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[outnumbered]

So I am all excited because I just moved from buckets to the mini brew conical, today was day 4 of fermenting so instead of transferring to another bucket I pulled the lever and out cam the yeast cake. Wow that was easy! I go to dry hop I flip the 2oz bag of hops upside down and the bag slips out of my hand into wort... It was not sterilized. Is there any thing I can do other than pray it doesn't get an infection. What are the odds it gets infection?

It's a 113 ibu ipa if that makes a difference. It's also in a steralized fermentation chamber set at 67 degree F.

Also this is my first time using gelatin for making my beer clear can someone walk me through that process.

Thanks for your help.

Next time I'm going to sterilize the bag before I dump it just in case.

 

[PADave]

Dry hop after just 4 days? I'd just leave it in there now.

 

[outnumbered]

Is that to soon? What's is the norm? I was able to grab the foil hop bag and pull it out the hopes stayed in.

If that's to soon for dry hoping what will happen?

And again what are the odds of in fiction happening?

 

[Upthewazzu]

After 4 days there is probably going to be enough alcohol in the beer to protect it from bugs. The IBU number is meaningless in this situation, the ABV is more important. There is nothing you can do at this point, just wait it out.

 

[dragonlor20]

You are going to be in pretty good shape. Lots of hops in the beer and with that many hops I imagine your og was pretty high and thus pretty decent alcohol content after 4 days. Hops are good against infection, alcohol is good against infection, and others can correct me, but I don't think plastic is the worst thing for bacteria given the surface area.

I would wash and sanitize my hands, pull the plastic out and leave it alone, will be fine.

It's a little soon for dry hop - you don't want your fermentation to blow off the volatile oils. Better to let it ferment out and then introduce your dry hops imo. I usually hop at 10 days with pretty good results.

 

[outnumbered]

Ok thanks for the input. The only reason I did it after 4 days is beer smith said to secondary after four days and then leave in secondary for 10 days. I just figured secondary meant dry hop.

Any thoughts on glelitain add in. I do have the ability to cold crash. My chamber is a full size fridge (no freezer) with temp controller.

 

[dragonlor20]

I can't help you with the gelatin. I have heard often of this being done but I am not personally all that concerned with that particular part of the final product. Beers usually drop pretty clear if everything else is right. Many, many others on here know a lot about it though...

 

[fatherdan]

beersmith says to secondary at 4 days?

 

[kev211]

I wouldnt secondary at all. Just leave it in primary. Its not gonna hurt anything. But if you are dead set on secondary, then I would still have let it sit in primary for at least another day or 2.

And 113IBU IPA!? Woah!

 

[outnumbered]

No beer smith said primary for 4 days and secondary for 10.
It's easy for me to secondary so I can have the beer not sitting on the yeast cake. All I have to do is turn a 1/4 turn ball valve on the conical and out comes the yeast cake. So my thought was to dry hop for the 10 days then put it in the keg.

 

[kev211]

No beer smith said primary for 4 days and secondary for 10.
It's easy for me to secondary so I can have the beer not sitting on the yeast cake. All I have to do is turn a 1/4 turn ball valve on the conical and out comes the yeast cake. So my thought was to dry hop for the 10 days then put it in the keg.

That's a long time to dry hop. I typically do 5 days. 7 tops

So here's the current school of thought on 'secondary-ing'. Secondary was an important step a lot of years ago when yeast would essentially "die off" and go into yeast autolysis. When this happened it would give off an undesirable off flavor. Today's yeasts don't have that issue so for an IPA to sit on it for 2 weeks it won't cause any issues. Secondary is really only an important step if A. You're washing the yeast and don't want to dry hop over it. Or B. Are aging the beer.

By doing a secondary, especially on an IPA you're just inviting a potential infection and can also be oxidizing your beer.

Your call, but even with chronicals I never secondary.

 

[outnumbered]

Ok so what are your thoughts on what I should do? Maybe start cold crashing on day 7 of dry hoping and keging the next day. No matter what the beer will be drinkable...I hope...what would be my best plan of action.

 

[kev211]

Ok so what are your thoughts on what I should do? Maybe start cold crashing on day 7 of dry hoping and keging the next day. No matter what the beer will be drinkable...I hope...what would be my best plan of action.

Well I think 113 ibu's is pretty stinkin bitter for a straight up IPA so you want to get as much hop flavor as you can get. I'd say split the dry hops for 3 & 5 days to get as much flavor nuances out of them as possible. The cold crash

 

[Upthewazzu]

No beer smith said primary for 4 days and secondary for 10.
It's easy for me to secondary so I can have the beer not sitting on the yeast cake. All I have to do is turn a 1/4 turn ball valve on the conical and out comes the yeast cake. So my thought was to dry hop for the 10 days then put it in the keg.

It doesn't matter what beersmith says (you can change all the parameters within the program to say whatever you want). It needs to be there longer than four days. You won't all of a sudden start getting off-flavors at day 5.

While there is no "right" way to do it, there are some accepted best practices that have been established for many years. leave it on the yeast for 7-14 days. Or longer!