Questions about most recent brew

[ackes]

Wondering if you guys / gals can answer a few questions I have from my most recent brew?

I did a 5 G extract - session IPA on Sunday.

The recipe calls for dry hops - but recommends that you add them after racking to secondary fermenter. I usually only use a primary and then rack into keg after 2 weeks. When I've dry hopped IPAs in the past - I've simply added them to the primary 5 - 7 days after pitching yeast. What are people's thoughts on the secondary and when to add the dry hops? Is it going to make much of a difference either way?
The other question I had was about the primary. It notes in the instructions that after cooling and pouring into primary to avoid pouring the "sludge" into the primary. I've always poured it in. What's the downside?

Here is the recipe / instructions:
http://love2brew.dreamhosters.com/vspfi ... sionipa(ex" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).pdf

Thanks

[Celiacbrew]

You don't need to worry about the sludge. It is good to minimize it if you can but it isn't the end of the world if you don't. Clarity and head retention are supposed to be impacted but home brewers tend not to notice a difference. The sludge also takes up volume in your fermentor which means you get less beer.

The same thing for the secondary. You might want to transfer to secondary and add dry hops if you were going to reuse the yeast. If not primary is the easiest place to add them. Some folks put them directly into the keg in a nylon bag.

[mthibodeau]

If you want to get rid of the trub, I've been pouring from my Brew kettle into my primary through a stainless mesh strainer

Sent from my STV100-3 using Tapatalk

[jason.loxton]

I'd dry hop in the primary exactly as you describe. Secondarys seem like more trouble and more potential for infection than they're worth to me.

Not isolating the hot break is supposed to have negative effects, and probably does in highly controlled brewing environments, but like with so many things, there is so much 'noise' when we're brewing on this scale and with this level of precision, that the signal that shows up in the lab or in the industrial brewery gets lost, it seems.

I don't stress about it, but try to minimize.

Jason

[jason.loxton]

As an aside, some people, both homebrewers and scientists, report *positive* effects from hot trub.

http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-gr ... ts-are-in/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://brulosophy.com/2015/03/22/the-im ... t-results/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Apparently, it stimulates yeast activity, with both positive and negative effects:
http://www.agraria.com.br/extranet/arqu ... _-_ing.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 2907002116" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ackes]

Great. Thanks a lot.

Interesting article - I just got finished reading the first one and will read the others too. It's counterintuitive to think that the primary with the most trub actually ends up being a clearer, beer. I mostly like that it supports my desire to be an efficient (a.k.a lazy) brewer and still make good beer.