Well, I brewed my first beer a couple weeks ago, and now it is sitting in my secondary...
It's a Belgian Tripel kit (w/specialty grains) from Norther brewer. The actual brew process went pretty well, probably because I had helped my cousin brew a batch the weekend before. My original gravity came in at a few points less than the box said, but I think part of that was significant wort loss. So, this brings me to my first question, is there a trick to the late hops addition (instructions in the kit were to use the 1 oz Saaz at 1 minute) that results in less trub? I did tilt the kettle to get the wort over by the side, but even then, there was such a thick layer of crud...
So, it sat in my bucket for a week, and after the week, the bubbling of the airlock had slowed way down, and shining a flashlight through side of the bucket, I could see that the krausen had fallen (it had been nearly to the top of the bucket for a few days, and had touched the bottom of the airlock. Cool!) so I decided to rack to secondary. When I took the lid off, it smelled...icky, but I figured it was normal. There was a significant layer of brown film, which looked downright nasty, and I did my best to siphon off the beer without sucking any of that crap up. I was also worried about jamming my siphon into the yeast cake, simply because between the film and how cloudy the beer was, I couldn't see it. After I finished racking, I discovered that I needn't have worried, as there wasn't anything significant. I assume this means that I racked prematurely, but I figure it shouldn't really hurt anything...There was some green sludge at the bottom, which I'm assuming is hops trub.
So, now this stuff is in secondary, and it started fermenting again. I guess I woke up the yeast, it formed a new film of icky crud on the top, maybe an inch or two deep. And I notice the beer now looks like caramel. Its that color, and approximately that opaque.
So, will this get lighter as it ages? I sure hope it gets clearer! And any tips, when the time comes, for siphoning this out of my carboy without getting the film? Or will the film sink eventually?
It's a Belgian Tripel kit (w/specialty grains) from Norther brewer. The actual brew process went pretty well, probably because I had helped my cousin brew a batch the weekend before. My original gravity came in at a few points less than the box said, but I think part of that was significant wort loss. So, this brings me to my first question, is there a trick to the late hops addition (instructions in the kit were to use the 1 oz Saaz at 1 minute) that results in less trub? I did tilt the kettle to get the wort over by the side, but even then, there was such a thick layer of crud...
So, it sat in my bucket for a week, and after the week, the bubbling of the airlock had slowed way down, and shining a flashlight through side of the bucket, I could see that the krausen had fallen (it had been nearly to the top of the bucket for a few days, and had touched the bottom of the airlock. Cool!) so I decided to rack to secondary. When I took the lid off, it smelled...icky, but I figured it was normal. There was a significant layer of brown film, which looked downright nasty, and I did my best to siphon off the beer without sucking any of that crap up. I was also worried about jamming my siphon into the yeast cake, simply because between the film and how cloudy the beer was, I couldn't see it. After I finished racking, I discovered that I needn't have worried, as there wasn't anything significant. I assume this means that I racked prematurely, but I figure it shouldn't really hurt anything...There was some green sludge at the bottom, which I'm assuming is hops trub.
So, now this stuff is in secondary, and it started fermenting again. I guess I woke up the yeast, it formed a new film of icky crud on the top, maybe an inch or two deep. And I notice the beer now looks like caramel. Its that color, and approximately that opaque.
So, will this get lighter as it ages? I sure hope it gets clearer! And any tips, when the time comes, for siphoning this out of my carboy without getting the film? Or will the film sink eventually?