Looking for some reassurance...

[Matt86]

...or advice.

I've been lurking around the forums for a little while and must say it's proved to be an absolute gold mine of information! Generally, if I've had a query...no matter how small, or stupid I thought it may be, I've found an answer.

I'm new to this, I brewed a coopers pale ale kit a little while ago, all went fine and I produced a decent beer, so moved onto my first extract brew ( after much reading of books and this forum). All went well and after pitching the yeast fermentation started, but the two batches I have on the go (an IPA and Christmas pale ale) now look like the images below. They've both been in the primary now for almost two weeks (will be two weeks come Wednesday), there's still activity in the airlock suggesting fermentation is still happening so I'm happy to leave it, my issue is that it's looked like this for a whole now...no sign of the yeast sinking, and some yeast is stuck to the sides. I've done a bit of Googling and it seems the general wisdom is to gently agitate the brew to loosen off the stuck sediment and watch it sink....which I tried to no avail.

The IPA is due to be moved to the secondary in the coming week to be dry hopped. So pretty much what am asking is, what should I do?

I'm thinking either just leave them and hope the sediment eventually drops to the bottom and then move them to the secondary and dry hop there, or move them both to secondarys and hope the stuck stuff stays behind and then leave it there for a week or two before bottling.

Any guides or info would be greatly appreciated!

Sorry for long post, thought it better to give too much info that not enough!View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1442779270.857150.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1442779311.029238.jpg

 

[JimRausch]

Agreed that I might expect more settling after 2 weeks, but one can always remember that the yeast don't read the books and do what they want to. Give her another week before doing anything. If you have the ability to cold crash, that will help(can be as simple as a water bath with ice bottles).
Looking at your pics again it looks like there is settling happening-that's the yeast streaking the sides. So, no worries.
By the way, if you do wind up racking, make sure you don't leave so much head space. Big headspace= good during fermentation, but not good during conditioning.

 

[Kharnynb]

Depends a lot on the yeast used, what have you used? how much?

You shouldn't really shake or otherwise agitate the fermenter, it will just shake up the yeast on the bottom.

 

[Matt86]

Thanks for the feedback, I used ale yeast, the brand ...I cannot remember! I think I may have used slightly too much Yeats too now you mention it....I'm doing 5litre batches and used about half a pack...this may have been a little too much?

Think I'll leave it another little while and then see where we are.

Cold crashing was something I was thinking about too, don't have any specific kit for it so would be the ice batch option, which I'm happy to do.

 

[Bellybuster]

It's a 5 l jug,....put'er in the fridge

 

[Nickyssix]

Usually the best thing to do is nothing.. The yeast will do its own thing and drop to the trub . I would just take your hydrometer readings and when it reads the same reading a few days in a row its done. Usually no longer then 3 weeks. Dont worry too much about anything else.
The stuff on the side is probably left over krausen and it has a very bitter bad taste, so swirling your fermenter to get it in your beer is not a good idea. As for secondary - i only use it if im lagering, the couple of infections i got were both from a secondary vessel..so i dont risk it. Even still I'm sure your beer will be fine. Do it your way and you'll learn the best way for you from trial and error. Happy brewing !

 

[unionrdr]

Those look like yeast rafts & coagulated proteins to me. Quite a bit for 1 gallon batches.