Hop Pellets And Primary Fermentation

[floydmeddler]

Hi guys,

Bit worried. I used hop pellets for the first time yesterday and instead of sieving them off when adding to my fermentation bucket, I added them along with the wort. Went to take a hydrometer reading a minutes ago and when I turned the tap, all I got was a sludgy liquid. Is this normal? Please someone tell me that the hops will rest at the bottom when fermentation relaxes a bit and that my beer will be OK.

Thanks,

Floyd

 

[Inge]

Hi guys,

Bit worried. I used hop pellets for the first time yesterday and instead of sieving them off when adding to my fermentation bucket, I added them along with the wort. Went to take a hydrometer reading a minutes ago and when I turned the tap, all I got was a sludgy liquid. Is this normal? Please someone tell me that the hops will rest at the bottom when fermentation relaxes a bit and that my beer will be OK.

Thanks,

Floyd

Most of it will get caught in the yeast trub.

 

[rude]

Did the same a while back but a bit heavy handed 20g fuggles no sock at flame out with 20g ekg for 20 mins in a sock
Jeez its bitter nearly drank them all though but wont do that again.
Im sure the hops in the fermenter did it.
Its nearly a good beer maybe 5g at flameout in the fermenter.

Used Thomas Coopers IPA kit with 100g of crystal steeped 1kg of light dme

 

[floydmeddler]

I've got a grand total of 70g - Hallertau in my primary. Regretting this more and more by the second. Is it even worth continuing with this brew or should I tip it?

 

[kabooby]

No need to tip it out. If you can, try and chill your beer down as cold as you can for a few days after fermentation has finished. That will drop everything out including hops and yeast. If you are bottling raise the temp back up before you bottle.

Kabooby

 

[floydmeddler]

Cheers for the advice. Feeling hopeful. Only problem is I can't chill it anywhere as my place is very small. Am planning on putting it into secondary for a week... Hopefully it will settle there?

Thanks again.

Floyd

 

[rclemmett]

Did the same a while back but a bit heavy handed 20g fuggles no sock at flame out with 20g ekg for 20 mins in a sock
Jeez its bitter nearly drank them all though but wont do that again.
Im sure the hops in the fermenter did it.
Its nearly a good beer maybe 5g at flameout in the fermenter.

Used Thomas Coopers IPA kit with 100g of crystal steeped 1kg of light dme

I regularly dry hop with 20-30g, and have only ever had good results. The reason this beer is bitter is the style, IPA's are meant to be bitter. Adding hops to the fermenter (dry hopping) won't affect the beers bitterness, it will only really add aroma and maybe a bit of flavour.

The 20g of ekg (?) for 20 mins would have added bitternes depending on the alpha acid content of the hops.

 

[rclemmett]

Cheers for the advice. Feeling hopeful. Only problem is I can't chill it anywhere as my place is very small. Am planning on putting it into secondary for a week... Hopefully it will settle there?

Thanks again.

Floyd

Relax Floyd they will settle out

 

[barry2]

Hi guys,

Bit worried. I used hop pellets for the first time yesterday and instead of sieving them off when adding to my fermentation bucket, I added them along with the wort. Went to take a hydrometer reading a minutes ago and when I turned the tap, all I got was a sludgy liquid. Is this normal? Please someone tell me that the hops will rest at the bottom when fermentation relaxes a bit and that my beer will be OK.

Thanks,

Floyd

I add about 45g of hop pellets to brews and stopped sieving them out over a year ago.There is usually about 1-2cm of hops in the hydrometer tube.I add gelatin for fining three days before bottling.
There is a small slug of hops in the hydrometer tube on the FG reading but the first bottle is free of pellets.I always remove the airlock for readings and bottling,otherwise the trub may get stirred up.
For one brew I carried out an experiment on dryhopping by adding one pellet per bottle to a few bottles on bottling.
The beer was full of floaties and suffered from excess carbonation.Not a success.

 

[Pennywise]

One of my recent brews had a total of 100g hop pellets, I never strain them, all ends up in the fermenter. I learnt a very important lesson when the tap got so clogged up it took 15mins just to fill one bottle. Now I prop the fermenter up on the tap side so most of the trub and hop crud settle more to one side, works a treat

 

[floydmeddler]

Thanks folks. My plan is as follows. Syphon to secondary next week hopefully leaving a huge majority of the hop sediment behind. I will allow it to sit in secondary until it clears. Don't think i'll use hop pellets again. Will stick with whole and keep them in a muslin bag!

Floyd

 

[Gavo]

If you are going to keep them in a mauslin bag, pellets will be fine. Just make sure the bag is big enough to let them expand.

 

[WarmBeer]

Get rid of the so called "sediment reducer" if you've got one on the back end of your fermenter tap.

Doesn't do anything apart from clog up with hops and trub.

Plus it makes racking to secondary a much longer proposition.

Oh yeah, Relax, have another homebrew :icon_cheers:

 

[Pennywise]

Get rid of the so called "sediment reducer" if you've got one on the back end of your fermenter tap.

Doesn't do anything apart from clog up with hops and trub.

+1, completely useless

 

[Bribie G]

If you still want some extra flavour and aroma without using pellets, try making a batch of 'hop tea' and strain that into fermenter on about day 4. I have a dedicated glass teapot ($2 at op shop) that I use for hop tea and also steeping grains, and being glass it can be kept totally clean and sterile. coffee plunger would do the trick as well.

Having said that, I dry hop with pellets on occasion and as stated by previous posters you get flavour and aroma but not bitterness and provided you leave them long enough you shouldnt get any excess material passing over into the bottles.

Hint 2: if doing ales or even kit 'lagers' forget the kit yeast, spend a little extra and use a high flocculating yeast such as Nottingham that drops incredibly compact and drags everything down with it :icon_cheers: Currently have a Scottish 80/- that is bright as a button after only 8 days in the bottle.

 

[raven19]

Can I suggest racking your beer prior to bottling/kegging?
Rack with the fermenter on an angle if need to be eliminate any trub being transferred into your 2nd fermenter. I find this also makes it alot easier for bulk priming.
Cheers!

 

[floydmeddler]

Warmbeer, I will remove that damn thing once I rack this batch. Wanted to take it off in the past but was worried it was necessary. Cheers.

Raven, I will rack it prior to bottling for definite as I'm a big fan of bulk priming.

BribieG, I don't use the yeast that comes with the kits. Prefer Saflager yeast and also use DME instead of dex. I like your tea idea. Might try this with a future brew.

As for the hop sediment, will keep you posted.

Thanks a million for all your help.

Floyd.

 

[andrewg1978]

Just an interesting observations I have had with dry hopping.

I have made 8 or more batches and all seem to have the same outcome (largers and CPA) using either hallarteau or Saaz hops approx 10gms in a stainless tea ball rather then bags.

Different yeasts, fermentation times (2w-4weeks), racking times (2 weeks - 4 weeks). I then keg and force carb.

I have found all the brews to be a little fruity and sweet for my taste, but immediately after 2 weeks (14-16d) in the keg the beer improves over night and out of sight. I suspect that maybe Co2 is doing something to either reduce the aromoa and bring through the "natural taste of the beer" or reacting with the hops to become more bitter?

Has anybody else experienced this or can explain why? I started racking in cubes to save having to buy extra kegs but if this seems to be a consistant outcome I will allow to condition in the keg under carbination in the future.

Cheers
Andrew