Problem Brew (Surly Furious)

[joeyjoejoe]

I'm brewing the new NB Surly Furious extract kit. This brew has been a problem from the beginning. I was drunk when I made it, which certainly didn't help. Instead of aerating the wort prior to pitching the yeast, I dumped the yeast in and then shook everything around before I realized what I was doing.

The next morning there was so much activity I had to hook up a blowoff tube, there was foam everywhere. It smelled great and I thought things were fine.

After a little over two weeks in primary, I transferred to secondary. The beer just didn't smell right, not like it was ruined, but not like how I would expect it to smell even before dry-hopping. After two weeks in secondary, I added the 8.5 oz of dry hops. That was also a problem, I only had three muslin bags and they would not fit in the carboy. You'd need about ten muslin bags to cram all those hops in, so I ended up having to throw them in loose.

Anyways, here we are, one week since I dry hopped, five weeks in total, and the beer almost looks like it's fermenting again. About half the hops have formed a layer at the bottom, but the other half is in a 2-inch layer of foam at the top, and bubbles are coming from the airlock every ten-fifteen seconds. The good news is, it smells good.

Anyone have any thoughts? I'm concerned about bottling if it's still releasing gas, but I don't want to "over" dry hop it by letting it sit another few weeks either.

 

[samc]

1. Don't drink and brew
2. Take a hydrometer reading now, wait 2 days do it again. What's the gravity now ?

 

[jimmayhugh]

1. Don't drink and brew

Gotta disagree with you there, the correct phrase is "Don't brew DRUNK"

I always have a glass or three of homebrew while I'm making a new brew, I feel that it's integral to the process.

 

[lschiavo]

Brewing without drinking beer is just wrong...don't do it!

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Anyways, here we are, one week since I dry hopped, five weeks in total, and the beer almost looks like it's fermenting again. About half the hops have formed a layer at the bottom, but the other half is in a 2-inch layer of foam at the top, and bubbles are coming from the airlock every ten-fifteen seconds. The good news is, it smells good.

Anyone have any thoughts? I'm concerned about bottling if it's still releasing gas, but I don't want to "over" dry hop it by letting it sit another few weeks either.

I've had this happen before when I've thrown loose pellets in the secondary to dry hop. They form what sort of looks like a green krausen. And sometimes even cause the airlock to bubble.
Just take gravity readings a couple days in a row and if your gravity is stable, and the dry hops have been in the 2ndary for the recommended time, bottle/keg it.
And 8.5 oz of dry hops!!!! Nice!!! I'm going to NB first thing tomorrow to pick up a furious kit. I love that beer and love brewing batches with gratuitous amounts of hops.

 

[itchywool]

Brewed this back in Feb. Same thing happened with a lot of action in secondary after dry hops. The gravity dropped a few extra points too.

I used white labs dry english ale yeast.

Awesome beer. Don't worry.

 

[SamuraiSquirrel]

Instead of aerating the wort prior to pitching the yeast, I dumped the yeast in and then shook everything around before I realized what I was doing.

Not a problem .........

The next morning there was so much activity I had to hook up a blowoff tube, there was foam everywhere. It smelled great and I thought things were fine.

Not a problem ........

After a little over two weeks in primary, I transferred to secondary. The beer just didn't smell right, not like it was ruined, but not like how I would expect it to smell even before dry-hopping. After two weeks in secondary, I added the 8.5 oz of dry hops. That was also a problem, I only had three muslin bags and they would not fit in the carboy. You'd need about ten muslin bags to cram all those hops in, so I ended up having to throw them in loose.

I gave up on using any sort of hop bag in a carboy .... just more work than it's worth. I throw all dry hops in loose. i've never used 8.5 oz but have used 6. Most will sink, if not then its still Not a problem ........ You can siphon between the sunken hop layer and the floating hop layer. You will suck up a little bit but it'll be fine.

Anyways, here we are, one week since I dry hopped, five weeks in total, and the beer almost looks like it's fermenting again. About half the hops have formed a layer at the bottom, but the other half is in a 2-inch layer of foam at the top, and bubbles are coming from the airlock every ten-fifteen seconds. The good news is, it smells good.

What is the gravity currently at? Go off of that rather than bubbles. I've had some that bubble like this up until bottling for some reason.


Moral of the story is that it sounds like this beer will be fine. None of the issues above alone will ruin the beer.

 

[mcaple1]

I'm brewing the new NB Surly Furious extract kit. This brew has been a problem from the beginning. I was drunk when I made it, which certainly didn't help. Instead of aerating the wort prior to pitching the yeast, I dumped the yeast in and then shook everything around before I realized what I was doing.

The next morning there was so much activity I had to hook up a blowoff tube, there was foam everywhere. It smelled great and I thought things were fine.

After a little over two weeks in primary, I transferred to secondary. The beer just didn't smell right, not like it was ruined, but not like how I would expect it to smell even before dry-hopping. After two weeks in secondary, I added the 8.5 oz of dry hops. That was also a problem, I only had three muslin bags and they would not fit in the carboy. You'd need about ten muslin bags to cram all those hops in, so I ended up having to throw them in loose.

