Hops Help Please

[Alouyius Phlegm]

Hi all,
Been reading plenty about a lot of brew things here over the last month or so. Thanks its a great read and site.

I am a bit concerned about my current brew (number 3) and it is the first time I've done a boil and used hops. Amarillo as it was - 10g at 15mins and 10g at 5 mins and I'm supposed to dry hop another 5g...

My question is not really about the amount of hops or what the taste flavour will be etc but concerns the fact that I did not strain the hops from the boil into the fermenter and did not use a hops bag or sock or any other hop holding thingamejig....

So I guess, have I buggered this up by not straining? Can I save this and not have loads of crap in the bottle (Which probably isn't a real bad thing anyway)? I only have one fermenter but do have a 12 litre pot and a couple of 4 litre ones.

Maybe I can rack to these and then rack back to a clean fermenter before dry hopping in a hop bag....

Happy for any suggestions. Its supposed to be a golden ale,using a variation of Dr Smurto's JSGA clone, only used less amarillo after the Home brew man thought 45 g of Amarillo was maybe too much. I lost the confidence to stick to my guns and only bought the one packet (25g)..... oops

 

[dr K]

Hop pellets are pulverised (mainly) hop cones, when you add them to boil they disperse quite rapidly,when you add your cooled wort (or hot for that matter) to your fermentor all this green crap is going to be in there..now this green crap might look like a lot but this 20gm in 20 litres (just under 21kg of wort) is like well, not much (say one part in a thousand or less), now this green crap is very light so when you have an active ferment it will get carried up to the top of the fermentor and a lot of it will stick to the sides well above the low tide line.
What is left will mainly flocc out with the yeast.


K

 

[boingk]

If you are really worried about getting hops in your bottles/keg/what-have-you, then simply rack to a second fermenter after activity has died down. This way you'll get off the primary yeast cake - avoiding bad flavours if you intend to let the brew sit and clarify for any more than a few days - AND leave behind the hops!

Plus, its an excuse to buy another fermenter! Woo!

Cheers - boingk

 

[Alouyius Phlegm]

Thanks for that guys. Was a bit more fun boiling and adding bits etc this time. Hadn't given much thought to the straining bit until a guy at work (also brewing only a couple of months) said he had strained the hops he added for his brew as the brewcraft instructions had said to.... Started wondering then if I'd buggered this up as I couldn't remember reading to strain the hops in Palmer's how to brew book... Feel a bit more at ease now. Cheers

 

[andrewg1978]

Hi all, just re hops I started a new brew yesterday and forgot to add hops to the fermentor. Are there any tricks if i add to the keg after?

 

[mckenry]

Hi all, just re hops I started a new brew yesterday and forgot to add hops to the fermentor. Are there any tricks if i add to the keg after?

Chuck them in now. Either dry or steep them for 15 mins or thereabouts. No problems. Adding to the keg wont do much except putting floaties in it in my experience.

 

[andrewg1978]

Chuck them in now. Either dry or steep them for 15 mins or thereabouts. No problems. Adding to the keg wont do much except putting floaties in it in my experience.

Interesting - What about infections etc - I thought this was an absolute no-no as it will let air in during fermentation.

 

[mckenry]

Interesting - What about infections etc - I thought this was an absolute no-no as it will let air in during fermentation.

Nope, no problem. See posts above re racking etc. Some people brew without lids. In the initial stages of vigerous fermentation, you're pretty right to open up and add hops if need be. Whilst the brew is producing CO2 the air will be pushed out anyway. Same as purging a keg. There's air in there to start.