I think I made a stupid mistake

Hello,

I've followed a local home brewers instructions for a partial mash recipe using whole hops. No where in the instructions did he mention scooping out the spent hops before adding the wort to the primary fermenter, so being my first non-kit batch, I decided to follow the directions rigidly, leaving both boiling and finishing hops in the wort.

It's day two, and fermentation seems to be doing well, but I have a bunch of soaked hops on the surface of my fermenter. There doesn't appear to be any mold or infection, but I'm very paranoid about this and think it might be wise to transfer into secondary ASAP to avoid problems and an excessively bitter batch.

Can any pro's offer a newb some advice/reassurance?

It should be fine. If you're fermenting in a carboy, keep an eye on it to make sure the hops don't form a clog in the neck that will allow CO2 pressure to build up.

And I wouldn't worry about bitterness too much... you won't be extracting bitterness from hops unless they're being boiled.

RDWHAHB!

leave it in the primary; it should settle out after a couple weeks.

+1 it'll be fine. You may get a little more hop aroma which isn't a bad thing, as long as it doesn't plug your airlock and blow it into orbit so watch it closely.

Haha, thanks for the replies guys!! Thankfully it's in a 46 litre bucket so it shouldn't explode. But I'm definitely going to keep an eye on it.

justindnb
Short answer - RDWHAHB!
Longer and a little more serious.
Around half of my beers I don't bother with straining or anything. I have had many beers where I dump all the trub / hops / cr@p into the primary. Once fermentation settles, it all falls to the bottom that I rack off of into the secondary, or even into the keg. I have never noticed a difference unless I leave it in the primary for over two months.

RDWAHAB. Adding the hops doesn't increase the chance of infection or mold since hops are anti-septic.

+1 to everyone elses comments. Your still good to go!!

+9 (I think?)

You're good....I don't ever strain out the goodies. They won't hurt a thing.

Bitterness will not increase in the fermenter, too cold.

justindnb said:

Haha, thanks for the replies guys!! Thankfully it's in a 46 litre bucket so it shouldn't explode. But I'm definitely going to keep an eye on it.

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I know a guy who fermented in a bucket and the airlock got clogged. The bucket lid ended up across the room, he still hasn't found the airlock, and he had to clean beer off the ceiling.

camiller said:

I know a guy who fermented in a bucket and the airlock got clogged. The bucket lid ended up across the room, he still hasn't found the airlock, and he had to clean beer off the ceiling.

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He should check with NORAD. It's probably being tracked as space junk.