Anyways, here we are, one week since I dry hopped, five weeks in total, and the beer almost looks like it's fermenting again. About half the hops have formed a layer at the bottom, but the other half is in a 2-inch layer of foam at the top, and bubbles are coming from the airlock every ten-fifteen seconds. The good news is, it smells good.

Anyone have any thoughts? I'm concerned about bottling if it's still releasing gas, but I don't want to "over" dry hop it by letting it sit another few weeks either.

I'm kinda confused with what really is going wrong here.

1) Aerating by shaking the carboy after pitching is just fine.

2) Loose dry hopping works for anyone that has a pulse.

3) I always am drunk when I brew, makes the process more enjoyable even when things start going south.

Either way...congratulations bud...you made beer.

By the way...8.5 oz of dry hops....what the hell are you making again? Is that a 5 gallon batch. Your gonna lose like a gallon with that addition! :rockin:

 

[mcaple1]

Cold crash the hell out of it after 10 days dry hopped and the floaties should come down...the rack/bottle/keg!

 

[mcaple1]

Damn you Samurai Squirrel!! Beat me by a couple seconds!

 

[joeyjoejoe]

Thanks everyone. I recently broke my hydrometer and my local homebrew store was closed all weekend, so I'll be picking one up today to get the gravity readings. Good to know that things will probably be ok on this one. I'll follow up in a couple days.

 

[sagacity]

1. Don't drink and brew

I must disagree. I've never brewed without drinking. It really helps to get you in the mind-set.



Cheers!
z

 

[HerotBrewer]

Sounds like everything went ok.

Sounds to me like the hops created nucleation points for the degassing of dissolved C02 from the brew. I know whenever I pour my homemade cider which has not been degassed I get foam and bubbles, and it hasn't been "carbed," just sitting in the carboy.

You get the same reaction by dropping a Mentos into a bottle of diet coke, just on a larger scale. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soda_and_candy_eruption

 

[joeyjoejoe]

Update for anyone still watching this thread.

Tuesday night the gravity was 1.016.

Friday morning the gravity is 1.014.

Safe to bottle yet? The longer the dry hops sit in there, the worse off I think I am at this point (it's been two weeks).

 

[samc]

I'd wait till Sunday and check it again. If it is 1.014 then bottle, if it is still dropping you don't want to bottle.

 

[hillhousesawdustco]

Check back in and let us know the final volume of beer you get out of this batch. Like some of these other folks, I'm blown away by 8.5 oz of hops in 5 gallons of beer! Wowza.

 

[joeyjoejoe]

Checking back in. Gravity Sunday morning was still 1.014, so I bottled. There were so much hops in the carboy that the siphon was repeatedly clogged. In the end I wound up with about 3.3 gallons of beer. As a beginner I always lose a little beer throughout the process, but this was rather ridiculous.

Given the price of this kit, I wouldn't recommend it to novice brewers. I'd also recommend doing the secondary in a bucket if you've got one, so you can dry hop in muslin bags. As I said before, you can't fit a muslin bag through the tiny opening in a glass carboy with too much hops in it, so I ended up going loose and lost quite a bit of beer in the process.

 

[Ital]

I just kegged this one last night. Crazy amount of dry hops, for sure. I threw the hops right in my 6.5gal carboy primary loose after fermentation was complete. Started with about ~5.6gal of wort and after cold crashing the carboy there was about 0.75gal of hops and trub that settled out. After transferring to the keg I'd say I was able to get just under 5 gallons. Super tasty!

I upgraded my racking cane to a auto siphon, which has a black plastic tip on it that prevents much of the hop material from passing. I've noticed a huge difference in the amount of beer I am able to transfer. It's probably paid for itself already in 4 batches.

Had a good amount of scrubbing to do to remove the hop resin on the inside of the carboy... guess you've got to pay to play!

 

[Token]

I love this thread. Just wish I had seen it before I brewed my all-grain batch of S.Furioius. I had many similar activities except the drunk while brewing thingy.

I have said the same thing about dry hopping this beer: dry hop in a bucket and use leaf hops in muslin bags. I lost about a gallon to pellet trub. And yes, 8.5 oz dry hops for a 5 gallon batch.

This really is a crazy beer to brew. Turns out kinda murky but suuuuuper tasty. By all means BREW THIS BEER!!!

 

[Yooper]

I love this thread. Just wish I had seen it before I brewed my all-grain batch of S.Furioius. I had many similar activities except the drunk while brewing thingy.

I have said the same thing about dry hopping this beer: dry hop in a bucket and use leaf hops in muslin bags. I lost about a gallon to pellet trub. And yes, 8.5 oz dry hops for a 5 gallon batch.

This really is a crazy beer to brew. Turns out kinda murky but suuuuuper tasty. By all means BREW THIS BEER!!!

It's a good one, alright! My recipe is different than Northern Brewer's but it's one of my favorites. I'm going to brew it tomorrow. I've used Wyeast 1335 wyeast for it, which may be the yeast recommended by Northern Brewer, and it dropped clear in a couple of weeks which really surprised me!