Have i ruined my beer?

[mancer62]

On Friday night I made a 5 gallon extract kit.
Last night I threw in loose hop pellets while the beer was fermenting pretty vigorously.
This morning there is a strong happy smell and the brew is green.
Previously I have always added hops in a muslin bag on day 5.
What can I now expect from this brew and have I wasted it?

 

[Brew_DD2]

On Friday night I made a 5 gallon extract kit.
Last night I threw in loose hop pellets while the beer was fermenting pretty vigorously.
This morning there is a strong happy smell and the brew is green.
Previously I have always added hops in a muslin bag on day 5.
What can I now expect from this brew and have I wasted it?

Sounds grand to me. Adding hops earlier in the fermentation process is a legitimate and popular dry-hopping method. They will start to drop out when fermentation is finished.

 

[Agentgonzo]

That all sounds perfectly normal. The hop pellets add a green colour sheet from the tiny particles of crushed hops. It all settles down to the bottom of the fermenter once fermentation has finished.

I expect the beer will turn out delicious.

 

[mancer62]

Would I be correct in thinking cold crashing helps settle and clear your beer I unfortunately don't have the means to cold crash properly. However would sitting the fv in a sink or bath of cold water with frozen 2 litre pepsi bottles do the job or not?
If so how long would be recommended?

 

[jof]

Your beer should clear without a cold crash. It will just take a while longer.
That's part of why we recommend leaving it in the fermentation vessel for 2 weeks rather than the optimistic 1 week it says in the kit instructions

 

[An Ankoù]

My experience of chucking in loose pellets is that the hop debris doesn't flocculate and settle as solidly as the yeast/trub cake and fragments get carried over to the bottle. Not a problem if you're using a keg, but in the bottle the fragments nucleate the fizzing from the bottom of the bottle (where they have settled) and you always get a cloudy pint. Containing the pellets in a large fine-weave bag goes a long way to preventing this.

 

[mancer62]

So would doing what I mentioned above with putting fv in sink, cold water, frozen bottles of water etc be a worthless operation?

 

[jof]

Possibly. If the act of picking up the FV and moving it to the sink stirs up more sediment than would be cleared for however long you are going to leave it there.
I usually just wait, but people cold crash from 24 hours to a few days. Will your frozen water bottles keep the temperature down that long?

Also would it fit with leaving the FV in the cold sink until bottling time & siphon direct from there to avoid disturbing the sediment?

What you need to work out is what.works for you, after all you will be drinking it, not us. So if you don't mind your beer a bit cloudy, then don't worry. If it has to be crystal clear, then finings, cold crash and even doing secondary fermentation in a keg to minimise yeast in the bottles are things to try later once you're happy with the basics.

 

[starseeker]

There are loads of us on here who don't cold crash ,choosing the right yeast and a bit of patience can get you crystal clear beer ,

 

[Agentgonzo]

So would doing what I mentioned above with putting fv in sink, cold water, frozen bottles of water etc be a worthless operation?

Not worthless. But very little reward for your effort when you could literally do nothing and wait a few days to achieve the same result

 

[Jahfish]

Your beer should clear without a cold crash. It will just take a while longer.
That's part of why we recommend leaving it in the fermentation vessel for 2 weeks rather than the optimistic 1 week it says in the kit instructions

Is that 2 weeks total, or 2 weeks AFTER primary has finished?

 

[Agentgonzo]

Is that 2 weeks total, or 2 weeks AFTER primary has finished?

2 weeks total

 

[mancer62]

Doesn't seem worth the effort.....what if I use 13g strips of gelatine leaf. Would thus work?....I have a packet of 8 x 13g leafs.
Would u just boil a cup of water and stir in one 13g leaf then let cool before adding?
Is it best to add to the primary fv after fermentation. If so how long for?
I usually transfer my brew to a pressure barrel I use as my bottling bucket from where I both bottle and keg from.
Would it be better to add the gelatine at this stage and again how long for. Ty