Fourth Batch - NW Pale Ale - Need advice

[NOVA Brewer]

Bear with me guys and girls, this might take a while.

My first batch was a pre-hopped Cooper's kit. We won't mention it again. Next, a Brewer's Best kit Robust Porter that turned out delicious. Third was Edwort's Apfelwein, in Primary 1.

So, my fourth brew was my own recipe for a Northwest Pale Ale, cobbled together from help here and experimenting with Beersmith.

Brewed 4/20/2007

NOVA Brewer's NW Pale Ale
6 lbs. extra light DME
8 oz. Cara-pils
8 oz. Crystal 20L
3 oz. Cascade hop pellets
1 oz. Centennial hop pellets
1 tsp. Irish moss
White Labes WLP051 California Ale V

Steep grains, bring 2.5 gallons of water to boil
Add 2 lbs. extra light DME
Add 1.5 oz Cascade pellets (boiling)
Boil 40 minutes
Add 1 oz. Cascade pellets (flavor)
Boil 5 minutes
Add 1 tsp. Irish moss
Boil 10 minutes
Add .5 oz Cascade pellets (aroma)
Boil 5 minutes

At flameout, add remaining 4 lbs. extra light DME, dissolve
Cool, add to 2 gallons cold water in carboy, top off to 5 gallons, pitch yeast, cap and plug in airlock.

Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 5.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 43.2 IBU

Now, my problems:

1. I'm done with hop pellets. Here and with my porter, they gunk up my strainer as I pour the wort through my funnel into the fermenter, which takes forever and frustrates me. From now on, it's only whole leaves.

2. I ended up with a HUGE OG!! Measured it at 1.074!! What the hell happened?

3. There's a ton of $h!+ floating around in my carboy now. We're now at brew day + 2, there's a respectable amount of fermentation going on, brew is holding steady at 70F. Crap is floating all around, settling out, and getting kick up again by all the yeast action. Is this the result of the moss? This is my first time using a fining agent.

So, whaddaya think, HBT? Should I RDWHAHB? I'll rack to secondary once fermentation appears to be complete, and hopefully all the crap in my brew will settle out as trub leaving me a nice, clear, bitter pale ale.

Any advice would be appreciated. I'll update this thread as the process progresses.

 

[BierMuncher]

Everything sounds great. People buy glass carboys so they can watch that "debris" float around like a free-for-all. It's perfectly normal.

6 pounds of DME and a pound of grains with a gravity of 74 means you done good.

Hold on...did you say add 2lbs and then add the remaining 6 lbs? That would explain. Was it a total of 6lbs or 8lbs of DME?

If you're worried about getting a clear strain to your secondary, try one of these gadgets. Just a paint strainer from Lowes wrapped around your racking cane.

Sorry everyone, I know you've seen this a 1,000 times....

 

[NOVA Brewer]

Hold on...did you say add 2lbs and then add the remaining 6 lbs? That would explain. Was it a total of 6lbs or 8lbs of DME?

Sorry - fixed my typo. It is a total of 6 lbs. DME

I suppose it'll be OK, but my Beersmith calculations were very different. I made sure to set the final 4 lbs. of DME as "Add after boil." Maybe I just need to use the program some more...

 

[NOVA Brewer]

Well, fermentation lasted a long time. Five days in, I still had bubbles every 4 or five seconds. So I let it sit for a bit. There was a TON of trub in the bottom - way more than with my porter. All the hop pellets settled out, I reckon. Certainly left my primary gunky enough!

Racking went fine, except that I broke my hydrometer setting up my equipment, so no SG reading. I siphoned off a sample anyway, though. Tasted nice and clean - very hoppy. The color looked great, too. The late extract edition looks like it gave me a nice golden color, and it was reasonably clear coming out of the primary. 10 days or so in secondary should help a lot.

I plan on dry-hopping for 7 days with the one ounce of Centennial, just tossing the pellets in there. With a tip on my racking cane, I expect no problems racking to the bottling bucket.

 

[BierMuncher]

Give that paint strainer some serious thought. Hops pellets tend to suspend in the liquid and even if they settle, they are not compact like yeast and can easily kick up and get sucked into your racking cane. The $2.00 will be worth it for a clear beer. Plenty of posts here and there about "great tasting beer...but those little green floaty thingies are a nuisance".

 

[Rook]

I use little mueslin bags on hops if I put in large quantities, but for a couple ounces or less I usually just keep my wort stirring spoon handy and I scrape out my strainer as the hops clog it up. Its worked out really well, scrape it out every 10 seconds or so, no clogs.

 

[DragonTail]

Don't give up on using pellet hops in the boil. They are easier to store/use and don't soak up as much wort as whole hops would. I use a nylon hop/grain bag for my boiling hops. I think I've been using the same bag for over 3 years now.
Cheers,

 

[NOVA Brewer]

Don't give up on using pellet hops in the boil. They are easier to store/use and don't soak up as much wort as whole hops would. I use a nylon hop/grain bag for my boiling hops. I think I've been using the same bag for over 3 years now.
Cheers,

Pellet hops... in a bag? I am... intrigued...

This works well?

 

[JimC]

I pour my wort though a paint strainer bag into my fermenting bucket. Then I pour my topoff water though the hops and break strained out of the wort. The topoff water washes all my nice juicy wort out of the hops. Works very well for me and my beers come out crystal clear with no worries of clogging.

 

[DragonTail]

Yes, NOVA, it works great. I actually use the bags for my grains and hops. For the hops, just put your first dose in the bag and when it's time to add, put the bag in the pot and tie off the drawstrings to the handle. When it's time to add another dose, untie the bag, open it up and dump the hops in. Tie the bag off again and repeat as needed. While the wort is boiling, just poke the bag with your spoon every now and then. When the boil is done, just lift the bag out, let it drain into the pot, and dispose of the spent hops as you like (garbage, compost, etc.). Rinse out the bag, let it dry, and it's ready to go for the next batch. I've only not used the bag twice and it is much easier, and cleaner, than trying to use a strainer.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,

 

[NOVA Brewer]

Dragontail, that sounds awesome. Thanks for the tip!