IPA contaminated?

Hello,

Below is a picture of my primary fermentor. Followed a brew shop's recipe for an IPA, but added and additional 2 oz of hop throughout the boil. Pitched with 2 vials of white lab yeast. It was a ferocious fermentation and the airlock was clogged and replaced numerous times, but I have very good sanitation routines. FG was 1.024 and it was supposed to be 1.020 so everything is good there. Does this beer look normal? Is that just hops all over the place making it look so rancid?



After racking to the secondary, the beer looked incredibly murky. It tasted a little off/bitter but I think that was from the hop concentration.



If everything is normal in your opinion, and it just full of hop residue, how do I clear it up? I don't want to aerate it, and don't have the means to cold crash.

Thanks ahead for all your help!

 

NORMAL! The beer should be left to clear about 2 weeks after fermentation subsides!

If it makes you feel better.

This is a picture of my black IPA right when I started fermenting:


And this is the same IPA when I bottled it!


This is the best tasting beer I have ever brewed!

Just give it a couple weeks to clear before you rack to bottling bucket and bottle and use a paint strainer or grain bag over your siphon so you don't pick up the hops.

 

Looks fine just tons of krausen residue, how long was it in the primary, sounds like it wasn't quite complete

 

It looks normal to me. Hops and krauzen. It should clear up decently well on it's own given time, and the hop bitterness will actually mellow/settle out with the yeast (again, given time).

 

It looks fine to me. How much time did you wait before you racked to secondary? When you racked did you take care to Siphon above the trub on the bottom and stop before sucking up the residue sitting on top of the beer?

Let it sit in the secondary vessel until everything starts to settle out and siphon as carefully as you can to leave behind as much sediment as possible. Do you have a cold garage you can move your Carboy to before you get ready to transfer to your bottling bucket? That might also help.

 

Boat load of hop and yeast residue. Should be a good brew!

Rick

 

Thanks everyone for the quick reply. Amazing community.

It was in the primary for 7 days exactly. Fermentation seemed to have subsided, perhaps I should have left it a couple days more. I did take care to siphon above the trub and below the krausen, but this beer was so full of residues that it still came out incredibly murky. I wish I had a cold garage; unfortunately I live in Miami. I tried using some damp towels to cool the fermentor but that made the house smell.

Thanks again everybody! I'll let you know how it comes out.

rel

 

A brew like that will need some time to settle out. 3 weeks in the fermenter and then cold crashing would help a lot. Do you use irish moss or whirlfloc?

Rick

 

Hey Rick,

I unfortunately did not use any whirfloc, but I have made it a habit since then. Cold crashing is not an option yet as that would require a new fridge in the Miami weather. Hopefully soon I'll be kegging and cold crashing.

Cheers!

 

Looks like there is also way too much headspace in your secondary.

 

Good luck Rel and post a pic of the beer once it's finished. I just made a porter that did something similar and I think the yeast was just supper excited!

 

Absolutely. Didn't know that when I brewed this one. Everyday you pick up three more tricks...