Newbie Co Clare first batch

[Johnny Brewer]

Hello all.
I was fed up paying over €3 a bottle for craft beers, so decided to try the homebrew route.
Bought the starter equipment  and Razorback IPA beer kit early May.
Just chilled and opened  my first couple of bottles this evening and tastes good. 
This is a great forum with A mine of information, so hopefully will be sticking around. Beer is still a bit cloudy which I dont mind, but bottom of bottle is not drinkable because of sediment. Is this the norm with homebrew?

[Drum]

Welcome aboard Johnny and congratulations on your first born    Great to hear that a first brew tastes good, it always encourages people to keep brewing and learning.

The sediment in the bottom of the bottle is mostly yeast and is normal in bottle conditioned beers. In some styles the yeast is part of the flavour but not for an IPA. your best bet to avoid the yeasty dregs is to pour slowly into a pint glass and leave the last 10 or 15 ml in the bottle. chilling the bottles longer (or cold crashing the beer in the fermenter before bottling next time) will help settle the yeast on the bottom of the bottle. I like to hold the glass and bottle up to a light so i can see the dregs flowing from the bottom of the bottle and stop pouring before they get in the glass. 

[Johnny Brewer]

Thanks for the tips. When you say cold crashing, I thought it was necessary to keep the beer warm for bottle conditioning and carbonation. I left the bottles in the fridge long enough to chill. If I leave them chilled for a few days, will this help?

[Leann ull]

Keep the beer in a warm place for 2-3 weeks after bottling, use coopers bottles and give it an occasional squeeze and you'll know it's done when they are hard.
What is happening in reality is there is still yeast in suspension and by introducing sugar or carbonation drops you are refeeding it which generates, co2 which goes into suspension in the liquid(the more sugar the more fizz), alcohol and "yeast shit" (smell) as my kids call it which is more yeast and trub.
Then cold crash in fridge for a week and it will be lovely and clear.
Enjoy the journey

Btw as with all Newbies I'd recommend you follow the link on my sig as its all detailed on those how-tos