Fermentation and dry-hopping questions

Totally depends on the stage that the yeast was in and the strain of yeast being used. Could be either finished, or your yeast could have flocked and gone dormant. My guess would be that increasing the temp will cause a invigoration in yeast activity. In the least it will encourage the yeast to clean up any fermentation bi-products. I would make sure you get some yeast into suspension before you transfer onto your dry hops. This is not all that abnormal. Best of luck.

 

If you are interested in knowing whether your primary fermentation is complete it is best to check the final gravity over a few days and confirm that fermentation is done: i.e., you obtain the same final gravity reading on both of those measurements.

You do not need to transfer to dry hop your beer. You can dry hop in the primary fermenter; this is what I do and a lot of other BAs do this as well.

You can learn more about dry hopping by reading this thread: http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/first-time-dry-hopping.15479/#post-184427

Cheers!

 

What kind of yeast did you pitch? Alot of ale yeasts will not have trouble at 63 degrees. I leave all my beer on the yeast for at least 3 weeks. The only time I secondary is when I brew a high gravity beer. I will dry hop in the primary after 2 weeks.

 

Fermenting in my celler, my ambient temp never gets over 60°. I have yet to have a problem at this temp, and my beers seemed to have improved for the most part when I moved fermentation downstairs.

The only time I have ever had a problem was when I got my beer cooled all the way down to 60° before pitching, so I actually had to bring the temp up to get it active...I then moved it back into place in the celler (which was 57° at the time.

Take a gravity reading, it is very possible fermentation is pretty much complete.

 

RDWHAHB. It's day 4 fer cripes sake. It might be mostly done. But alot of cleaning up can still take place. You have nothing to worry about by letting it stay in there another week. I would wait another week before I even considered taking a gravity reading. Then, yes, as Jack said, take a reading, wait 3 days or so and take another. If it is stable, then it's done. 3 degrees shouldn't stall a yeast used for an IPA.

 

Personally, I wouldn't worry about your gravity. Just leave it alone for a couple more weeks. Even if your at your final gravity, let the yeast clean up a bit.

 

If you are going to age it for three weeks in the secondary, dry hop it at the start of the last week. Or dry hop it each week. Since you are putting the hops in a bag, pull them out at the end of each week and add another sack, and continue this till the 3 weeks are up. Remember not to leave a bag of dry hops in there longer than 10 days (just my preference). How many oz. of dry hops were you gonna use?

 

Firstly, I use US-05 all the time. It is my preferred yeast for making APAs and IPAs (I also use it sometimes for other styles). US-05 has a very wide recommended fermentation temperature: 59-75°F. So, there are no worries using this yeast in the low 60’s.

Regarding your ‘concern’ of: “ …of doing a secondary mainly because I did not put my boiling hop pellets in a bag, and there is probably a lot of sludge at the bottom.” There is absolutely no need to transfer your beer to a secondary because of ‘sludge’. I never use hop bags for my hop boil additions and I let my beers ‘sit’ in the primary fermenter for several weeks. The ‘sludge’ will have no flavor impacts on your beer.

You made the comment of “issues in terms of contamination” in the context of taking gravity readings. Permit me to address this topic for a couple of aspects. Transferring your beer from a primary fermenter to a secondary fermenter introduces two possible ‘risks’: additional risk of contamination and risk of oxidation. Now, if you practice good sanitation of your secondary fermenter, siphon and racking cane the risk of contamination is minimal but it is still there. If you minimize ‘splashing’ during the transfer you minimize the risk of oxidation but it is still there. To my mind there is little benefit to performing a secondary on ales but risk (albeit minimal risk) of oxidation/contamination.

As regards minimizing the risk of contamination for taking gravity readings: sanitize your sample collector (which is a turkey baster for me) and minimize the time that the lid is open to just a few seconds.

Now, permit me to make a different suggestion based upon how I make my IPAs. Do not conduct a secondary and do not take gravity readings. Do add you dry hops (in a muslin bag) when you ‘feel’ that primary fermentation is complete. I add my dry hops when the fermenter is done bubbling plus a couple of days. You should have you dry hops in the fermenter for at least 7-10 days. Lately I have been dry hopping for 14 days. Assuming a primary timeframe of 7 days and dry hopping of 14 days (3 weeks total) you can be assured that your fermentation is truly complete and you have obtained optimum aroma from your dry hopping. Take a gravity reading when you bottle for you records.

Good luck with your IPA.

Cheers!

 

Jack offers wise advice

 

If its a normal gravity beer I would say its finished fermenting - but let it sit on the yeast for another 5-6 days at least to let the yeast clean up after itself and for some yeast to floc out. Chico does produce diacetyl, and racking off the yeast cake too soon won't allow the yeast to cleanup after itself.