i brewed up my first 1 gal. batch a week ago, and now i'm ready to dry-hop in the next couple of days. i don't have a hydrometer, so i have no idea if fermentation has truly slowed/stopped. but there is very little activity in the carboy now. couple questions about krausen (i think it's krausen) and dry-hopping: -any harm in knocking the krausen back into the beer? had a pretty vigorous fermentation and the krausen is stuck around the mouth and neck of the carboy. pretty sure i'll have to knock it down or try to scoop it out to get the hops in for dry-hopping. -instructions say to put the hops in a mesh bag and add to the beer. can i skip the bag and add the pellets straight in? i plan to add the dry-hops to the primary and strain when it's time to bottle. here's what the carboy looks like:
What's in the airlock? I think a hop bag would be best with 1 gallon but you can certainly add them straight in. If you have to poke the hops in make sure to sanitize whatever you use to push the hops in
star-san and....krausen? no clue, honestly. had to switch out airlocks three times. the first day or two looked similar to the above with a brownish fluid floating on top of the star-san. then things really took off. krausen completely clogged the airlock and CO2 was venting out of the cap. put in a new airlock and it was immediately clogged again. krausen pushed up the tube into the airlock. i let it go for a day, then switched out airlocks again. def using a blowoff tube next time.
I just throw the pellets in, but I do 5 gallon batches. The only problem I would forsee for you with this approach is you will lose more beer when you rack, which would be less tolerable with a smaller batch.
I use Fermcap-S in any beer that I think will be aggressive or if I don't have much room near the top. Stuff works great on starters too and does not affect the taste of the beer. http://www.midwestsupplies.com/fermcap-s-foam-inhibitor-1-oz.html
thanks! i'm definitely going to grab some of this. a couple reviews of the recipe kits i'm lookin in to mention vigorous fermentation. i wonder if this is common with all 1 gal batches...
yep, that's what i meant to say. i didn't use the mesh/cloth bag for dry-hopping. so, i'm gonna attach that to the end of the cane. thanks!
