4 inches of sediment after an hour

I have just pitched the yeast for my second brew ever.
I followed, roughly, this recipe:
http://www.beersmith.com/Recipes2/recipe_21.htm
My OG was 1.064

Problems... as always. Something to do with the hops I believe.
-I used pellet hops.
-I threw the first two sets of hops in at 160°F and then brought the temp up to boiling. The last packet was boiling for 5 minutes.
-I used a starter and went with the glass carboy primary (odd I know, but it was all I had). It was about 5-5.25 gallons in a 6 gallon carboy, and I shook the ever living **** out of it to aerate the wort.

I am concerned about the 3-4 inches of green sediment at the bottom. I feel certain it is hops, but why is it at the bottom?
My first brew was in a bucket, so I didn't get to see something like this, but when I transfered to secondary the layer of sediment couldn't have been more than an inch.

Has something gone wrong? Will some of this hop sediment dissolve? Will the beer come out bland and overly malty?

all the alpha acids from the hops have already been utilized, so don't worry about bitterness and that bed of trub will compact over the course of fermentation. the trub is heavier than the beer, so it naturally sinks to the bottom, no worries. you might get a little extra flavor/aroma from having the hops in there, but i think a lot of people let it all go into the fermenter without any ill effects.

It's trub and it's perfectly normal; Your beer will be fine.

Now it is important that you go get yourself a black sweatshirt and cover your carboy. That will keep you from looking and worrying!

Yeah. Sounds like the trub is about where it belongs. RDWHAHB

It is hop residue and will not cause any adverse affects to your beer. For future beers research some filtering options to reduce the amount of hop matter that gets into the fermenter. There are some great and creative options that have been discussed on this forum over time. It will not have a negative affect on flavor, but you will lose a bit of the beer when siphoning due to the amount of trup you will need to leave behind.

Just like the others said, what you see is unfiltered trub that made its way into the fermenter. Its simply not a problem. You don't need to rack the beer off of that cake into another fermenter.

Using a glass carboy is not that strange at all. for many, like myself its SOP, so no problems there and a really good move.

next time after you cool your wart to below 80F whirlpool it. take your spoon and run it around as fas as possible till a whirlpool forms. Then cover and let go for about 10 - 15 min. or so. Then use your handy auto siphon and suck the wart from the very outside edge of the brew pot into the carboy. you will find that most of the hops will be left behind along with all the cold and hot break material.

you can also consider using a hops bag, one for each addition. the hops stay in the bag and out of your brew. just make sure you not only pull the drawstrings but also tie them off tightly.

Before I whirlpooled my wort would look nasty from pellets as well. As fermentation ceases, the yeast will stick to the hop particles and drag it into the trub. I usually dry hop with 2oz of pellets, no bag, straight into the fermenter. Carefull racking and it's clear into the bottling bucket.

How come you added the hops before you boiled? Just curious.

You added the saaz early, too? I'm not understanding the hopping. It looks like that recipe has hops at 60 minutes, 30 minutes, and 5 minutes. You added the saaz before the boil, instead of at 30 minutes?

Newbie brewer, what can I say? I was thinking 158°F, so right after I added the saaz, I was like "Skit! I am supposed to be boiling!" Is this going to affect the brew noticeably? Also, as I cleaned my malt sack, I noticed some of the malt was slightly darker than the rest. How will this affect the brew?

Right now I am watching hops swirl around from "trub" to "krausen" and back. It's pretty wild and quite rapid. Do the hops have anything to offer the yeast? I thought they were for aroma and bitterness.

And, what's added by boiling the hops for an hour versus dry hopping?

Tipsy, you are speaking of things a college student cannot afford. Do you not secondary? Or do you use a glass carboy for that as well. As I moved from wine to beer, I invested in a glass carboy and a better bottle. Prior to, I was using a hardware store bucket and a water cooler jug.

The hops will give unwanted protiens something to cling onto and fall out of suspension.

YOUR BEER WILL BE FINE.

You may have gotten a little extra extraction from the hot soak the hops got before the boil.

As long as you LEAVE IT ALONE..........the beer will be fine.

Filter when you rack to secondary or bottling bucket.

Just moved to secondary. The hydrometer reads below 1. That's about 8%. The beer still tastes watery somehow. It spent about 11 days in the primary around 69° and when I moved it to secondary it began to bubble within one minute. I admit, I used a small amount more grain than recommended and less water. But if this is the case, why would my beer taste watery?
I am hoping the aging (and a little more fermentation apparently) and carbonation will add more the mouthfeel.
Do beers always taste so thin without carbonation?

Jordn:

Are you sure you read the hydrometer correctly? Are you saying it is below 1.000? If you are below 1.000 the Wyeast 1056 didn't take you that low. 1056 won't get you below 1.010 in most cases and certainly not to 1.000
If you read it correctly than you had some wild yeast in there to get it that low. Does the flavor seem funky or overly sour?

A beer that finishes low will often taste "thin" which you may be interpreting as watery. Basically the alcohol is thinning the taste and body.