Got a little yeast in the secondary when racking - first time brewer!

[Beestin]

I got a little yeast in the secondary when racking. Not much but enough to see it on the bottom on my carboy. I would say at least 95% of it was still in the primary fermenter. Problem?

This is the Octane IPA kit from midwest. I had a little taste as i racked from the primary to the seconday - the beer tastes a little sweet and wasn't all that hoppy although its an English IPA and i'm not sure i've ever had one... the final gravity was 1.02 - the OG was 1.08 but i may have messed up the reading as i didn't stir it well when taking the sample.

Am i correct in my assumption that if i dry hop 1oz of cascade hops in the secondary all i do is take the airlock off and pout them in? - or put in a muslin bag and drop in?

Thanks!

 

[lumpher]

I got a little yeast in the secondary when racking. Not much but enough to see it on the bottom on my carboy. I would say at least 95% of it was still in the primary fermenter. Problem?

no. you're going to get hops in the transfer regardless. we all do

This is the Octane IPA kit from midwest. I had a little taste as i racked from the primary to the seconday - the beer tastes a little sweet and wasn't all that hoppy although its an English IPA and i'm not sure i've ever had one... the final gravity was 1.02 - the OG was 1.08 but i may have messed up the reading as i didn't stir it well when taking the sample.

Am i correct in my assumption that if i dry hop 1oz of cascade hops in the secondary all i do is take the airlock off and pout them in? - or put in a muslin bag and drop in?

Thanks!

i just dump the hops straight into the secondary, no bag. open the top a little and dump them in

 

[Calichusetts]

I rake pretty freely from my primary from the secondary and get some trub. It will all settle out in a week and you should have a tight ring at the bottom, much smaller of course. No concerns though. I use a muslim bag with marbles for my dry hopping but its whatever you like, there is no major difference

 

[Peppers16]

Considering a lot of brewers abstain from secondary entirely these days, I think you'll be absolutely fine. If you naturally carb you'll always get a bit of yeast in the bottles/keg anyway, no matter how much you rack.

I think most people put the hops in first, then rack the beer on top of them.

 

[DrummerBoySeth]

Yeast in secondary is normal. In fact, I think it is impossible to rack to secondary and not get SOME yeast with the beer. Do not worry at all. Bag or no bag for the dry-hop is up to you, but I prefer the bag method. It leaves less debris/floaties to try to avoid when racking to the bottling bucket or keg.

 

[Matt3989]

Yeast is a microscopic organism that's everywhere in your beer, without tens of thousands of dollars of professional brewery equipment you're not going to get that yeast out.

But don't worry, it's a good thing. Those yeast are still suspended in the beer, healthy and munching away on all kinds of stuff that you'd rather not have in your beer. As time goes on more and more will settle out and you'll get another yeast cake in your secondary. Home brewers no longer care about letting their beer sit on that cake, it's been proven that no bad flavors happen for at least 4 months of aging on the trub and yeast.

You also need those little yeasties in your beer when you bottle it, they are the ones who carbonate it.

 

[bobbrewedit]

For dry hopping I use a bag with pellet hops and no bag with whole hops. I had an IPA that I dry hopped with pellets and no bag and ended up with debris in every glass. I know this can be avoided, but what a pain!

 

[Beestin]

How long do you guys leave the hops in? I had this Octane IPA in the primary for 2 weeks. I just racked to the secondary last night. I took a little sip of what came from the primary and it wasn't all that hoppy (possibly because of it being a British IPA?) so was thinking of dry hopping to at least get the aroma. Would 1oz of cascade hops do the trick? 2oz?? I am thinkning of cascade only because the kit had 4 different kinds of hops and cascade smelled the best to me (although they were the bittering hops for the kit)

Will the sweetness of the beer go down as it sits in the secondary? I read somewhere that the sweetness could be an unfinished fermentation but after 2 weeks i dont think that could be the case. The airlock all but stopped after that long. Like i said my final gravity was 1.02 which i dont know if that's what it's supposed to be since the kit didn't say.

