Removing Hops from Primary

[NIU_Brew84]

Working on a Lemon-Apricot Wheat beer (drinking heavily while doing so, mistake 1, it was Cinco de Mayo though, but I digress) I hit it with 2oz of hops at the end of the boil. Then I left the hops in when I dumped it into the primary (6.5 gallon brew bucket). I'm considering skimming them off with a sanitized "spider" strainer since they've basically formed a layer across the top of the bucket and I want to move to a secondary. Questions:

Will that thick layer of hops on the top foul up the fermentation?

If I scoop them off, will I pull out too much of the yeast to keep the fermentation going once transferred to the secondary?

A final question (for this thread), I'm considering adding some dried apricots macerated in honey two the secondary, is that a terrible idea? (I can never just follow recipes)

 

[kvess]

The hops are fine. Just rack and leave them behind when you are ready. Sounds good on the honey and fruit. Just expect another fermentation when you do.

 

[NIU_Brew84]

How long do you generally ferment in the primary?

 

[NIU_Brew84]

I was concerned that they were fouling up the fermentation because I haven't had much bubbling in the air lock. What's a good rule of thumb for time in the primary?

 

[aaron3598]

You may want to get apricots with no preservatives, I don't know but could they inactivate the yeast making carb harder?

 

[NIU_Brew84]

These were organic hippy "all natural" ones

 

[kvess]

At least 2 weeks in primary. But Check you gravity reading. That is always the best way. I found 2 weeks gives the yeast time to clean up after themselves.

 

[brewit2it]

The hops wont impact fermentation. If you are brewing in a bucket you might just have not have a complete seal so the CO2 is escaping without going through the airlock but you should see kausen so take a look for that.

Just out of curiosity, are you following a recipe? Adding 2 oz of flameout hops in a Lemon-Apricot Wheat would seem a little unusual since you would usually want the hops mostly for bitterness but would want the fruits to come through as the main flavor. But who knows, it could be delicious with all hop flavor as well.

 

[neosapien]

These were organic hippy "all natural" ones

silly tree huggers....

 

[BrutalBrew]

I have a question about this process. If your adding fruit and honey to secondary would it be better to just leave the beer in the primary, wait for gravity to stabilize. Then just add the fruit and honey to primary starting a second fermenting process? Wait for the 2nd fermentation to stabilize and then rack it to secondary? Seems like the same results would occur and save a racking. Leaving both cakes in one container.

 

[NIU_Brew84]

WAS following a recipe. Doubled the amount of hops for the end dose. I like the texture of fruit beers and small hints of fruit flavor, but dislike a strong fruit flavor in my beer. This way though I can tell my wife that I made her a fruit beer and it's not my fault if she doesn't like it.

 

[NIU_Brew84]

I'm looking for a really clean taste. So I was thinking primary-secondary-tertiary. The recipe had a small amount of fresh apricot going into the primary, so I'm also looking to avoid the beer sitting on that for too long.

 

[NIU_Brew84]

The way this guy at the store was describing them and their "natural purity" was ridiculous. He had a faint hop-esque smell as well.