Krausen bad????

What's up everyone!

I'm brewing my first batch and I have a few questions.

1. I read that the film on top was bad for you beer and would add a bitter flavor and I wanted to dry hop, so I racked it to a secondary. The initial fermentation seemed to be finished because the head was dropping. Will this have any effect on the beer?

2. How long should I dry hop?

3. should I use gelatin to clean it up? I read that this could possibly take away some hop flavor. I'm looking for a west coast style IPA

Thanks

 

The Krausen is fine. All it is, is yeast essentially. Next time, you will want to wait 3 weeks before transferring it to secondary and ALWAYS take a FG reading. This will tell you a lot about how your brew went and also if it is finished fermenting. The reason for 3 weeks is that the yeast will clean up after themselves and will result in better tasting beer. I would dry hop for 1-2 weeks. Don't worry about the gelatin, I think that is used for clarifying but if you are secondarying, you should already have pretty clear beer.

PS I would always read up on your questions on here before making a decision, esp if you don't know what you are doing.

 

Awesome, thanks.

My buddy told me to ferment in the primary (bucket) for a 3-4 days then rack it to a carboy.

I'll let the Krausen fall back in on my next batch

 

Never listen to anyone who uses a timetable to define when fermentation is done. It's done when it's done. Use a hydrometer and when you have stable readings for 2 days it's ready to bottle. Never secondary, ever... Unless you are dry hopping/fruiting and plan on harvesting yeast.

 

Some times you want to secondary to help clear up the beer but as you say, it is never really necessary unless you want to dry hop or yeast harvest.

 

Many folks dry hop and harvest yeast exclusively during extended primaries.

 

Your buddy gave you some bad advice. Next time leave your beer in primary for 3 - 4 weeks and skip the secondary. The yeast will drop out if given that amount of time, AND your beer will taste much better.

 

There ya have it! I only secondary when I dryhop. Not to threadjack, but Revvy, most of our recipes call for dryhopping in a secondary. Does it make any difference besides clearing the beer up?

 

Rather than threadjacking, everything you can think of to ask about long primaires has been covered in here.
To Secondary or Not? John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff Weigh In .

 

Thanks.

 

OP asked about a timetable for dryhopping. I'd like to add that going longer than 7-10 days can leave a salad-like, grassy aroma that some people dislike. I like to dryhop for 5 days, then take a sample. Then I decide if I want to let it go longer. 7 Days is usually the sweet spot for me.

 

7 days is fairly common, but lots of brewers keg-hop for the life of the keg.

 

I dry hop in my keg for the life of that particular beer. I haven't noticed any off flavors, but I usually dry hop with just Amarillo.

 

I did dry hop, so maybe that was good i racked it.

Can you still dry hop in the primary? If so, when?

 

I dry hopped my IPA in the primary. I waited until the visible fermentation was complete before dropping the hops in and it tastes great.