Put Irish moss in, hops wouldn't sediment

[L0stm4n]

So me and my brew buddy did 2 batches of beer yesterday. Our 3rd extract batch, and a partial mash batch. The LHBS guy helped us formulate the partial mash recipe and he tossed in some irish moss tablets. When brewing we decided that what's good for the goose is good for the gander and near the end of the extract batch we tossed a couple tablets in there as well.

When we did an IPA there was a ton of hops trub that settles out before we siphoned off to the fermentor. This time all the hops pellet crud was in suspension. We left it to sit for a bit and it still didn't settle any. We siphoned it to the carboy anyway and hoped for the best. Today I looked and it is turbulent and bubbling strongly so I won't be able to tell if those hops are going to settle out.

Will these hops eventually settle down so I can just rack off to another vessel for a while? Why did this happen? We used leaf hops with our partial mash ( a milk stout so not much hops anyway ) so we didn't run into this problem.

 

[brew2enjoy]

It will definitely settle out. Just give it a few weeks.

 

[TipsyDragon]

this is nothing to worry about. pellet hops can be "submarine like" (remember those toy submarines you filled with baking soda) they can get caught in the convection currents in your pot and fill with CO2 during fermentation. i'm sure if you looked you would see a thick green mat on the top of your beer. this will eventually die down and stop. if your still worried come bottling day you can put a sanitized grain bag over the end of your siphon.

 

[L0stm4n]

Thanks! I'll just let it settle and rack off to a secondary after 2 weeks.

 

[Yooper]

Yep, it'll be fine.

Just so you know for next time, Irish moss doesn't do a thing with hops. What it does in the kettle is help coagulate proteins. So, it'll help with grain debris and other protein-rich stuff. Hops debris will settle on its own, and if you use Irish moss (or its cousin whirlfloc) the coagulated proteins will also settle out and leave clearer beer.

 

[L0stm4n]

Yep, it'll be fine.

Just so you know for next time, Irish moss doesn't do a thing with hops. What it does in the kettle is help coagulate proteins. So, it'll help with grain debris and other protein-rich stuff. Hops debris will settle on its own, and if you use Irish moss (or its cousin whirlfloc) the coagulated proteins will also settle out and leave clearer beer.

Thanks! Any idea why the hops didn't settle at all? It made it a real PITA to siphon. We ended up using the auto siphon as a pump and just pumping the whole shebang into the fermentor. Looking back I wish we would have used this muslin bag I had saved from the steeping of our previous batches specialty grains as a filter.

 

[krazydave]

Sometimes you just get a ton of hops floating around, it's nothing unusual.
But rest assured, they will settle out in the fermenter and the batch will be perfectly fine.