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Long Primary w/o Straining Hop Pellets?

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mdel06

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First batch and first post!

I brewed a batch of the True Brew Irish Red Ale kit, and it has been sitting in my primary for almost a week now. I've read a lot on these forums about using a long, 3-4 week primary and skipping the secondary to get the best tasting beer. This would work great for me since I dont have a secondary...

My question is whether this is still a good idea considering I didn't strain out the hop pellets before putting the wort into the fermenter. Will this produce off flavors after 3-4 weeks? Would it be better to bottle earlier?
 
It'll probably be fine. A lot of people don't strain out anything from their kettle, and just pour into their fermenter.
 
It didn't give me any off flavors when I did it. In fact, this was the best tasting warm flat beer I've ever made when I tasted it before bottling. One week after bottling, I still feel it has a great flavor, something my other beers have never had at one week.
 
I did the same thing with my Imperial Pale Ale, After the first week when I opened the top to get a SG reading, I took a swig from the hydrometer container. Man was it hoppy. I was a little worried at that time. Second week I did the same thing. I was amazed at how much the hop flavor had dropped off, still there, but much more muted. I'm in the 3rd week and just put the fermenter into the fridge for a cold crash. I figured that any hop residue would settle in the cold crash. Going to rack into a corny tonight!
 
I actually try to get some hops into the fermentor. Considering I put my latest edition in just a few minutes before the end of the boil, I would guess there is still some flavor in them.
 
Once the wort is cooled, they don't give any more flavor. I just always throw most things right into the fermenter, without any issues. A super "clean" beer like a lager I will do differently, but with most ales everything (hot break, cold break, hops debris) all goes right into the fermenter.
 
Yoppers right, it's not going to harm the beer to do either way. Over the years I've longed primaries in every concievable way possible, from dumping it all in, to straining, to dry hopping in primary and never had any issues. That's the magic of long primaries, you don't need to do anything special, USE anything special, you just gotta pitch your yeast and walk away.
 
So I have a question then about doing longer 3-4 primaries instead of 2 week primary and 2 week secondary. I'm going to brew my first AG batch Saturday, and the receipe calls for 2 weeks primary, 2 weeks secondary with dry hopping 1 week before bottling.

Is it ok to dry hop in long primary at week 3 and let sit for another week and bottle? Will my auto siphon get clogged up?
 
Is it ok to dry hop in long primary at week 3 and let sit for another week and bottle? Will my auto siphon get clogged up?

Yes, and I've never had an issue, if you rack carefully.

FYI, ANY question about long primary that anyone can think of has already been answered thoroughly in This Thread

Someone ineveitably is going to ask a question now about plastic buckets...and I can assure you that THAT, just like this question about dry hopping and everything else really HAS been done to death in this place, and is in that thread.
 
So I have a question then about doing longer 3-4 primaries instead of 2 week primary and 2 week secondary. I'm going to brew my first AG batch Saturday, and the receipe calls for 2 weeks primary, 2 weeks secondary with dry hopping 1 week before bottling.

Is it ok to dry hop in long primary at week 3 and let sit for another week and bottle? Will my auto siphon get clogged up?

I had an issue with my dry hopping not completely falling out to the bottom. I sanitized a large nylon mesh bag and wrapped it around the racking cane. I got zero sediment in my bottling bucket
 
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