While I Wait

[WSURaider41]

Ok, so my current brew (my first batch ever) is currently sitting in my secondary. After previous worries and many helpful answers, I decided to slow down with my current brew. Here is my story of the process.

After first creating my wort I was happy that everything seemed to be going well. I transferred to my glass carboy (primary) and poured in the yeast. After three days I noticed the visible signs of fermentation had slowed/died. I began to worry and got many different answers. My ultimate decision was to go ahead and do my dry hop. I dry hopped in my primary and let it sit to rest out to the end of the week. Then it was time for another decision. To avoid the grassy flavor I decided to rack to my secondary and clear out most of the hops residue to avoid the grassy flavor. This is where I sit now... my brew will be in my secondary until possibly next weekend.

Questions:

1) Tips, suggestions, critiques?
2) If I have priming sugar, what do I do to prepare my priming solution when I'm ready to bottle?
3) What should my next brew be? I am hoping to start my next brew in about 2 or 3 weeks. I am a huge fan of Pale Ales and IPA's... any suggestions? Still looking towards extracts right now since this will only be my 2nd brew.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

1. I've never dry hopped so I don't have any ideas for you. I believe people usually rack to secondary before dry hopping, but I'm sure other more qualified people can confirm.

2. Boil the sugar with a little water, let it cool and add to the bottling bucket.

3. Whatever you want to drink next. =p

 

[Revvy]

1) If you are opting for a long primary/no secondary, then you simply decide how long you plan to dry hop and add the hops in that many days back from day 30. If you like to dryhop for a week, then you add them after 3 weeks.

2) Bottling tips for the Homebrewer

3) Whatever the hell you want. How can we tell you what to brew?

Of course you could try this. Can't decide what to brew next? Try this tool!

 

[maltyPython]

Hi, which yeast did you use for fermentation? How much did you use and what temperature did you ferment at? Three days is an awfully short time for primary...

Besides, IMHO it does not make much sense to dry hop and then rerack to secondary...you'll lose a lot of hoppy goodness that way. Oh, and finally I would not worry too much about grassy flavors from the dry hopping up to >2 weeks in secondary (maybe even more, but I never dry hopped for longer than 2 weeks)

 

[WSURaider41]

Thanks for the info malty... not sure what yeast I used. It came in a kit that I bought when I bought my brewkit and didn't even pay any attention to it. Just followed the instructions. It all stayed in the primary for a week overall. Then I racked it to my secondary only after I did about 3-4 days of the dry hop.

I suppose the damage is done at this point and I will just have to wait and see how this turns out after bottling and conditioning.