Newbie question

[Iceman6409]

Hi all,

I just made my first all grain beer. It's a Brooklyn Summer Ale clone. I know a made a few mistakes during the process but my general question is this. I made it this past Sunday the 8th. It is fermenting nicely now and actually slowing down a lot. 2 questions. First is the beer is very muddy looking. No where near clear. About 2 inches of foam on top. This is now day 5 of the fermentation in the primary glass carboy. Should it be clearer by not and if not when can I hope it will.

Second question. How long should I leave this in the primary? I have seen all kinds of times from 7 days to three weeks. Here is the recipe I used. I ended up using Wyeast American Ale #1056 as well. Also I need to dry hop as well so any help there will be appreciated.

malt & fermentables
% LB OZ Malt or Fermentable ppg °L
70% 6 8 Pale Malt (Maris Otter) 37 3 ~
30% 2 12 Pilsner (2 Row) Ger 37 2 ~
9 4
Batch size: 5.0 gallons


Original Gravity
1.050 / 12.4° Plato
(1.045 to 1.052)
Final Gravity
1.012 / 3.1° Plato
(1.010 to 1.013)
Color
5° SRM / 9° SRM
(Yellow to Gold)
Mash Efficiency
75%

hops
use time oz variety form aa
boil 60 mins 0.5 Cascade pellet 5.5
boil 30 mins 0.5 Cascade pellet 5.5
dry hop 7 days 0.75 Amarillo Gold pellet 8.5
Boil: 5.5 avg gallons for 60 minutes


Bitterness
15.6 IBU / 3 HBU
ƒ: Average
BU:GU
0.31

 

[BendBrewer]

Leave it in there for 3 weeks and see how clear it is then. You might end up waiting 4 weeks.

 

[beerkrump]

Without cold crashing, you may not get it to crystal clear. But don't worry, it will clear a lot between day 7 and day 21.

Dry hopping, (BTW, I LOVE Amarillos for dry hopping) my technique is to just dump the hops (pellets or whole cone) right into the primary fermenter a week before I bottle or keg. I use a hop bag on the end of my siphon to keep the chunks out.

 

[Iceman6409]

Ok so leave it alone for three weeks in the primary. Then would I rack it to the secondary and put dry hops in at that point and how long should I let it sit with dry hops and how long in general in the secondary? Also I was told by my LHBS that Amarillo is not available this year so I went with Cascade for dry.

 

[BainbridgeBrewer]

Your recipe says to dry hop for 7 days. So, dry hop for 7 days in secondary, then bottle. Cascades work great for dry hopping.

 

[Iceman6409]

Can I just drop the pellets in for dry hopping or is it preferred another way?

 

[BainbridgeBrewer]

I just drop them in. I do this for both pellet, or whole leaf. Pellets will settle out eventually with the trub on the bottom. Leaf will usually float the whole time and soak up some of the beer. Some use the hop sacks, some don't. Its all personal preference.