nathanclare

Recipes 

Hey guys. New to this forum and there's a lot of great info here. I'm glad I stumbled in. I've got a Diamond Knot IPA (DME) that I'm currently working on and had a couple questions regarding it. First of all, I only had this batch in the primary for 48 hours because it went absolutely nuts and I had to rig a blow off setup to keep the thing from spilling over into floor / blowing the lid off. After it calmed down, I transfered it to the secondary (carboy) and added some dry hops. The directions said it would take 4-14 days for the hops to settle out, but they are still floating on the top. It has been in the secondary for 14 days now. I guess my question is, is it too soon to bottle? I don't have a hydrometer which I know is a bad thing. So all I have to go on is the airlock, which is bubbling about every 1-2 minutes. But I figured as wild as the fermentation was the first few days, there shouldn't really be any sugars left to ferment. The only thing I was waiting on was for the hops to settle to the bottom. I wouldn't mind leaving it alone for another week or two, but I've heard / read that when dry hopping, sometimes people get grassy / off flavors when they leave the dry hops in too long. Any advice would help.
Thanks.
Nate

Blender

Recipes 

You really should check the gravity just to make sure that your batch is ready for bottles. It's a good practice to ensure that you don't have bottle bombs in the future.

You can always siphon underneath the hops plus attach a small hop bag to the tubing end to filter out the bits as it drains into the bottling bucket.

Now for your next batch let it primary ferment for at least 10-14 days. You transfered the first one early and if you have a proper blowoff tube the lid will be just fine.

__________________
Gary

DrinksWellWithOthers

Recipes 

Is this the kit from Homebrew Heaven? I made that kit about 4 or 5 months ago. When I dry hopped, only about half of the hops made it to the bottom of the carboy after 10 days. I racked with my auto siphon and just tried to siphon carefully. If I got any hop particles in the bottle then they settled out eventually. Also, this is the only beer I've made that darkened so much in color over time. I've got about 6 left in the back of the fridge and the beer is as dark as an Octoberfest now - so drink it up when its good and ready.

cuinrearview

Recipes 

Welcome Nate

First, as stated above, get yourself a hydrometer. This is a bit hypocritical on my part, as I don't use it all the time, but it's like wrenching on a vehicle in the garage. You can't beat having the right tool for the job. It sounds as though you may still have some fermentation taking place, so you would be well served to let the beer stay in the fermenter. As for dry hopping, I read (on here) a while back that gently rocking the secondary once every day will settle the particles out. I've done this twice with pellets and it worked beautifully. Can't speak on whole hops, but it works for the pellets. Before I used this technique I just siphoned under the green top and dealt with what came through as best I could. It still made beer, and damn good beer at that!!

If your airlock is still bubbling, use the next week to get a hydrometer, gently rock the fermenter every day, and relax in the knowledge that you're going to make some outstanding beer. The "grassy" thing has not been a problem with my palate thus far, and I loves me some home-made IPA