Will a layer of hop trub at bottom of fermenter harm my beer?

[Brew2Be]

Hi.

Yesterday I made an APA. Everything went fine, but alot of hop sludge was transfered into the primary.

There is a thick layer, maybe about 4-5 cm at the bottom of it. I haven't pitched yeast yet. Should I decant it to minimize the yeast sludge? Or is it ok to just leave it as it is, pitch and let it ferment?

Thanks in advance

 

[temple240]

It's fairly common to dump all of the hop sludge and break material right into the fermenter. I have done it plenty of times with no complaints.

Now that the wort has been transferred I wouldn't mess around trying to decant or filter. Just pitch the yeast.

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[ariebsomer]

You're fine. I've done a ton of extract and all-grain brews where I've dumped in all the hops residue and protein material left over after a boil into my fermenter - never had a problem. It always took a little more work to clarify my beers, so I use hop bags and try to filter some of the hot-break goop out now, but I'd let it ride as you have it. You can always do a longer secondary if you're worried about cosmetics.

 

[Brew2Be]

Thanks for the insight guys. I just pitched the yeast. Hope it will work out great!

 

[RM-MN]

Your beer will look abolutely disgusting while it is fermenting. So don't look at it. When the ferment slows down, the hops and break material will settle out, followed by the yeast. That huge amount of hops and break will compact down to a very small amount. People who have tried filtering the hops out and compared that beer to a batch with the hops left in say they can't tell the difference.

Ferment your beer cool, at the low end of the yeast's preferred range. Leave it in the primary fermenter long enough for the ferment to finish and for a lot of the yeast to settle out, then bottle it. It may take close to 3 or even 4 weeks for the yeast to settle well. No problem leaving the beer on the yeast that long. Even longer will give you less yeast cake in your bottles and the beer will be maturing while it sits in the fermenter. I've personally left a beer for 9 weeks and I could hardly see the yeast layer in the bottles.