First Batch Anxiety

[bobaganoosh]

I recently brewed my first bach of beer from a kit I got at a local home brewing shop and I think im having a bit of the first batch anxiety while waiting for it to finish. This batch consisted of the following:

Double IPA

9lbs Light Dry Malt Extract
1lb Munich
1/2lb Maris Otter
1/2lb Wheat
2oz Magnum (60min)
1oz Citra (20min)
1oz Amarillo (15min)
1oz Amarillo, Cascade, Chinook, Citra, Northern Brewer & Palisades (Dry Hopped)
Fermentis US-05 Yeast

Everything went pretty well while I was making the wort and transfering to my primary. The directions suggested to wait about 3-5days for fermentation before I transfered to my secondary. So after 3-4 days the fermentation seemed to slow down a lot and at the 5 day mark it wasnt bubbling for a few minutes or more so I went ahead and transfered it to my secondary. My primary fermenter is a bucket and when I opened it I noticed that there was a good inch of foam still on the top. I wasn't really expecting this and was kind of worried that it wasn't ready to transfer but it wasn't really fizzing or bubbling it was just kind of sitting on top so I went ahead and transfered it anyway and added my 6oz of hops to the secondary. As of now its been about 2 days in the secondary and there is a nice 1.5 inches of green foam on the top and it still looks extremely cloudy. The directions I am following say to leave it in the scondary for about "7-10 days or until it clears, but no longer than 14 days" before I bottle it. I guess I was just expecting it to be a bit more clear by now and when I opened up the primary I saw the layer of foam and kinda got discouraged cause I really wasn't expecting it. Does this look to be on the right track or did I transfer this too soon? I know I have a week or more left in the secondary but I am just getting a bit anxious and worried. The image below is its current state in the secondary.

 

[Atonk]

Generally you would wait a bit longer to transfer to secondary. Personally I wait two weeks, but everyone's different. This looks fine, and the beer will clear itself out. A lot of people cold crash for a few days to get everything to drop out, but it's optional, too.

 

[Zalf]

The no longer than 14 days in secondary instruction is pretty much nonsense. Keep the beer in secondary until it is ready. As determined by clarity and gravity readings.

For future batches more time in primary is probably needed. If there is still a krausen then you are better off waiting or that to drop and clear. Calling it a secondary fermenter is kind of misleading. By the time you move to a secondary ideally the yeast is just doing some clean up with little active fermentation.

Also, do some browsing on the forum. Many feel that you are better off only using a secondary if you are making some kind of post fermentation addition. Instructions with most kits haven't caught up with that line of thought yet.

 

[Zalf]

Just to clarify, this batch is looking fine and I am sure will be a great beer. Just another example that there are many ways to get to good beer and a lot fewer ways to ruin beer.

 

[lnhoskins]

Did anyone else pick up on the fact he has 6 oz in dry hop? I know this looks to be an imperial Belgian IPA and all, but 6 oz! I've never seen mor than 2 oz... I'm assuming it was pellets, just looking at the picture. That's gonna be a lot of hop sludge.... Looks fine though, it'll just take some time. RDWHAHB. Cheers!

 

[SocalNat]

Green foam probably mostly hops floating on top. 6 ozs is alot of hops and expands quite a bit. Give it time it will clear up. Looks great.

 

[Zalf]

Did anyone else pick up on the fact he has 6 oz in dry hop? I know this looks to be an imperial Belgian IPA and all, but 6 oz! I've never seen mor than 2 oz... I'm assuming it was pellets, just looking at the picture. That's gonna be a lot of hop sludge.... Looks fine though, it'll just take some time. RDWHAHB. Cheers!

I missed that entirely. I have no clue how long it will take for all of that to finish processing. With that kind of investment patience will definitely win here.

I'm not much of a hophead but even I am interested to see how that turns out. Very interesting.

 

[metal850]

Did anyone else pick up on the fact he has 6 oz in dry hop? I know this looks to be an imperial Belgian IPA and all, but 6 oz! I've never seen mor than 2 oz... I'm assuming it was pellets, just looking at the picture. That's gonna be a lot of hop sludge.... Looks fine though, it'll just take some time. RDWHAHB. Cheers!

OP. is it really 6 oz of dry hops? Or is it 1 oz of a hop mix (pre mixed in a kit)?

 

[beerman0001]

They are talking about no more the 14 days of dry hops. 6oz is not alot of dry hop depending on what you are making.

 

[bschoenb]

Read up on the 3/3 concept.

No more primary/secondary. Just 3 weeks in the Fermenter, then 3 weeks in keg/bottle

 

[unionrdr]

Transfering after 5 days was def too soon. At that time,when bubbling slowed down was just the end of initial,vigorous fermentation. If you'd left it in primary,it would've slowly femented down to a stable FG. Then a few days more it'd start settling out clear. It looks to me like it's trying to finish now in secondary. And since it was still yeasy turbid,a lot of the hop oils will coat the yeast cells as they settle out. Taking the aroma with them. But with all the dry hops in there,it'll still be ok.

 

[bobaganoosh]

OP. is it really 6 oz of dry hops? Or is it 1 oz of a hop mix (pre mixed in a kit)?

It was 1oz of each of the hops listed for a total of 6oz all together

 

[bobaganoosh]

Been in the secondary now for about 6 days and it looks to be clearing up nicely.

 

[bobaganoosh]

Bottled after about 10 Days in the secondary! Cant wait to crack one open!

 

[bobaganoosh]

So its been in the bottles now for almost 1.5 weeks but I coudn't resist so I chilled one and took my first sip....WOW! It really tastes great. All the anxiety I had throughout my brewing process is now gone and I couldn't be happier!

With that being said, with all the carbonation it already has, should I be worried about it being overcarboanated in another 1-2weeks? There was so much hop sediment after the 6oz dry hop that I only managed to get about 4 gallons (I think I was under the 5 gallon mark in the secondary anyways) and I stil went ahead and used all the 5oz of priming sugar.