Considerable Number Boil Hops Transferred to Fermenter

Hi all! Me and a couple friends decided a couple weeks ago that we wanted to start brewing beer. Today was the day! I stayed halfway through the active cooling and then had to leave to get to work. I'm a little more detail oriented than them but they assured me everything would be fine.

They sent me a picture of the product of the day (after pitching yeast and sealing it up) and when they transferred to the fermenter they took (what seems like) a LOT of the boil hops along, looks like .25-.5 inches in the bottom, though I'm not sure how long it's had to settle. Apparently they didn't let it rest in the kettle for more than 5-10 mins after cooling and had some trouble using the auto siphon.

How much are having these hops in the bottom going to affect the final product (IPA)? If it's expected to be very badly affected, should it be transferred to another fermenter after the hops settle to the bottom or would that be worse than leaving it as is?

Thanks so much for your help!

Edit: I asked him to measure the amount of hops in the bottom and he said it's about 3/4 - 1" worth and it's been sitting for about 30 mins, so more than I initially thought.

When I first started brewing my kettle did not have a valve on it to drain the wort, I would pour it into the carboy through a funnel. some of the trub and hops would end up in the fermenter. When the beer is finished I racked to a keg and left the hops, yeast and trub in the bottom of the fermenter.

Some ferment with everything in the fermenter and others just the clear wort after whirlpooling. As you gain more experience you can decide which is best for you and your equipment.

I wouldn't worry too much about it, no matter what you do you're going to get some trub/hops into your primary. The trick is to try to minimize the time the beer sits on it. I would be sure to transfer to a secondary as soon as primary has finished (usually about a week) to give your beer the best chance at clarifying and not developing off flavors. Good luck and Cheers!

Leave your beer alone! Let it rest. There is nothing wrong with having some hops in the fermenter. I don't worry about it and my beer turns out very good. Usually my beer sits in primary for 2-3 weeks. Will I in the future worry about it as I try to clean up every minor detail as I gain equipment? Perhaps, but it's nothing to worry about now since it is already in your fermenter. Mash temp, fermentation temp, cleaning/sanitation, and time is far more important than anything else to worry about.

Welcome to the club! Hope it turns out well!

Don't worry one bit. I don't even bother filtering out hops anymore
Just let them sit in there and it will be fine.

I bottled an IPA a week ago that I had brewed about 4 weeks prior. The batch I did was ended up just around six gallons. Rather than waist any wort I split the batch between two carboys, and also did this as an experiment.

I have never filtered my wort going into the conical I am using, and just open up the valve and let er go. After quite a few batches I wondered how much the trub effects the final product, so I used this split batch as a test. Mind you this was an 6 gallons brewed IPA with roughly 11 oz of hops added.

Poured three gal into the first conical, wort from my BK was exceedingly clear and no trub.

Poured three gal into the second conical, wort form the BK became excessively gunky as it poured in the last 1/2 gal or so. I just let it go though as this was my intended experiment. Ended up with roughly 2 1/2 inches or so of trub at the bottom.

Let them both ferment out for three weeks. No secondary.

Bottled.

OG in both conicals. 1.068
FG in both conicals. 1.012

I was happy to see that the yeast had performed exactly the same in both conicals.

Samples at bottling time. The conical containing the first pour was exceptionally clear, and had every intended flavor that I wanted with my beer. In this regard I consider the batch of beer a success.

From the conical with all the trub, my bottling volume was about 1/2 gal less than from the first. So immediately there is one bad side to trub at the bottom of the conical. Upon tasting it was almost exactly the same from the first conicals taste, except... There was an added taste of grassy notes to the beer. Much like I had walked outside and took a bite out of my lawn. My girlfriend said it was an earthy taste. All in all it was still very good IMO, but its was surely much less clear. I'm not a huge fan of grass also.

So that is what I would expect you would get if you were to let the beer sit on the trub for a long time. More than a week.

I think I may try this same experiment again, but not with and IPA. My next batch of beer I think is going to be a simple Irish red. So there would be hardly any hops in it, and the trub would more or less consist of only the hot/cold break proteins.

I have read (I don't have the source) that the hot break and cold break proteins can be good for the yeast during fermentation. Though I can not truly confirm or deny this, I just remember reading it probably from a BYO article or something along those lines. Part of the reason why I wanted to try my experiment.

That was interesting to know. Thanks for sharing. 11oz hops?! Dang, sounds damn good:rockin:

Facinerous said:

From the conical with all the trub, my bottling volume was about 1/2 gal less than from the first. So immediately there is one bad side to trub at the bottom of the conical. Upon tasting it was almost exactly the same from the first conicals taste, except... There was an added taste of grassy notes to the beer. Much like I had walked outside and took a bite out of my lawn. My girlfriend said it was an earthy taste. All in all it was still very good IMO, but its was surely much less clear. I'm not a huge fan of grass also.

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I do only dump clear wort into my fermenters but not because the end result flavor is affected, but wasted space in the fermenter. You had a half gallon less in the fermenter with the trub and hops. I have done it both ways and found no difference in the finished product.

My bet is after some bottle conditioning you will find the no difference in flavor. Any difference in flavor caused by suspended particles will fall out of solution during cold conditioning.

In my experiences,the grainy hop trub settles out first. Then the floury trub in suspension settles out next. So it should basically be ok. As soon as it settles out clear or slightly misty,rack to bottling bucket & proceed. You'll get a little less beer due to trub/yeast volume at the bottom though. This is the reason I bought a dual layer,fine mesh strainer from Midwest. NB has the same one. Great for getting out hop resdue,grains that got through the bag, cold break & the like. I get on average,about 3/8" of trub & yeast in the bottom of primary by bottling day. More clear beer for me!

Thanks for all the great replies. I went and checked it out this morning and everything settled to the bottom taking up about .5" in the fermenter. We used a total of 5oz of hop pellets through the boil stage in hops bags, so based on all your advice, I'm thinking that it's a very small amount in there compared to what it could have been. We also used a Whirlfloc tablet, is it possible that this makes up some of the sediment as well?

I'd still like it to be sitting in there with virtually nothing on the bottom- but that's probably more to do with my personality. I just don't want off or grassy flavors coming through - biting grass doesn't sound appealing (great comparative trial btw Facinerous!).

For now, I think we're jus going to leave it alone while the yeast does it's thing as you all advised. We'll probably rack it to secondary to get it off the trub in the primary as soon as fermentation seems done (hopefully sooner rather than later).

Thanks again!

That 1/2" of trub will compact over the 2-3 weeks it'll take to get down to a stable Fg & settle out clear or slightly misty. And cold break could be part of it if you chilled to pitch temp quickly. Also if you get it down to,say,75F then top off with very cold chilled water. I get mine from 75F down to about 65F that way,& get a little cold break. But it compacts with the trub & yeast too. No need for secondary if you're not adding fruit,oaking or aging. But you can if you like. Just make sure the beer is at a stable FG before racking anywhere.