All - could use some input; here's the scenario:
Brewed some IPA about 3 weeks ago, About the end of the second week, I added my pellet dry hops (threw them right into my SS brewbucket). After three days of dry hopping, took a final gravity reading of 1.012, which I was expecting. Time to bottle - mixed up some priming solution with corn sugar and added it to my bottling bucket. When I opened up my brew bucket, I had a good layer of hops floating on the surface, which I had not expected (guess I should have used a hop bomb!). Well, in what have been my first mistake, I decided to rack the beer into the bottling bucket anyway. I managed to leave a good bit of the hops in the brew bucket, but after inspecting it closer, I realized I still had a lot of suspended particles, more than I wanted in my bottling operation. I closed the bottling bucket, added an airlock, and decided to give it a couple days to hopefully clear out and drop. After about two days now, I have activity in my airlock, and when I took a peek inside, I have a thin layer of foam (Krausen) that formed on the surface of the beer. I'm wondering if the yeast suspended in my beer has started working on the priming solution? The beer was clear (no signs of activity) before racking it onto the priming solution, but doesn't seem that way now.
My plan is to let it go for a few more days and see if that thin layer of Krausen drops, and along with it, the rest of the dry hops suspended in the beer drops as well. If that's the case, I'll either add a little more sugar (for carbonation) and bottle it, or I'll rack it (carefully) one more time onto some more priming solution and bottle from a fresh bucket. I'm concerned about bottling without extra added sugar, but also worried about how much to add. Maybe I'll take a new SG reading and see if that tells me anything.
Any input, any other ideas? This is new territory for me. Thanks!
Brewed some IPA about 3 weeks ago, About the end of the second week, I added my pellet dry hops (threw them right into my SS brewbucket). After three days of dry hopping, took a final gravity reading of 1.012, which I was expecting. Time to bottle - mixed up some priming solution with corn sugar and added it to my bottling bucket. When I opened up my brew bucket, I had a good layer of hops floating on the surface, which I had not expected (guess I should have used a hop bomb!). Well, in what have been my first mistake, I decided to rack the beer into the bottling bucket anyway. I managed to leave a good bit of the hops in the brew bucket, but after inspecting it closer, I realized I still had a lot of suspended particles, more than I wanted in my bottling operation. I closed the bottling bucket, added an airlock, and decided to give it a couple days to hopefully clear out and drop. After about two days now, I have activity in my airlock, and when I took a peek inside, I have a thin layer of foam (Krausen) that formed on the surface of the beer. I'm wondering if the yeast suspended in my beer has started working on the priming solution? The beer was clear (no signs of activity) before racking it onto the priming solution, but doesn't seem that way now.
My plan is to let it go for a few more days and see if that thin layer of Krausen drops, and along with it, the rest of the dry hops suspended in the beer drops as well. If that's the case, I'll either add a little more sugar (for carbonation) and bottle it, or I'll rack it (carefully) one more time onto some more priming solution and bottle from a fresh bucket. I'm concerned about bottling without extra added sugar, but also worried about how much to add. Maybe I'll take a new SG reading and see if that tells me anything.
Any input, any other ideas? This is new territory for me. Thanks!
