Sediment Day 1

[neo1981]

Hi
My Day 1 of fermentation, it’s a small patch, but I can see lots of sediment. I took 2 photos: one at 5pm which looks like half of the jar is sediment, and one at 9pm which looks very cloudy but sediments are down. Any opinions if something is wrong and I need to start again?

 

[sibelman]

Seems odd. Might be useful to know what's in there: recipe?

 

[DBhomebrew]

Looks like a healthy lag phase, now fermenting. The moving fermentation churns up the sediment. When it's done, the liquid will clear again from the top down.

 

[DBhomebrew]

Recipe and process descriptions (with pictures!) does help with these kind of "Is this normal?" questions.

 

[neo1981]

Seems odd. Might be useful to know what's in there: recipe?

1.5 pound red wheat malt
0.33 pounds 2 row pale
0.15 Honey malt
Less than 2 gallons of water
Mosaic hops 0.044 pound 5 minutes in last 60min boil
Mosaic hops dry after cooling 0.022 pounds
Yeast 0.0044 pounds

I am a beginner, so don’t ask my why this mix. It was a Google search

 

[neo1981]

1.5 pound red wheat malt
0.33 pounds 2 row pale
0.15 Honey malt
Less than 2 gallons of water
Mosaic hops 0.044 pound 5 minutes in last 60min boil
Mosaic hops dry after cooling 0.022 pounds
Yeast 0.0044 pounds

I am a beginner, so don’t ask my why this mix. It was a Google search

Mash 45min, boil wort 55min + 5 with hops. Chilling in sink with ICE. Move to fermentation jar, yeast, hops, and airlock.

 

[Broken Crow]

1.5 pound red wheat malt
0.33 pounds 2 row pale
0.15 Honey malt
Less than 2 gallons of water
Mosaic hops 0.044 pound 5 minutes in last 60min boil
Mosaic hops dry after cooling 0.022 pounds
Yeast 0.0044 pounds

I am a beginner, so don’t ask my why this mix. It was a Google search

Assuming this was done on the stovetop and that everything in the 'kettle' was poured into the jar, it looks very much like my own first brews...the seemingly excessive crud only being the hot and cold break material along with everything else.
Looking good so far!

 

[IslandLizard]

What's the volume of that fermentation jar?

After the mash was done, how did you separate the wort from the (spent) grains?
What temperature did you mash at?

Did you take a gravity reading after the wort had cooled?

 

[neo1981]

What's the volume of that fermentation jar?

After the mash was done, how did you separate the wort from the (spent) grains?
What temperature did you mash at?

Did you take a gravity reading after the wort had cooled?

3 liters jar (0.80 gallons)

I used a mash bag.

Mash at 155-160f

No gravity reading.

 

[IslandLizard]

Mash at 155-160f

If that was the actual temp of the mash for an hour, that's a tad high. I wouldn't go above 156-158F, max.
But if it began at 160°F and dropped to 155°F during the hour mash, it's still a little high but probably still OK.
[EDITS]
I'd include a gravity reading, as well as the volume of the collected wort, after the mash, pre-boil. That tells you how the mash performed, and if you're on target.

Then another reading of the wort gravity at the end of the boil. That tells you if your Original Gravity (OG) is on target. Those are key data for a homebrewer, as is a Final Gravity (FG) reading when fermentation is complete.

I can recommend reading John Palmer's How to Brew, 4th Ed.

 

[hotbeer]

It's normal, at least for me, to see the trub start to fall out before the kraeusen starts. And then when the fermentation starts to get going, the yeast churn things up and put much of that trub back in suspension. When the yeast slow down, things will start to settle again.

 

[IslandLizard]

Mosaic hops 0.044 pound 5 minutes in last 60min boil
Mosaic hops dry after cooling 0.022 pounds
Yeast 0.0044 pounds

We know you're new to brewing and this place.
When it comes to numbers, we homebrewers try to present them in a "normally accepted" or common way, everyone understands.

You're fine with the amounts in malts/grains. Pounds or fractions thereof is common.
It all works...
... until it comes to much smaller amounts.
No-one knows how much 0.044 pound is. We know what a pound is, but 1/4 pound gets already fuzzy. Then when it gets to an 1/8 of a pound we're getting lost already. Yet, everyone knows what 2 oz is.

So, for us common homebrewers I "translated" your recipe:
1.5 lbs red wheat malt
0.33 lbs 2 row pale (or 5.3 oz)
0.15 lbs Honey malt (or 2.4 oz)
Less than 2 gallons of water
Mosaic hops 0.044 pound (that's 0.7 oz or 20 grams)
Mosaic hops dry after cooling 0.022 pounds ==> that's half of the above, so 0.35 oz or 10 grams
Yeast 0.0044 pounds ==> That's 2 grams!

You'll get used to it, the more you read and browse around here.

As I mentioned before, read John Palmer's How to Brew, 4th Ed.
It can be considered essential reading for homebrewers. But certainly for the those of us who just know after brewing a few batches: "Yeah, this is gonna be my hobby!"

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

present [recipes] in a "normally accepted" or common way,

With 1 gal batches, I would anticipate a recipe with base malts in pounds (or 1/4 pounds), specialty malts in ounces, hops in grams, and yeast in grams (although pitching 1/4 or 1/2 of a "common" sized /1/ sachet would not be unreasonable).

And, honestly, any measurement that uses 0.022 or 0.0044 (regardless of the unit of measurement) suggests software (of some type) that wasn't programmed (or trained) to be useful in the real world.

---

/1/ Most sachets are 10, 11, or 11.5 grams. IIRC Some Muntons dry yeast products come in 6 gram sachets.

 

[neo1981]

Thank you all for your help. I guess I will wait and see what comes out of this patch and if the sediment drops down and wort color will clear up after fermentation

 

[IslandLizard]

Thank you all for your help. I guess I will wait and see what comes out of this patch and if the sediment drops down and wort color will clear up after fermentation

Once the active fermentation has completed, let it be for another week to condition out (yeast doing clean up) at around 66-72F. During that time, most of the yeast and trub will settle out into a dense cake on the bottom, while the beer on top clears over time.*

When the beer is clear (enough), siphon the beer off the top into a bottling container, leaving the trub behind. Add priming sugar, mix gently, don't beat air into it, then bottle it.

* After the 7-10 days of room temp conditioning, you could cold crash the fermenter jar in the fridge for even clearer beer. But that's a more advanced technique, with some important details to pay attention to, such as preventing suck-back and possible implosion.

Also, cold crashing is not really necessary when bottling, as the beer will clear while conditioning and carbonating for 2-4 weeks in the bottles. Any remaining cloudiness will settle out on the bottom of the bottles.

Just make note, when pouring bottle conditioned beer, handle and pour them out gently. You don't want the sediment from the bottom to resuspend itself, and ruin your carefully and patiently prepared clear beer experience.