating in solution, asshole.

 

Actually, the interesting thing about most NEIPAs is that they're using yeast strains that are high flocculators under "normal" conditions, but high polyphenol levels cause them to fail to fall out of solution at a normal rate.

 

I can't recall a beer I've had from The Alchemist that didn't have a decent amount of floaties (when I poured the beer into a glass instead of drinking from the can as directed). I don't mind the small "flake" floaties, but I will admit the big chunks give me pause.

And I do like his beers better from the can.

 

Great point. You should send me all your ugly beer. I can handle it.

 

Stirring isn't enough, unfortunately. It needs to be re-incorporated at a finer level. (I tried a silicone whisk on a chunky, shitty old IPA once for fun- didn't work.) What does seem to work to varying degrees is pouring the beer slowly through a fine mesh sieve. If the beer is fresh, it works much better (and oddly, leaves no chunks behind in the strainer either). If the beer is old, it only reduces the chunks and you're better off waiting until they settle to the bottom and just leave them behind in the 1st pour glass while transferring the beer.

I drink a lot of Alchemist and very, very rarely see chunks in the beer. I don't know why it happens more to other people but I suspect agitation and temperature shifts during transit may have something to do with it. (Though I do bring my Alchemist beer home while going through Smuggler's Notch, which is definitely not a smooth drive.)