Possible newb mistake...

[kman6234]

Hi everyone, I brewed my first batch last night. It was the irish red ale kit from northern brewer. I think I might have made a mistake though.

The kit comes with hops pellets that needed to be added for the full 60 minute boil. I added the hops and boiled for 60 minutes. The instructions didn't say to strain the hops out of the wort before I put it in the primary. I made sure not to pour any of the sludge at the bottom of the pot into the primary but there is still a decent amount of hops in the primary.

Is this going to ruin the beer? or will it just be extra hoppy? In the future should I strain the wort before putting it in the primary?

 

[Yooper]

You won't make the beer extra hoppy from leaving the pellets in- it's the boiling that isomerizes the acids in the hops for bittering. Since it's not boiling (and 60 minutes gets out about all they have anyway), there will be no effect at all. That sludge will all sink to the bottom after fermentation.

I very rarely strain my beers, unless I have a ton of leaf hops that will clog up my siphon. If I have a ton of sludge, I try to leave that out, but not because it will harm the beer. Just because it's easier for siphoning and stuff.

 

[rasherb]

Straining is good.

But don't worry, all of the crap (except the mobile yeasties) will settle on the bottom of the primary when fermentation dies down.

Just be careful when you rack out of the bucket, not to disturb any of the trub on the bottom.

 

[kman6234]

Great, thanks for the reply YooperBrew!

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

Aside from bits of hops prepare yourself to see all kinds of other yucky looking crud that you weren't expecting later on. Beer is really quite foul looking until it reaches your bottles.

 

[MgMt_Home_Brew]

Yeah you are fine, I don't strain any of the pellet hops out. Sometimes I try to leave the sludge in the bottom but other times I have pour it all in and it's fine.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

If you are worried about the sludge, rack to a secondary in a week or two.

Between the primary settling and the secondary, you final product will be pretty clear.

 

[ifishsum]

I did the same thing the first time I used pellets. If you have any problem at all, it will be with clogging your siphon hose - that was quite frustrating (I racked to secondary after 7 days). Consider letting it sit in primary for 2-3 weeks and skipping secondary, to give the hop sludge time to settle out and reduce the chances of a clog.

There will be nothing wrong with the beer though.

 

[kman6234]

Thanks everyone for the tips! My primary is bubbling a way and it's looking really good.

 

[misterVT]

I also did the red ale for my first batch exactly as you did and I'm enjoying it as I type. I was so pleased with the results it motivated me to brew three more times in two weeks. Enjoy!

 

[kman6234]

I also did the red ale for my first batch exactly as you did and I'm enjoying it as I type. I was so pleased with the results it motivated me to brew three more times in two weeks. Enjoy!

That's good to hear it went well for you! I'm excited watching it in my primary. I feel like a mad scientist lol. My gf thinks I'm nuts and was complaining about the smell last night. She better get use to it... I thought it smelled pretty good

 

[McDegga]

Dude, my wife hates the smell, but loves the result, so she tolerates me. Enjoy the mad scientist nature of it, you'll soon be hooked and really experimentin like a mad scientist for real. The following link is a thread that I started with basically the same premise. I brewed for a while and stopped 13 years ago. I recently took it up again and have really become a mad scientist this go around. I'm in the process of filling 7 kegs with various beers (and EdWort's Apfelwein) and I am by no means close to a pro. There are a lot of really experienced people here that will tell you the same thing...You'll be hooked soon, and remember to RDWHAHB!

Welcome to the habit,
-E


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/how-much-sediment-should-go-into-my-primary-83566/