My 2nd brew, fermented fast & very cloudy

[Toastie]

Hi all,
A few weeks ago I made my first brew (standard coopers kit lager), all went well with it & it tasted quite reasonable at the time of bottling so while confidence was high I sterilized everything (filled the fermenter with water + 150ml unscented bleach & chucked all the tools in to soak for 24 hours). I'm not looking at brewing anything too complicated at the moment, just want to get the hang of this new hobby so I bought a Coopers Pale Ale kit & 1kg of the Brew Enhancer 2, I mainly chose Coopers Pale just to see how similar a home brew could be.
At this point ill add that my fermenter is sitting inside a spare room in my house, its the coolest room in the house and i'm fortunate to have reverse cycle air con on the majority of the time (the wife cant handle temps over 25 ). Unfortunately im not in the market at this stage to set up a fridge with a temperature control set up to regulate the temp of the wort.
Anyway so I put that brew together & pitched the kit yeast, the wort was too warm when I pitched it (30 degrees, I wasn't prepared for this as I had only added cold water last time and it was much cooler by the time I'd filled it to 23 litres), so I put it in the spare room & blasted it with the a/c to help get the temp down & called it a night. The OG was 1039. I checked it the next night and everything looked good, good amount of froth on top and a nice beer smell so I was patting myself on the back. I checked it again the next night (48 hours after brewing) and the krausen had subsided a fair amount which worried me a bit, & it was around about 23 degrees according to the coopers stick-on thermometer. The smell was still good tho.
So I got home today (4th day) & the krausen had subsided a bit more so I checked the gravity which was 1012. The sample was quite gassy & the wort is very cloudy compared to my first brew (the coopers kit lager), but I drank the sample and it was surprisingly good, a lot closer to the taste of the real thing than I would have thought.

So I guess all signs are positive so far but firstly is the cloudiness of the wort a concern & secondly is it bad that it has fermented so quickly?

 

[stewy]

If it's only day 4 it will still be cloudy. Leave it for 2 weeks in the fermenter & it will clear right up

 

[Maffew]

+1 on the leave it for longer. Also try and get the temp down a bit as that will help clear it up. I chuck a wet towel around my fermenter and that normally helps get a 2-3 deg temp drop. seems to help.

 

[TheExpat]

I'm of the mind of not leaving it for too long in the fermenter. If it's stable, bottle it. Stick some int he fridge for a week or so after carbonation is done and it will be less cloudy.

Cloudy isn't a bad thing I don't think.

If you had a fridge you could cold crash it, but if it's done and tastes good bottle it, I'm not sure there is *that* much benefit to leaving it in the FV on a kit like this if it already tastes good.

 

[TheWiggman]

Why is that ExPat? There are many benefits to leaving beer in the fermenter a bit longer, but can't think of any by rushing it. Especially for a newer brewer.

 

[JDW81]

I'm of the mind of not leaving it for too long in the fermenter. If it's stable, bottle it. Stick some int he fridge for a week or so after carbonation is done and it will be less cloudy.

Why?

One of the best things you can do for your beer is give it more time in the fermenter (within reason). Just because fermentation has finished doesn't mean there isn't still important stuff going on. The yeast will clean up after themselves, more stuff (yeast, proteins, hop matter etc) will drop out of suspension and you'll have a cleaner looking and tasting beer.

FWIW everything I brew gets a minimum of 2 weeks in the fermenter (sometimes more depending on style).

JD

 

[Blind Dog]

Have to agree that there are big benefits to leaving just about any beer (can't think of an exception) the fermenter for a while after active fermentation is complete. Yeast cleaning up their own by products being the main one

 

[Grott]

Good advice by TheWiggman and JDW81. Don't rush things and you'll have a much better beer.
Cheers

 

[Toastie]

Thanks for the advice everyone, i'm not in any rush to bottle, my main nemesis is if we get a heatwave here but shouldn't be for the next week at least

 

[sebastion]

Hi I do mainly the coopers pale and leave it two weeks in the fermenter check the gravity at start and end if all ok bottle it. Dry hopped last one with cascade at day ten turned out lovely even at three weeks. Don't stress I found leaving it alone the hard thing with the first couple

 

[spog]

Hi I do mainly the coopers pale and leave it two weeks in the fermenter check the gravity at start and end if all ok bottle it. Dry hopped last one with cascade at day ten turned out lovely even at three weeks. Don't stress I found leaving it alone the hard thing with the first couple

Yep,as you said,leaving it alone the hard thing with the first couple.
With experience it will all become less worrisome, I once left a brew in the fermentor for a month with no issues.

 

[Grott]

Thanks for the advice everyone, i'm not in any rush to bottle, my main nemesis is if we get a heatwave here but shouldn't be for the next week at least

There are many ways to control fermentation temps even in heat waves. Some are expensive, some require space and not easily moveable and some are inexpensive and effective. Check out the post Fementer temperature control, there is a box system that has worked very well for me and others.
Cheers

 

[Killer Brew]

Sounds a lot like my first effort (pitched too warm). I did manage to keep it a little over 2 weeks in the fermenter though and it has turned out very drinkable. Did do a cold crash though and it is surprising how much stuff drops out. Do it if you can.