I'm just sayin, Henry...
I guess THEY all get giggled at by other brewers, eh?
Now THat's ONLY since Jan. 1st...Want me to go back further????
Yes it will continue to clear from the top down and more sediment is normal. That is why you put it in a bright tank after all. Everything should settle down to the bottom but occasionally you get a yeast clump that just float around. Your beer is very young and it will take a couple weeks for it to clear completely.
The secondary(bright tank) is used for clearing and bulk aging, no fermentation occurs there. The remaining yeast will clean up after themselves at this time also. Since you dryhopped in the secondary early, then your timing is about right for removal. Many say that leaving the beer on the hops to long will develop off flavors.
Think "bright tank" vs secondary. Fermentation occurs in the fermenter, the beer clears in the bright tank.
I used to use a clearing vessel for all my beers, but now only for lagers, or for beers than can benefit from time in the clearing tank. The term "secondary" really isn't accurate for my beer making, since no fermenting takes place there. In a commercial brewery, it's called the "bright tank"- where the beer clears a bit after fermentation is finished.
I do use a real secondary in all of my wines- I rack from the primary fermenter into the secondary when the wine is 1.020-1.010 and let it finish under airlock in the secondary.
Anyway, regardless of what you call it- I rarely use it any more. I leave most of my beers in the fermenter for 3-4 weeks, then rack to keg or bottles.
Ideally, if I wasn't filtering, I'd do 3-4 weeks primary and then cold condition in a secondary or "bright tank") for another month. (times dependent on dependent on style).
Your putting WAY to much thought into it. Filter when you have time. Just dont do it before the beer is done. and never after it's carbed.
I filter all the time. My standerd is a 3 micron and sometimes I use a 1 micron. Filtering dosen't give you "bright" beer. You still have to let it sit in a bright tank and finish.
Cheers
JJ
Yes, thanks Revvy. I learned more from your post than in many other places I've read about this subject. I can see the confusion, since "secondary" is an adjective that should require a noun - secondary what? I like using "bright tank."
Anyway, wish me luck as I bottle from my primary, the one from which I forgot to strain the hops, so they're still in there. All of which, I learn from this site, is okay! RDWHAHB!
Racking just means transferring--usually with a siphon.
"Bright tank" just means that the beer will clear more in secondary. You just siphon the beer into secondary (bright tank) and try not to suck up any trub with it.
Sanitize everything that touches your beer.
Secondary "Fermentation" is really horribly named/worded. There's not really any fermentation happening in secondary. A better name would be bright tank or clearing tank. Transferring from your primary fermentation vessel to your secondary vessel is mainly to allow for additional clearing and aging of the beer.
Using a bright tank and fining agents have their time and place- another tool or process in the brewer's bag of tricks to make the best tasting, visually appealing beer possible. There's no silver bullet, save time and patience.
I always use Whirlfloc as a kettle fining, transfer as little trub and break material as possible and move the beer to the package after an extended primary and cold-crashing. If I'm not satisfied with my clarity at that point, I'll do a transfer to a bright tank with a suitable fining agent.
EDIT: I thought Palmer was actually pretty good about differentiating between Secondary Fermenting and Secondary Fermentation. I found Papazian to be less so. When I read Papazian the first time I was left with the exact impressions that you have and when I look at my brew logs from 1992 I was regularly doing 4 and 5 day primaries and then secondary. He actually made me feel like the sooner off the yeast cake the better.
You are confusing secondary fermentation with secondary fermenter. Very easy to do.
Secondary fermentation occurs while the yeast is still in solution immediately after the conversion of sugars to alcohol. During that time there is tons of proteins and partially digested sugars in solution in addition to the waste products of the yeast, plus any esters and fusel they create while they ferment. During secondary fermentation the yeast will clean up these esters, and the fusels, and reabsorb a lot of their waste products.
Once this process is complete if you choose THEN you can rack to the Secondary Fermenter. This is a also called a bright tank or clearing tank and it is where the sedimentation occurs. This is where the most of the proteins and other detritus fall out of solution and the beer clears. Yes, the yeast is still present in this tank but because the vast majority has been left behind in the primary tank any benefit from the yeast at this stage is greatly diminished.
Add light DME at flameout to make gravity ~1.055 (3.5 lbs?). Ferment with an English ale yeast. I prefer dry yeasts like Nottingham or S-04.
Dry hop with 1 oz East Kent Goldings for at least a week in the bright tank. If you dry-hop with pellets, make a thick hops slurry with hot water to the consistency of cream of wheat and add that to the bright tank before racking the beer from the primary. I've never had a problem with contact using that method.
Nice, easy-drinking English IPA. Please note that I haven't actually brewed this; I'm just thinking out loud.
Good luck!
Bob
It's pretty pointless to rack a wheat beer. The "secondary fermenter" isn't. I mean, no real fermentation should take place there. It's a vessel for the suspended solids to have a chance to settle over time, better called a 'clarification vessel' or 'bright tank' - though a bright tank is really a vessel into which an already-bright beer is racked before packaging, but I digress.
Do transfer your wheat beer to a bottling vessel to assure complete mixing of the priming sugar before packaging. While wheat beers of most styles should be cloudy, you don't want to mix up all the trub and ick on the floor of the primary.
Bob
I guess THEY all get giggled at by other brewers, eh?
Now THat's ONLY since Jan. 1st...Want me to go back further????
too 
