Feeling a tad discouraged

I've read many "is my beer ruined?" threads and I'm not going that far necessarily but I'm still a little down about my brew today. It was Edwort's Bee Cave IPA and it tasted EXCELLENT albeit slightly watery at the end of primary so much I thought about bottling it up and calling it quits. But it called for dry hopping with 1 oz Centennial, so I racked to secondary and added pellet hops in a grain bag with a marble. Boiled the entire bag w/ marble before adding hops.

One week later, it does not smell good IMO, kind of a cidery smell and I swear it's darker than a week ago, not sure how that happens. Also, for being a secondary, it wasn't even close to clear. There were all kinds of small floc particles in suspension. To me it tasted pungent but I guess I'm hoping that's the result of the dry hops. This is the second beer in a row I've dry hopped in secondary and the last one didn't come out anywhere near clear either. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong or if I need some sort of filter on the suction side of my racking cane?

Anyway, I'll wait it out and see but was wondering if others have had similar results?

if clarity is your main concern here you could try using gelatin

Dry hoping will tend to produce a haze to the beer, I don't think there is much you can do about it. Maybe the particles are pieces of the hop pellets? You could try dry hoping with whole hops. I find that it reduces that problem. As for the taste and darkening, I'm not sure what could be going on there.

Believe it or not, the beer will appear darker in a carboy when it clears. The reason is that the white yeast will start to fall out, leaving it looking darker. BUT, it's much darker in the carboy than in the glass because you're looking through less beer. Try it and see! Pull out a hydrometer sample and hold it up to the light. It's lighter in the glass.

How long have you been dryhopping? If it's been more than 5 days, I'd bottle it up now. More time on the dryhops doesn't improve the flavor.

Yooper said:

How long have you been dryhopping? If it's been more than 5 days, I'd bottle it up now. More time on the dryhops doesn't improve the flavor.

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I just bottled it after dry hopping for 6 days.

gtpro said:

if clarity is your main concern here you could try using gelatin

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I've heard of this but never tried it. Can I just use gelatin from the supermarket or is there a special variety recommended? What is the procedure for mixing it up and when to add it?

hops2it said:

I just bottled it after dry hopping for 6 days.



I've heard of this but never tried it. Can I just use gelatin from the supermarket or is there a special variety recommended? What is the procedure for mixing it up and when to add it?

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I don't use it, but you can use Knox gelatin from the store. Time will clear it just as well, though, in my experience.

I just brewed a pliney which used a crapload of dry hops. I use a nylon sock to put them in and if at all possible use whole hops for dry hopping.

It was a bit cloudy when I tansferred it but as soon as I chilled it it cleared right up. I keg so after the first 4 or 5 pours it came out crystal clear.

If your bottling try crash cooling it whihc hopefully should drop out alot of sediment.

For the big stuff floating I use a panty hoe (new of course) and I catch a lot of stuff

JoeyChopps said:

For the big stuff floating I use a panty hoe (new of course) and I catch a lot of stuff

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That seems like a good idea to me. And I did use pellets in the grain bag on this occasion as they were out of leaf hops at the LHBS.

Thanks for the tip on the Knox, I'll check it out.

Unfortunately, I don't really have a good setup for cold crashing unless I would do it for short duration using an upright freezer. Sounds kinda risky though and I'm not sure if it needs long duration in cold temps?

I was a little discouraged after my first batch tasted like monkey piss, I ended up dumping my bottles (needed the bottles for another batch) but I saved the 2L bottles I had. I wish I hadn't dumped it because it turned out great after bottled for a month. As others have told me, and it's damn good advice, time only makes it better. Do you have a cold room in your place, or a cold spot under the stairs? you could also try the swamp cooler method.

my first time saying this but RDWHAHB

One thing I would add is that my previous batch (SNPA clone) had similar results after being in the fridge now for several days following a 3 week rest in the basement (about 62* temp). Maybe I'm just not leaving it long enough?

When you're chewing on life's gristle, don't worry - give a whistle...

I have had hazy beers, and I have had yeasty beer when I kegged it too soon, in all cases a month of the beer sitting forgotten in the refrigerator took care of the issue.

Well, it is already in the bottle so all you need to do is patiently wait, and then refirigerate. You can try one at two weeks, but three weeks is the rule of thumb. Like Yooper said, looking into a five gallon bucket will look a lot darker than looking through a twelve ounce glass. Your beer will undergo another mini fermentation since you added priming sugar which will result in more floaty stuff. Don't even look for a couple weeks. It will all settle to the bottom when it is cone.

Relax, and let the yeast do its thing. Millions of years of evolution have taught yeast what to do. Stay out of the way and let them work. As they say RDWHAHB.