 

[shawnbou]

An ounce of Cascade for about 7-10 days immediately before you bottle will be perfect for dry hopping. It'll give you a nice citrusy hop aroma.

As for your other question, real sweetness (i.e., sugar) won't go down in secondary if fermentation is complete. But remember that just because your airlock stopped bubbling doesn't mean that fermentation is complete. Only your hydrometer can tell you that. 1.020 is a little high for FG on an American IPA, but not very (BJCP guidelines list 1.018 as the upper limit). Assuming you used extract, you may end up at 1.020 which a lot of extract brews do.

Some off-flavors that people tend to perceive as sweetness will continue to go down in secondary, though. Diacetyl (butterscotch off-flavor) and acetyldehyde (green apple) do fade as the remaining yeast continue to clean up after themselves.

 

[twistr25]

How long do you guys leave the hops in? I had this Octane IPA in the primary for 2 weeks. I just racked to the secondary last night. I took a little sip of what came from the primary and it wasn't all that hoppy (possibly because of it being a British IPA?) so was thinking of dry hopping to at least get the aroma. Would 1oz of cascade hops do the trick? 2oz?? I am thinkning of cascade only because the kit had 4 different kinds of hops and cascade smelled the best to me (although they were the bittering hops for the kit)

Will the sweetness of the beer go down as it sits in the secondary? I read somewhere that the sweetness could be an unfinished fermentation but after 2 weeks i dont think that could be the case. The airlock all but stopped after that long. Like i said my final gravity was 1.02 which i dont know if that's what it's supposed to be since the kit didn't say.

I'm a little confused, did you have extra hops lying around or did you not use the Cascade at all in the boil? The IBU for the kit is around 70, so you should have some pretty good bitterness

The FG for this kit is between 1.012 - 1.018. Did you add any extra DME, LME or other sugars? Typically if you don't stir up at the end you get a lower OG not a higher, unless you didn't have enough water to start.

 

[Beestin]

I used all the hops/extract that came with the kit and nothing more . I did note that after i put the wort in the primary that it was low and ended up adding 5-6 bottled waters about a day later when i noticed that the wort only went to about 4-4 1/2 gallons. That could be why the OG was high.

I was going to go buy an oz of Cascade hops from the local shop to drop hop since the taste i had from teh primary (while racking to secondary) didn't taste very hoppy. I've read a lot of reviews on this kit from people saying they didn't think it was very hoppy either and that they estimated the IBU's were prob 1/2 what the kit says - but i can't verify that they know what they're talking about

Is there anything i can do to get the FG down since the kit says it should be 1.012 - 1.018? Is 1.02 "way off" or close enough?

 

[Beestin]

In case it matters - i used 3 gallons when brewing and added 2 (i assme some boilded off since i only ended with 4 1/2. I used the White Labs 005 yeast and just pitched the whole thing. It was bubbling like crazy about 2 days after that and kept on for a few days before slowing down

 

[twistr25]

The OG still isn't making much sense to me, I wouldn't think a half gallon would cause a 20 point increase, but who knows. I've seen some other threads with kit issues and IBUs, you may being having that too.

It seemed like you hinted at it, but remember that dry-hopping will only add the aroma and none of the bitterness, but it may help with the overall flavor you want.

Your FG is close enough especially if 1.08 was your true OG, just make sure it's stable after a few days.

 

[Matt3989]

With extract brewing, it's near impossible to miss your OG, the only thing i could think of would be forgetting to add ingredients.

More than likely you just didn't have things mixed well enough when your took your measurement, or the wort was the wrong temp, or your hydrometer isn't calibrated correctly (check it in just water to see).

There are plenty of calcs online that you could use to estimate OG of any extract recipe.

As for the FG, it could also be a hydrometer calibration issue.

 

[bobbrewedit]

1.020 is fine in my book. I had a beer that finished at 1.028 and it was too sweet to drink, so ur getting close. That said, I've had some really good IPAs finish around 1.020. I say dry hop it and it will be great. I would use 2 oz. For 1-2 weeks. Leaving much over two weeks can leave you with a grassy flavor. Cheers!