first big beer have questions

I brewed up a double IPA a few days ago,using 6#DME and 5#grain,,and 3 packs of dry yeast s-o5.

The wort looked and smelled great

24 hours into ferment my lid blew off my ale pail,,there was no clog in the air lock. is that normal?

The beer inside looks like mud,,,brown and gritty looking,,is that normal?

I had a hard time keeping my temps below 75 even inside my fridge with a controller set to 71,,is that normal?

The beer is at 71 as of now and fermentation has slowed,,but the beer still looks like mud.

will I have to use a secondary or can I just let it sit for a month?

I'm not real familiar with bucket brewing so I can't help you there. As far as the temperature of your beer, it's not uncommon at all for the actual temperature to be 5+ degrees more than ambient. That yeast puts off a lot of heat. Now on to the color of your brew, sit back and watch it I've had several beers drastically change color during primary. Personally I almost always secondary, why not...

spam said:

I brewed up a double IPA a few days ago,using 6#DME and 5#grain,,and 3 packs of dry yeast s-o5.

The wort looked and smelled great

24 hours into ferment my lid blew off my ale pail,,there was no clog in the air lock. is that normal?

The beer inside looks like mud,,,brown and gritty looking,,is that normal?

I had a hard time keeping my temps below 75 even inside my fridge with a controller set to 71,,is that normal?

The beer is at 71 as of now and fermentation has slowed,,but the beer still looks like mud.

will I have to use a secondary or can I just let it sit for a month?

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My only lid pop-offs have come from clogged airlocks, so kudos to you for popping the lid w/o that.

75 is on the high end, and will give faster fermentation and more esters than a lower temp. Since you have a fridge for fermentation, lower your set temp to 60-65 and let it sit for a month. If you were gonna dry hop, start that at 1 week in the fermenter, since it sounds like your primary fermentation is done. After the 3-4 weeks in the primary, set your fridge to 35-40, then bottle or keg (whichever you do). For an IIPA, drink fresh, so once it's carbed it's at the first stage of readiness.

Generally, 6 weeks after brew day, you're good to go on an IIPA. But, as always, if it's not good when you open a bottle, wait another week.

ok thanks guys. I THINK it is still going there is pressure in the bucket as of now,,,my temp. is 70. I was afraid to turn the temp. down to much because I do not want to shut the yeast down,,,should I?

you can go lower, i ferment S-05 at 64-68 (wort temp). If you go to low then you can always get the yeast back and working, if the temp gets too high...then you have off flavors

spam said:

ok thanks guys. I THINK it is still going there is pressure in the bucket as of now,,,my temp. is 70. I was afraid to turn the temp. down to much because I do not want to shut the yeast down,,,should I?

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Depending on the yeast I ferment almost everything at around 62F. I've never had a problem with yeast stalling. It generally helps minimize off-flavors too.

ok it's at 66 (wort) now I will try to turn it down to 65 and let it sit for a few more weeks. I does look a little better also

Just want to check, you used 6 pounds of DME? That's not much in 5 gallons, what size batch did you make? 3 packets of dry yeast is a ton, unless you weren't rehydrating in which case it could be right on.

Well the yeast cake was to tall so I moved the batch to a secondary,,I took a taste and it is not to good so far There is a real "bakers yeast" flavor to it. What can I do?

wait it out, it'll probably turn out fine. My first IPA I think I overpitched S-04 and it had a distinct yeasty taste that faded with time, I might have just been too eager with my tastings

What about daksin's questions, batch size and rehydrated?

by the way, are you dry hopping?

spam said:

Well the yeast cake was to tall so I moved the batch to a secondary,,I took a taste and it is not to good so far There is a real "bakers yeast" flavor to it. What can I do?

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The yeasty flavor, IME, comes from a decent amount of suspended yeast. Cold crashing will take care of it.

Three packs of dry yeast is a bit much, depending on the OG and whether you re-hydrated. Sprinkling on the wort cuts your actual yeast count about in half, according to multiple threads here and papers cited therein.

b-boy said:

Depending on the yeast I ferment almost everything at around 62F. I've never had a problem with yeast stalling. It generally helps minimize off-flavors too.

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This is what I have my fermentation chamber set to. Considering you can easily be +5°F internal temperature above that 62°F seems to be a great ambient temp to ferment at.

ok well it went into bottles a few days ago. It tastes pretty good now but is a little harsh. maybe a few weeks in bottles and it will be great?? And thanks to all for the help!