Thought I would pass along an interesting tidbit of information I learned this morning about home made beer - the easiest way to eliminate the sediment at the bottom of the bottle of home made beer.
As a wine maker I assumed that the sediment was from dead yeast that hadn’t settled out from the fermentation process and that the only way to get rid of the sediment was to filter it - after all, don’t the commercial beer makers filter their beer?
It turns out (after a chat with a fellow customer who I met this morning at one of the local wine making supply store that I frequent) that I was right that the sediment is from dead yeast, but I was wrong in terms of where it came from.
The typical way to carbonate your beer is by adding sugar to your beer before you bottle it (you can also add carbonation tabs to each bottle as well). The sugar re-energizes the yeast in the beer and restarts the fermentation thereby producing carbon dioxide naturally. The sediment that you see in the bottom of the bottle is therefore the dead yeast from this round of fermentation.
The easiest way to avoid this sedimentation, therefore, is to use a different method of adding carbon dioxide to your beer! To do this you’ll need to use a kegging system such as the one used in your local pub or you can purchase one of those “Tap-A-Draft” systems I mentioned in my previous post “Suggestions On How To Carbonate your Beer, Sparkling Wine or Wine Cooler“.
It’s just a matter of time before I purchase the “Tap-A-Draft”!
Honey Blond Ale
For those of you who like a honey beer like Sleeman’s Honey Brown Lager, I think I might have found a kit 
that you should give a try. RJ Spagnols, who is known for their wine kits also has a line of beer kits called “The Brew House“.
They have a honey beer called “Honey Blonde Ale” that is similar to Sleeman’s but the owner of the store said that if you wanted to “kick it up a notch” to add 1/2 kg of unpasteurized honey along with a kettle full of boiling water to the primary before you added your water and beer wort.
Sounded very interesting so thought I would give it a go. Haven’t made this brand of kit before but it comes highly recommended. If you have any experience with them please leave a comment!
Here are some tasting and technical notes for The Brew House’s Honey Blonde Ale:
STYLES AND HISTORY
A refreshingly smooth, full-bodied ale with a touch of all natural honey to create a slightly sweet finish. Golden in colour, with a rich, soft and round palate, we use pure clover honey to balance the satisfying ale character.
FOOD AND SOCIAL
It pairs extremely well with classic summer fare, such as cold fruit or fresh leaf lettuce salads but also has the resilience to stand up to most strongly flavoured foods like char-grilled meats and pizzas.
Enjoy!
- Scott “The Beer & Wine Making Guy”
Like you I am a lover of wine. I developed my interest in wine in university when my friends would host wine and cheese parties, which were not only fun because of the new people I met but also because of all of the different types of wine I was exposed to. 
