Hop question

[Delphi270]

Hey guys,

I just brewed my first beer a few days ago. I have a Brewer's Best kit and just finished brewing their IPA. I have a question and a few fears...We used (stupidly) a spaghetti strainer to pour the beer through into the primary fermenter and a bunch of the hops got through. I just opened the fermenter a few minutes ago and saw that a lot of those hops had attached to the side of the bucket and to the underside of the lid. Is it advisable to re strain the brew and put it back into the fermenter? It has been in there for 6 days and the airlock has been bubbling consistently. There is a thick head on the brew right now. So should I dump it out and restrain bak into the primary? Is the brew ruined? There are a lot of hops I think.

 

[donjonson]

Hey guys,

I just brewed my first beer a few days ago. I have a Brewer's Best kit and just finished brewing their IPA. I have a question and a few fears...We used (stupidly) a spaghetti strainer to pour the beer through into the primary fermenter and a bunch of the hops got through. I just opened the fermenter a few minutes ago and saw that a lot of those hops had attached to the side of the bucket and to the underside of the lid. Is it advisable to re strain the brew and put it back into the fermenter? It has been in there for 6 days and the airlock has been bubbling consistently. There is a thick head on the brew right now. So should I dump it out and restrain bak into the primary? Is the brew ruined? There are a lot of hops I think.

No just leave it. all will be fine. I poured all of my hops into the primary and many do the same

 

[Hockeyhunter99]

when you rack it to a secondary or to your bottling bucket you will leave the trub behind. i don't strain at all and rack into a carboy for my secondary. this will help clarify.

 

[Delphi270]

Thanks for the help and the quick response. Another thing...the directions say to ferment for 4-6 days or until it stops bubbling, then bottle. Do you suggest leaving it in for longer? And does it matter that or first OG reading was like 1.058? I wanted a higher alc content IPA.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

Your beer is fine. Do not mess with it. Relax and enjoy some turkey.

I strain my beer into the fermenter but I use standard kitcken-wire mesh strainer. It's not necessary to strain. It will come out fine either way. I find the benefit of straining is less crap in the bottom of the bottle when I enjoy my beer.

When hop particles get into the fermenter as you saw, some will get caught in the krausen and left stranded on the walls and lid. The rest will descend harmlessly to the bottom of the bucket with all the yeast that drops out of suspension.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

For your IPA you don't want to let it sit for too long because you'll lose the freshness of the hop flavor. Once fermentation is done, go ahead and bottle it. You need to do a gravity reading over the course of 2-3 days. If they are stable across multiple days then fermentation is done. If gravity continues to drop, then it is still fermenting and needs to be left alone.

 

[rjwhite41]

Thanks for the help and the quick response. Another thing...the directions say to ferment for 4-6 days or until it stops bubbling, then bottle. Do you suggest leaving it in for longer? And does it matter that or first OG reading was like 1.058? I wanted a higher alc content IPA.

I would let it sit for at least 2 weeks before doing anything with it. If you want higher abv then you need to do your own recipe or find one online instead of doing a kit. I have an AG IIPA recipe with 9% and an SG in the 1.080 range.