Disaster of a brewday

[jackflash]

Bought a Hbc irish red ale extract kit and brewed up on Saturday.

Everything had gone well right up until I went to transfer the wort from the brew kettle into the wort chiller, and the tube got jammed with hops. The bazooka screen in the kettle had come off while I was stirring during the boil, doh!

So in a state of panic, I poured the contents of the brew kettle (hops and all) into the fermenter and cooled over night. I pitched the yeast and all was well.

The next day the airlock was happily burping  away. I decided to open the fermenter to take a look, and all the hops had come to the surface.

Now here's my question; I used a sanitised spoon to remove most but not all of the hops. I took what I think was alot of yeast with it. Will the beer be alright do you think? Will the yeast recover and multiply??

[DEMPSEY]

If you had a spare pack of yeast then throw it in but if not then all should be OK as long as you did not remove too much. Lack of enough yeast  can cause the existing yeast to stress out a bit trying to make babies. I mean you would be a little knackered if you were seeding more wimmen than you could handle

[jackflash]

Wouldn't mind trying though ;-)

[jackflash]

Should I rack after a week to get the beer away from the hops? Don't want to get off flavours etc.

[DEMPSEY]

I would say yes.

[jackflash]

Nice one. Thanks for the advice

[Chris]

I made an extract golden ale a few years back where I did exactly the same thing. After a few days when fermentation  had slowed I racked the beer into a secondary filtering out the hops. Fermentation finished in the secondary and all was well. It is still the best beer I've ever made and I've never been able to replicate it.

[jackflash]

Chris that's a relief to hear! There's hope for me yet! What way did you filter out the hops while transferring? I'm thinking of putting the bazooka screen from my kettle over the tube, and dropping that into FV2.

[Chris]

Exactly what I did, I did loose a good few litres in the transfer as the hops had soaked up quite a bit of liquid.

[Bubbles]

Should I rack after a week to get the beer away from the hops? Don't want to get off flavours etc.

I'd be more worried about off flavours caused by racking off the yeast too soon. Rack after a week as long as fermentation is mostly finished. Though in fairness, it should be finished at that stage.

[jackflash]

Another question! I'm gonna rack to secondary after about 5 days in primary to second fv (plastic bucket). I'm heading off on the 16th for a week, will the beer be alright in plastic secondary for three weeks before bottling?

[DEMPSEY]

Yes

[jackflash]

Sweet, thought I would need to get glass carboy.