help for newbie. First time brew an American pale from extract. A good kit from Maltose (beer captured). Out of primary in week. Seemed like good ferment. Into secondary carboy with dry hop of some cascade. Hops are in cheese cloth sock floating on top. Beer seems to be clearing. About 1 finger of sediment on bottom of carboy. In secondary about 5 days at around 65 degrees covered in basement. Tonight I noticed some light colored specs floating around top of beer. Panic!! Do you think this is some mold, or could it be from the hops. What should I do. Thanks for advice.
Qestion About Secondary Ferment
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Don't panic. It's probably stuff from the hops, or maybe what I call "yeast clumpies'. Don't worry- if it's mold, it'll spread and get fuzzy.
Brakeman_Brewing
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It sounds like it could be little guys from the hops.
Did you use pellets or leaf/plugs?
How porous is the cheesecloth? Could it let small pieces of hop through?
Did you use pellets or leaf/plugs?
How porous is the cheesecloth? Could it let small pieces of hop through?
I used plugs, they were actually too big to fit into 5 gal carboy so I had to cut them up a bit. The cheese cloth sock did seem rather porous. I guess I will just keep an eye on it. How long do you usually keep in secondary. If I want to check gravity, how do you get the wort out of the secondary. Thanks
I keep it in the clearing tank (secondary) for a couple of weeks usually, but I usually only dry hop 7-10 days. After a week, you can use a sanitized turkey baster to pull out an sg sample and check it. then, taste it to see if it has enough dry hopping. If it does, and the gravity is acceptable, you can bottle, or rack into another clearing tank. If it needs a little more hops flavor, you can leave it a bit longer or add more hops.
